I Hope You're Sitting Down
July 31st, 2007
Star Jones admits she had gastric bypass surgery and was “intentionally evasive” when questions were asked.
“[T]he complete truth is, I was scared of what people might think of me,” she continues. “I was afraid to be vulnerable, and ashamed at not being able to get myself under control without this procedure.”
“I used to look in the mirror and take pride in my figure, but that was when I was legitimately a full-figured woman,” she says. “I’d gradually gone from full-figured to morbidly obese.”
The issue of Glamour in which she talks about the surgery hits newsstands August 7th. So, what do you think?
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Celebrities, Gossip, Magazines, Star Jones, Weight Loss, WLS
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Big freaking deal. Is it a surprise to anyone except those who are so pure of heart that they float down the streets? Meh.
I like her a little bit better now that she’s come clean about it, though I wish she’d done it from the start. WLS isn’t anything to be ashamed of, but I know there are lots of surgery patients who feel similar feelings of shame. If anything, it just shows she’s as human as the rest of us. And really, her body is her own business. If she’d just always said, “I’m not going to talk about it” instead of being elusive and dodgy about the topic she wouldn’t have been so hyprocritical.
So do I, PastaQueen. I thought the article was quite frank, and I found myself dredging up an inkling of respect for her.
In her article, Jones describes being a compulsive overeater, which was the primary reason she didn’t want to ‘fess up to surgery – she saw surgery as the manifestation of her failure to “control” her food-related addictions. I think many of us who experience compulsive overeating and bulimia can empathize with this.
Still, I have to wonder how she expected WLS surgery to “fix” her binge eating problems. I would think WLS is the very last thing a compulsive overeater needs to have done, until they seek treatment for their eating disorder. The compulsion to overeat doesn’t disappear along with the bulk of your stomach contents.
Bah. “I was afraid someone would follow my example and die,” whatever. That’s either a lie or she’s the most self-important gasbag in the history of history. Though I’m not ruling out the possibility that it’s both.
Full-figured v Morbidly Obese. Where’s the distinction? Is there a BMI threshold?
And Rachel’s right, she’s in a whole mess of trouble if she thinks that surgery is going to solve her eating disorder.
I always felt Star Jones wouldn’t talk about her weight loss because she used to go to such lengths to claim she accepted herself as she was. She was going to be forced to answer to why she wanted to change.
I feel WLS solved my compulsive eating disorder. I believe it must have been largely organic in nature and when my stomach was modified, my Ghrelin production was altered as well. I have no other explanation for why I was able to change my habits with relative ease after my surgery. Just my theory.
I’m by no means an expert on surgery, but I have heard other accounts like Dagny’s… people seem to lose some of their compulsion to overeat after WLS. Not sure why this would happen and I’m sure it doesn’t happen to everyone (therefore: I guess Star shouldn’t have bet the farm on it) but that does seem to be a result of the surgery for some.
I dream of a world where women (and men) can live in their bodies and not be scrutinized and judged for it. I know how I feel about my body and weight, and I’m not in the public eye like she is. It’s a shame she can’t just be left alone and not be questioned and challenged all the time. I’d hate to live like that. It’s worse than the snickers and comments I get now.
but I have heard other accounts like Dagny’s… people seem to lose some of their compulsion to overeat after WLS. Not sure why this would happen and I’m sure it doesn’t happen to everyone
If I ran the risk of blowing my staples and suffering horrible physical pain and possibly death because I binged, I think that might be a pretty strong incentive for me to resist the temptation.
Dr. Sharon Farber discusses binge eating and WLS on her site, here. She says that for some, WLS is empowering and a tool to help with binge eating, but not so for others. The unfortunate ones simply replace their food addictions with other addictions, like alcoholism, drug abuse or even seemingly innocuous addictions like shopping.
A National Institutes of Health study of psychosocial adjustment to the initial weight loss following WLS found it to be generally encouraging over the short term, but there are reports of poor adjustment after weight loss, including alcohol abuse and even suicide. There are no long-term studies available.
