Husband's post about wife's curvy body incites backlash

Robbie Tripp's Instagram post of his wife has been liked more than 30,000 times.

ByABC News
August 7, 2017, 9:03 AM

— -- One man's social media post about his "curvy" wife has received a wide range of mixed reactions from internet users.

Robbie Tripp, 26, of San Francisco, California, posted a photo with his wife, Sarah Tripp, standing on a beach. He mentioned in detail "every inch" of her that he loves in the caption.

"There is nothing sexier than this woman right here: thick thighs, big booty, cute little side roll, etc ... this gorgeous girl I married fills out every inch of her jeans and is still the most beautiful one in the room," his post proclaimed.

At first the image and caption was well received on social media with some people even hailing the husband a hero.

"Love love love ... we need more men like you in this world," one person commented.

But others were quick to criticize him.

"Strong contender for least fave type of male feminist is ‘man who thinks liking a curvy woman is revolutionary,'" one Twitter user wrote.

"Wow bro, you're literally a feminist icon for marrying someone thicker than a Victoria's Secret model," another person commented.

Rachel Simmmons, author of "Enough As She Is," said social media needs to cut this husband some slack.

“His intentions were so good and it’s important for men to talk about the fact that they love women of all sizes," Simmons said on "Good Morning America" today. "That’s a good thing. The problem is, they did not have this conversation over a romantic meal. He did not pen a love letter, he put it on Instagram and that changes things. The internet has big feelings."

Simmons suggested, if anything, he should have changed his phrasing in the post.

“I think it ends up coming off as a backhanded compliment,” she explained. “He’s like, ‘I love you so much, and the media marginalizes you, and you fill out your jeans, and I still love you anyway.’ I think partly that falls flat. I also think this reminded me a lot of when dads are congratulated for babysitting their own kids. It’s like, ‘Dude, that’s part of your job description, so you should probably just go do your job without getting a whole big sensational story out of it.' This is the same thing. It’s part of a husband’s job description to love his wife.”

The original post of the photo, taken by photographer Kailee Judd, has received more than 162,000 shares on Facebook and more 31,000 likes on Instagram.

But his wife, a body-positive fashion blogger, said she appreciated her husband's words.

"I am a curvy girl and I have had quite the journey of self-love," Sarah Tripp, 25, told ABC News. "I am not ashamed of anything that Robbie wrote. He celebrates all aspects of who I am as a women and my body."

In his post, Robbie Tripp also spoke out about society's unrealistic beauty standards.

"A real woman is not a porn star or a bikini mannequin or a movie character. She's real. She has beautiful stretch marks on her hips and cute little dimples on her booty," he wrote.

His wife said she agreed with the sentiment behind his words.

"I don't see girls like me in advertisements and magazines," Sarah Tripp said. "And I am not offended that Robbie labels me curvy as well. Everything he posted was highlighting one thing he loves about me and it is not devaluing everything else he loves about me, thinks about me, thinks about my body."

Robbie Tripp told ABC News the post was meant to champion his wife and spread a positive message.

"It really was a genuine outpouring of my love for Sarah," he explained. "But I also wanted to add kind of a message for people ... that there really is such a superficial portrayal of women in the media ... and I wanted to celebrate a real woman. I wanted to celebrate a woman in my life that represents all the curvy women who have those thick thighs and that big booty."

He added, "If I were to write an Instagram caption about all the things I love about my wife it would be a novel. It would be a 700 page book."