I came across this photo in my Facebook newsfeed recently, and saw that it’s making a few people go a bit cranky-pants. I’ll be honest; it made me feel a little cranky-pants too. Not because of the photo – it’s gorgeous. There’s a happy, healthy mum (Maria Kang), showing off her super hot abs, surrounded by her three little boys. They’ve even colour coordinated their clothes! Cute! What’s not to love? Ahh. Well. That’s where the headline above the photo comes in: What’s your excuse?

That message has caused a whole heap of backlash from Internet-land. Unfortunately, most of the backlash comes out sounding like people vomiting hate into their keyboards. You can almost hear them shouting back at Maria: “What’s my excuse? What’s my excuse?! How about I’m not a fucking-personal-trainer-I-have-a-different-body-shape-I-don’t-have-time-I’m-working-full-time-Blerrrrgghhh!” And of course, responses like these just lead to the super fun ‘back and forth, nobody’s ever going to win’ style Internet arguments. Good times! Maria’s husband has even stepped in to respond to commenters: “No, we don’t have a nanny. No Maria is not a personal trainer, she just works really hard to look the way she does.”

Maria’s response to all of the uproar was to post the following ‘apology’ on her Facebook page.

“I’ve been getting an influx of new followers, emails and comments (on my profile pic) recently. Some saying I’m a bully, I’m fat-shaming and I need to apologise for the hurt I’ve caused women. I get it. SO here’s my First and Final Apology:

I’m sorry you took an image and resonated with it in such a negative way. I won’t go into details that I struggled with my genetics, had an eating disorder, work full time owning two business’, have no nanny, am not naturally skinny and do not work as a personal trainer. I won’t even mention how I didn’t give into cravings for ice cream, french fries or chocolate while pregnant or use my growing belly as an excuse to be inactive.

What I WILL say is this. What you interpret is not MY fault. It’s Yours. The first step in owning your life, your body and your destiny is to OWN the thoughts that come out of your own head. I didn’t create them. You created them. So if you want to continue ‘hating’ this image, get used to hating many other things for the rest of your life. You can either blame, complain or obtain a new level of thought by challenging the negative words that come out of your own brain.” – https://www.facebook.com/MariaMKang

You’ve got to love apologies that start with “I’m sorry that YOU…” Obviously, it’s not meant to be an actual apology, it’s meant to be justification for her photo. My favourite line just by the way is, “I won’t even mention how I didn’t give into cravings for ice cream, french fries or chocolate while pregnant.” Oh you won’t even mention that? Because I kind of feel like you just did.

Here’s my question though, why did she need to add such a provocative headline to her photo to begin with? Was it an intentional publicity stunt? Write something controversial and bask in the added attention, website hits and new followers? Because if it really was supposed to be about motivating and inspiring other people, wouldn’t it have been better to write something like “If I can do it, you can do it too!” Too naff sounding? Sorry. Okay, let’s try, “Check out my family, this is one proud Mama right here!” or even, “Being the best role model for healthy living I can be.”

I just think that any of these statements would have sent out a much more positive body image message without needing to resort to the accusatory tone that went along with the question: What’s your excuse? Because really, who knows what anyone else’s ‘excuse’ (if we must call it that) might be?