In the same study, it was found that on average, most patients lose 60% of excess weight after gastric bypass and 40% after vertical banded gastroplasty. But about 30% of patients will regain weight 18 months to 2 years after surgery, most commonly due to binge eating.
I wish she would have just OWNED it to begin with… by hiding the fact that she had WLS, I think she just contributes to the stereotype / misconception that WLS is “the easy way out.”
Last year, Rosie O’Donnell blogged openly about wishing Star Jones would be honest about her weight loss. I think it’s not archived at her site anymore, but I found the text of her post, from March of 2006, here. I’m not really sure how I feel about whether Star should have been honest from the get-go. Part of me thinks it’s her business; part of me thinks that it was uncool.
I have to say I’m not a big fan of Star Jones, but have been a little baffled about the backlash when she lost weight and didn’t want to say how she’d done it. Would it have been right for people to hound her about how she gained the weight in the first place? (“How’d you put on that last 50 pounds, Star? Eating five cheesburgers a day?”) Why then, do we have a right to know how she lost it? For me, the exception to this would be if she was making her living on the basis of that weight loss and being dishonest about it.
Sometimes I think those of us with weight issues have difficulty dealing with people who’ve made some significant change to their body shape and aren’t willing to tell us their secrets–it’s like having a friend win the lottery and not sharing the wealth a little–and God knows I’ve been guilty of it myself.
I kind of feel sorry for her. Don’t particularly like her, not a fan, but I hate to see anyone torn apart over something having to do with losing or gaining weight.
I especially hate seeing a smart woman whose biggest reason for failure/unpopularity seems to be something related to her body shape . . . .
I recently saw a comedy show and they hit very close to the heart of the issue, “Don’t people who lose a lot of weight usually look stunningly beautiful. Star Jones, What happened?” Goes to show you, not everyone can wear weight, but also, not everyone can wear “skinny” either.
Claudia, that seems to sound like the primary factor is physical appearance. What if she believed the weight loss would be healthier for her? Or what if she wanted to move differently in her body or have a different relationship to it? There might be more than looks going on here. And the issue might be more than how someone looks skinny or fat.
Chalk me up as one who thinks she should have been allowed to keep her mouth shut. Our relationship to our bodies is so personal that i don’t think we should be scrutinized about how we lose weight or gain it.
Chalk me up as one who thinks she should have been allowed to keep her mouth shut. Our relationship to our bodies is so personal that i don’t think we should be scrutinized about how we lose weight or gain it.
/delurks
DB, I do agree with this completely.
BUT
Whether we like it or not, the cult of celebrity makes it awfully difficult to find the line between the public persona and personal life.
I think is this particular case, Star Jones made a living out of talking about hot topics, her personal beliefs, and her personal life. I think she made the choice to invite people to scrutinize her the day she walked on The View. I am not saying it’s right, but I do believe that’s how this cookie crumbled.
Does she deserve the right to privacy, just as we all do? Absolutely. Is the public willing to grant such a right? Probably not. And that is a shame, in many many ways.
I wish I could find it again, but I read something when I was considering WLS way back in 1999 that when the stomach is shrunk and the part that fills up is the very top part of the stomach, the brain gets signals that you are very very full, which can help with people who binge. The article said that some bingers have a broken receptor in the brain and won’t stop until the stomach is very full, to the top, and you get that with WLS.
I feel it’s kind of weird to claim to celebrate individual choice but then deride others for making an individual choice. I think lot of people just didn’t like Star Jones because she was an outspoken black woman. I think there’s all kinds of racism tied in to the feelings about here that people aren’t willing to unpack. I always liked her. I didn’t ever really agree with her, but I liked that she was out there being herself and not always checking to see which way the tide was going before deciding her opinion.
Most press on her is negative. Rarely are there news items about her being anything other than society’s idea of a black woman: shrewd, mammyish, overbearing and you know, fat, ugly and only capable of getting a gay man to love her. That would make a bitch. Hell, I’m a bitch on a lot less.
