On Lady Gaga’s “Pooch”: An Open Letter to the Haters

If you watched the Super Bowl, then you most likely saw Lady Gaga’s amazing halftime performance full of her quintessential crazy outfits, stunning voice, awesome dance numbers, and jaw-dropping acrobatics. It was even patriotic! I am not a fan of all of her music, but I loved it and felt totally comfortable watching it with my adolescent boys. I’d call it a win. But, when I scrolled through social media afterwards, I was shocked to see so many pics and comments about Gaga’s supposed “pooch”. Really? A pooch?

Sigh.

And, what’s even worse is these nasty comments aren’t coming from guys–they’re from women. Women!

Why, oh, why do we do this, Ladies? We are our own worst critics.

And, let me just say, that is hardly a pot belly, or pooch, or flab, or whatever other derogatory name that you want to call it. It’s just skin that is supposed to fold when you’re bending down or dancing your heart out for like 20,000 minutes. Sheesh!

It just makes me mad and sad and frustrated and a whole host of other feelings. I don’t have daughters, but if I did, I wouldn’t want them to see any of this backlash. I wouldn’t want them to think that they have a pooch because a little skin folds when they lean over.  And, even if they did have a pooch, I wouldn’t want them to hate themselves for it.  Bless their hearts–they already have enough criticism coming at them.

5 Practical Steps for Moms when dealing with MEAN GIRLS

Ladies, I’m sure most of you are like me and probably didn’t even think twice about Lady Gaga’s supposed pooch, and you, like me, probably thought she looked very fit and amazing.  I mean, wasn’t it awesome that she was able to flip and sing and dance all in one performance?

But, Friends, if you got on your social media and hated on her “pooch”, then I just want to point out something that we all need to remember.  We can’t hate the magazines for airbrushing and altering the supermodels too much, if we’re going to plaster pictures and rude comments about skinny people’s “pooches.” That makes us just as superficial.  It’s the same impossible standard where no woman can be good enough or pretty enough or fit enough. And, we don’t want to do that to our daughters, our sisters, our mothers, and ourselves.

So, let’s stop this madness about Lady Gaga’s “pooch.” She rocked it and dropped the mic. Boom. Game over.