It started out as a joke, but Hilaria Baldwin isn’t laughing.
Earlier this week, comedian Amy Schumer gave a nod to a postpartum pic Baldwin shared over the weekend, reposting the photo of the lingerie-clad mom of five holding up her 3-month-old son, Eduardo. The twist was that Schumer pretended it was actually an unexpectedly glamorous shot of herself and her own 2-year-old son, Gene.
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Most of the “Trainwreck” star’s fans and following seemed to find the post amusing, though some took it as an opportunity to rant about what “real moms” look like versus Baldwin’s fit and trim appearance so soon after pregnancy — and Baldwin took issue with that.
On Tuesday, the yoga instructor and wife of actor Alec Baldwin returned to Instagram with a video response taking those commenters to task.
“I’ve posted a million photos like that in the past, so I didn’t really think that it was going to be that big of a deal,” she said in the clip. “Ended up being a big deal...”
The 36-year-old said while she loves jokes and “kind of gets” what Schumer was going for, the discussion in the comments “seemed to start to spiral out of control.”
“We’re getting into a place of body-shaming,” Baldwin continued. “Now, does it hurt my feelings if some people out there, who I don't even know, are critiquing why I might post a photo? And if I had looked differently, would I have posted that photo? I sure hope so. ... Because I love looking at photos, supporting our bodies, our temple that we live in 24/7. I love it. It doesn’t matter what you look like. I love it. If you’re honoring yourself and celebrating yourself, I love it.”
But she doesn’t want to be any part of the social media-shame game.
“The problem is that sometimes we put down people’s shapes,” she said. “Now, that might be that you think the person is too thin; that might be that you think the person is too big, the person is too this, too that. But if you’re doing body inclusivity, that’s body inclusivity for all. There’s that whole thing where, ‘Oh, moms don’t look like that!’ Some moms do. This mom does, and I am included in the inclusivity.”
Baldwin spoke about her love of exercise — even after recently breaking an ankle — and how she comes “from smaller people” and doesn’t feel the need to apologize for any of it. She then implored her fans and followers to consider the year we’re living in and the chaos that’s come with 2020 and choose to just be “a little bit kinder because everybody is suffering mentally.”
However, having said all of that, nearly four minutes into the clip, she claimed that the kind of comments that were made in response to her postpartum pic don’t really phase her personally.
“Yeah, I’ve gotten to a place where I don’t let them affect me too much,” she said, stating instead that her real concern is for others. “If you make those comments, it does affect them. There’s other people who read those comments and see the way that you’re treating me and then they keep that for themselves, and that hurts their feelings.”
In short, she wants everyone to just "stop.” It’s a message Schumer got loud and clear.
The 39-year-old actor replied to the video message, writing, “I’m sorry.” To which Baldwin noted, “Girl, don’t even apologize! You always make me laugh. My only intentions were to address some of the not so namaste behavior some people went running wild with after. You don’t need to take responsibility for their actions.”
All the same, Schumer deleted the post that sparked the comments.