Having recently given birth myself, quite a bit of what Robyn talks about in regards to pregnancy, birth & parenting is far from 'woo' or 'out there', imho. There's stuff she talks about/shares that were mentioned to me by various NHS midwives, in ante-natal groups and I've read in #1 best seller maternity books. For example, the birthing swing was shown in a graphic of birthing positions graphic on my local baby & children's hospital's FB page.
Of course there's a lot of absolute batshit thrown in like the Healy. But a lot of people in the thread seem to think that everything she posts is totally bonkers or out there when in fact it's pretty mainstream. Which is why I find her so interesting and funny - she presents herself as this holistic hippie crunchy mother when a lot of what she does isn't special or controversial anymore, lol
I kinda agree.
One thing I've noticed in Beauty Parlor is that folks tend to be very judgemental* coupled with highly medicalized. I'm not sure if it's related to socioeconomics or age - maybe both as the demo seems to skew higher income, slightly conservative, and older - but the discourse is VERY different from what I encounter in real world within my circle. Maybe it's a generational American thing? Not criticizing (well, not too much), just noting it's different from my norm.
Robyn irks me because she's pretending to be someone she's not. She has one foot in woo and the other in generic white chick. Sure, she rises early to welcome the sun and does the solo home-birthing thing but so do a whole lot of mostly mainstream women these days. It's like being a witch or having heaps of tattoos; the pumpkin latte crew has taken it over.
In many ways, Robyn is a typical mommy influencer wannabe who, unfortunately for her, ended up with a damaged child by following what she saw everywhere online and assumed was a positive, natural choice that the very best, most in tune with the Earth, aspirational mothers select. I feel bad for her and Glen - they come across as average mid-thirties parents who see themselves as still the anti-establishment stoner kids they were in university days. They aren't superwoo but Robyn appears to wish she was. I suspect that, in her head, she's that hippie momma who looks effortlessly gorgeous in zero makeup and ethically sourced cotton clothes, never having to style her hair and surrounded by perfect children, all of them wearing crystal jewellery and healthy, happy smiles while barefoot in their lush, wild garden. In reality, she's just Robyn with her filtered selfies and dying daughter, watching her boys bond with their gymbrah dad.
* All the recent talk about wanting to 'save' Globyn's boys; those kids do not appear abused or neglected. We get glimpses of their lives via curated videos and photos that reveal more than they realize. What we're seeing is two parents dealing with the loss of their daughter before she's buried, knowing that their beliefs destroyed her potential. Each is dealing in their way; Glen opts to push it all to the back of his mind and concentrate on the boys and his workouts while Robyn fights the inevitable by refusing to admit Luna can't be fixed. It's tragic, and if Globyn were more sympathetic I'd feel devastated for them.
Mostly that so much of what she does is performative. She likes to present as being against the mainstream and being above others by pushing the boundaries - with her weird cooking, Healy, home births without medical professionals, astral spirit babies etc.
But a lot of what she actually does is painfully normal. Hypnobirthing, affirmations on the wall, birthing sling, disposable nappies, lots of screen time for Atlas, baby wearing, supermarket clothes for the kids... None of it is that crunchy.
Exactly.