Momlife Comics

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About

Momlife Comics (@momlife_comics) is a webcomic series and the Instagram page of illustrator Mary Catherine Starr, who creates humorous parenting scenarios related to motherhood, her husband and women's issues. Her characters and drawings became the subject of ironic memes and exploitables in mid-2022 on Twitter where users found her comic titled One Of The [Many] Differences Between Me & My Husband, also know as Peach Husband, cringy because it levied unwarranted criticism towards the husband for seeing a "ripe peach" and wanting a smoothie.

Online History

Mary Catherine Starr is an illustrator, cartoonist, designer and yoga enthusiast who started her blog Starr Struck in 2009, which centered on "my adventures in leading an active + yogic lifestyle, pursuing my entrepreneurial passions, navigating adulthood, and making as much time as possible to enjoy the simple things in life," according to her website's "About" section.^[1] She is the mother of two children and was born in Atlanta, Georgia.

Starr began posting cartoons and content to her Instagram page momlife_comics in mid-2021. Her first Instagram^[2] post was uploaded on July 14th, 2021, and received over 410 likes in one year (shown below, left). Her comics received increased engagement continuing into 2022. For instance, her most-liked Instagram^[3] post was uploaded on January 19th, 2022, depicting "double standards" in parenting, the primary example being a dad getting fast food being labeled as "Fun Dad" but a mom doing it being a "Lazy Mom" (shown below, right). The carousel post received roughly 70,800 likes in seven months.

The double standards Instagram post received attention from the news outlet Huff Post.^[4] It was additionally reposted by multiple Instagram accounts such as verified Instagram^[5] page misrepresentation, earning over 10,000 likes in six months. On July 10th, 2022, it was reposted by Twitter^[6] user criticaduvidosa, earning roughly 159,000 likes in 20 days.

One Of The [Many] Differences Between Me & My Husband / Peach Husband

On July 12th, 2022, momlife_comics uploaded a comic to Instagram^[7] with a title reading "One Of The [Many] Differences Between Me & My Husband" and showed her and her husband each approaching a "ripe peach" on a table. The mom character thinks, "Oh look, the last ripe peach! I'll save it for the kids, they love peaches so much," while the dad character thinks, "Oh look, the last ripe peach! I'll use it as a special treat in my daily smoothie." The post received roughly 8,200 likes in 18 days (shown below).

On July 12th, 2022, Twitter^[8] user KILLTOPARTY reposted the aforementioned "ripe peach" comic, captioning it, "I wonder how many women secretly hate their husbands," and earning roughly 2,700 likes in 18 days.

On July 29th, 2022, Twitter^[9] user rajandelman tweeted, "Found my new favorite webcomic," and attached four different momlife_comics comics. The tweet received roughly 9,100 likes in one day (shown below, left). Minutes later, rajandelman tweeted a reply^[10] to her own tweet stating what she didn't like about the comics. She wrote, "I for one promise to never make comics about how much I hate my spouse, should I ever possess one. It will only be dumb stuff like this." The reply received roughly 3,300 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Also on July 29th, Twitter^[11] user jenny2x4 captioned the "ripe peach" comic with, "Divorcing my husband because he has the audacity to eat the food in our house," in a tweet that received roughly 86,300 likes in one day (shown below, left). Inspired by both jenny2x4 and rajandelman's discourse, meme creators started reacting to the comic and re-editing it. For instance, on July 29th, Twitter^[12] user theothermatt_b recaptioned the dad's speech bubble to read, "Oh fuck this is a test," earning roughly 3,900 likes in one day (shown below, right).