I think she was right not to talk about it. She is being judged on a completely different standard than most women in regards to body. Besides, after Carnie got her surgery and went on her anti-fat rampage, lots of other people went and got the surgery. I think it’s perfectly reasonable for Star to assume the same might happen if she mentioned it. Also there are some cultural things to take into account, which I don’t see really happening. Black folks do not like having people all up in their business. Maybe she just wanted to privately deal with a very public and stressful situation. I respect. I felt she had no obligation to me. I knew she had WLS. I just thought it was classy that she didn’t go on every talk show and blah blah blah about it.
The idea that someone could be both positive about their body and also want to make changes is totally the point of body positivity. I think being a woman is really difficult. Being black is really difficult. Being fat has it challenges. Now add all those things together and put it in front of a camera daily where things like Norbit and Mammy stereotypes persist and it’s no wonder that she might feel compelled to distance herself from that by making significant changes to her body. And it’s her right and we’re really practiciing true body acceptance minding our own business about other people’s bodies is a great place to start.
Star Jones made such a spectacle of other parts of her life (her wedding, for example) so I always found it ironic and annoying that she would keep mum on her surgery. Whatevs, Star.
Maybe she just wanted to privately deal with a very public and stressful situation.
I agree. It’s none of my business how she lost weight, however famous she might be. Granted, if she painted herself as a weight-loss guru, then she does need to be up-front about it, but just because she’s famous, and granted, rather publicity-seeking in general? Still up to her whether or not she chooses to tell us anything.
By making out as though she were losing weight so dramatically through diet and exercise alone, Star gave her fans an impossible, unreproducible example of what diet and exercise can accomplish. And she gave WLS patients a reason to feel their choice was something to be ashamed about.
Had she been silent on the topic, I would agree completely — her body is nobody’s business. Instead, she chose to talk about it in public, and to lie. My inability to respect that decision is not motivated by her race.
Why do WLS patients need to feel good about their choice/ I don’t understand this. Why is that Jones’ responsibility to make other people feel good about their choices in regards to weight loss? That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The only person who need to make me feel good about weight loss is me. I don’t really care how celebs do. know most of it is smoke screens and mirrors. I don’t look to them to find ways to model my own behaviors. I think it’s really unrealistic to think that anyone has the magic pill or whatever. Most people are just doing what they think will work and hoping to god it does. But nobody wants to hear that.
byrneout, I agree that lying is nothing to respect. I don’t watch The View, didn’t hear what she was saying to people, etc., or how she positioned her weight loss. Nor did I (or do I) care, to be honest.
That said, I know how difficult it is to keep my own weight loss efforts private, and that’s just among the few people who know me. For someone as famous as she is, it’s got to be impossible to remain silent on the topic, and it appears she did have some personal issues to sort through.
I don’t think I can really discuss the race aspect of the issue, other to say than to acknowledge that people’s perceptions (in general, I’m not referring to anyone’s comments here) of Star Jones are undoubtedly skewed by the many racial stereotypes and prejudices existent in our culture. Even the phrase “Black folks do not like having people all up in their business” seems like a stereotype to me, especially applied to someone like Star Jones, who actively seeks the public eye.
Except, she DID talk about it. She was all over the friggin’ media talking about losing weight, getting skinny, how to get somebody else to pay for her wedding, etc… so why not talk about it honestly?
Nevertheless, I hope she finds comfort in her body. Even if we don’t agree with her methods, persona or whatever hopefully she’ll be able to speak (according to her comfort level) in a way that’s respectful and compassionate and not take the anti-fat stance that many celebs who have battled their weight pubically often take. It’s doubtful though, but no harm in hoping.
I never had much of an opinion either way about Ms. Jones-Reynolds. I never watched any of the TV shows she was on, and only knew her through stories in the entertainment media.
For me, the disconnect about the WLS lie was because she had seemed to be (for at least a short period of time) extremely confident in her full-figured form. So, when she magically lost 160 lbs — and went to great lengths to show it off — it seemed contradictory.
Admittedly, it was also frustrating from a size acceptance point of view because someone who seemed to be a voice in support of the cause had turned so sharply on her heel against it.