Ill admit it; when I first heard that Adele had lost weight, I was crestfallen. Ditto Lizzo, who took to Instagram last winter to defend her juice cleanse; ditto Jessica Simpson and Rebel Wilson and almost every other larger-than-straight-size celebrity Id ever looked up to. As a currently fat woman living with an eating disorder whos been every size under the sun, I understand better than most how much weight can fluctuate (even if youre not actively trying to fit into a size 4). But there was still part of me that felt left behind as I saw woman after woman Id admired slim down in the public eye.
I maintain that my initial skepticism was well earned, given the lack of fat representation in Hollywood and media overall, as well as the still-punishing societal body norms that tell the 42.4% of Americans who have obesity that we can only hope to be seen as full, actualized human beings if we lose weight. But once I got over that knee-jerk disappointment and began to think about what I was really asking of these celebrities, I saw that my initial reaction had been more than slightly unfair. After all, one of the goals of the body-positivity movement is (or should be) creating a world in which all of us feel empowered to live safely and joyfully in our bodies, regardless of their size; what was I saying to Adele, or to Lizzo, if I made my appreciation of them contingent on their bodies looking a certain way?
Of course, weight loss and weight gain arent a one-to-one exchange; sadly, thinness will likely always be societally lionized in a way that fatness is not. But was my chagrin at seeing these women lose weight really so different from the stigma I facedcourtesy of everyone from doctors to not-so-great partners to family memberswhen I gained weight? Ultimately, wouldnt I and all other fat people be better served by working to create a culture that actually appreciated and respected bodies of all sizes, rather than electing a select few fat representatives and insisting that their appearances be fixed and immutable?
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When I reach out to Stephanie Yeboah, a London-based fat-acceptance advocate and author of Fattily Ever After: A Black Fat Girls Guide to Living Life Unapologetically, she has plenty to say on the topic. There is still this general impression that if you are somebody within the fat-acceptance community and people start noticing that youre losing weight, then you must be doing it for insidious reasons or to fit in with societal standards of beauty, says Yeboah, noting that she has lost about 40 pounds herself since the COVID-19 pandemic began, due solely to an exercise routine shes undertaken to rebuild strength in a once-broken ankle. I definitely think that you can be part of the fat-acceptance community and also lose weight. I just think it gets a bit shifty if the reasons for losing weight are purely to do with your appearance, desirability, accessibility, or wanting to fit in with other people.
If youre a person in the public eyelike, say, Adeleand your weight loss coincides with an increase in exercise devised to make you feel stronger and help you take on mental health challenges, is it fair for the world to scrutinize you and snidely say youre just doing it to be skinny? For that matter, was it fair for the world to zero in on Adeles physical appearance when she weighed more than she currently does? The best solution is arguably learning to abstain from a celebrity culture that encourages us to place more value on a famous womans appearance than on her body of work.
The media industry stands to profit when we click on exclamation-point-riddled gossip articles about so-and-sos dramatic weight loss!!!, and the diet industry thrives when we chase the ideal of thin bodies that may not actually bear any relationship to health and comfort. But what about us? What do we stand to gain from evaluating and placing expectations upon other womens bodies, and what could we be doing with all that mental energy instead?
Virginia Sole-Smith, a journalist specializing in body-image issues and the author of The Eating Instinct, wishes our conversations about women in the public eye could evolve past issues of weight, full stop. Last time I checked, there is not a body type that one needs to have in order to be a talented musician. Musical ability is not tied to BMI in any of the research Ive read, says Sole-Smith, adding, I think it would be so great if we lived in a culture that talked about peoples art and didnt talk about their bodies. And then if their bodies changed, we wouldnt have to examine that quite so much.
Sole-Smith acknowledges that the issue of celebrity weight loss is a fraught one, explaining, Teenage girls look up to Lizzo and Adele, so there is some responsibility there. But I also think it is a mistake to expect that just because one individual broke a boundary and became famous in spite of their weight they then have to be the poster child for fat artists everywhere. It just really speaks to how far we have to go in terms of increasing representation.
A call for increased representation can often feel like a hedge, a way of acknowledging the severity of an issue while passing the buck to the nebulously defined scourge of society. But when it comes to fat acceptance and body positivity, its frankly hard to imagine anything else working. One musician or two or evengasp!three will not meaningfully move the needle in terms of convincing fat people everywhere that they are worthy just as they are; what it will do, however, is reinforce the pernicious notion that these individuals need to look a certain way to earn admiration and respect.
While fat individuals in the public eye can act as much-needed role models, asking them to take up the mantle of self-love all on their own, with no substantive or structural changes to a society that still profits off of rampant fat phobia, simply isnt enough. Hopefully, someday, well have enough fat musicians, dancers, actors, comedians, and artists of all kindsand a culture that actually supports them with fat-positive policies and meaningful consequences for size-based discriminationthat one persons weight fluctuations will no longer make headline news.
Originally Appeared on Vogue
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How Our Obsession With Celebrity Weight Loss Is Holding Us Back - Yahoo Lifestyle
