Starr’s work went viral as many users began sharing and editing her original peach illustration, adding comments like: “Divorcing my husband because he has the audacity to eat the food in our house.”
Initially, Starr responded by creating an ‘eat the damn peach’ illustration to highlight she was well aware of her own martyrdom.
But the Twitter response to the ‘peach husband’ meme quickly went from observational humor about marriages to personal attacks and death threats.
Thousands of Momlife_Comics followers have added supportive comment’s on Starr’s statement, such as Joanna Goddard, fellow mum and founder of lifestyle website ‘Cup of Jo’.
“It is very, very lonely to feel a certain way while assuming you’re the only one,” Jo wrote on Instagram under Starr’s post.
“And your comics make us feel like a community! A life force! Not alone at all!!! And putting words to these feelings can help change minds and change ingrained patterns and change marriages and change lives. You do important work.”
Writing for the DailyDotJournalist Gavia Baker-Whitelaw believes that the intended audience is everything.
“Momlife presents a depressingly negative view of marriage and parenthood, which is why it went viral on both Twitter and Instagram. But the two audiences came at it from different angles.”
Starr agrees, saying that her intention has always been to build a community of like-minded people on Instagram and that context is everything.
“The community that we have built here is about making each other feel seen and less alone in the challenging parts of motherhood. I don’t go on and on about the amazing parts of being a wife and mother because among us mums, those are a given. OF COURSE we love our children (and our husbands) more than we could ever put into words. OF COURSE we wouldn’t trade our lives for anything in the world. And yet many of us also feel unsupported, unseen, and /or under-appreciated by our society and in some cases, our partners.
“Let’s refocus our attention on the importance of online communities like this one in making mothers feel supported, understood, heard, and seen.
“Hopefully, this will also make it clear to anyone who visits this page that it is not about husband-bashing but about pointing out the mental load of motherhood and the unequal expectations for mums vs. dads in our culture.”
Readmore:
Laura Jackel is Mamamia’s Family Writer. For links to her de ella articles and to see photos of her outfits and kids, follow her de ella on Instagram and
TikTok.
Feature Image: Instagram @Momlife_Comics
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