Et Tu, Latifah?
When I got to work this morning, I had alerts in my mailbox from Shawn and Erin, who wanted to make sure I found out that… I can barely bring myself to type it… Queen Latifah is going to start shilling for Jenny Craig in the new year.
“We are thrilled to have Queen Latifah support our mission of improving health by taking her first step toward achieving a more healthful lifestyle… [She] joins forces with Jenny Craig to communicate the importance of how small lifestyle changes, in the areas of diet and exercise, can have positive effects on overall health.”
In the meantime, here is what the website for her plus-size lingerie line, Curvation, says about her:
Queen Latifah positively embodies the spirit of curvaceous women. She was the unanimous choice of the women we spoke with to be their role model. She clearly celebrates her curves and that’s what CURVATION is all about. …”I am a curvaceous woman, proud to be one. This brand is what I live.”
Supposedly, the Jenny Craig ad is not a betrayal of her “proud to be curvaceous” philosophy, because it is going to be “focused on a healthier lifestyle, not on getting onto a specific dress size.”
Right. Sure. I’m sure her contract doesn’t even stipulate that she has to lose weight. I’m sure the ads won’t show before and after pictures. I’m sure it will be totally body positive and focused on health and not “look how much hotter she is now that she’s thin!” Sigh.
It may not be right to feel betrayed, because, again, people can choose to do whatever they think is best for them. But Latifah is such a role model for the fat community, and I’ve always loved her, and found her beautiful and voluptuous and confident and awesome. So there you go. I’m disappointed. What do you guys think? Am I being unreasonable? Do you think this advertising campaign will really avoid focusing on “a specific dress size”?
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advertising, Celebrities, Fashion, Food, Movies, Queen Latifah, Weight Loss
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fatfighter is yet another rude jerk who has to make herself/himself feel better by making stereotypical blanket statements about fat people by stupidly assuming all we do is sit around and stuff our faces.
Last time I checked, there were 24 hours in day. That’s a lot of time to just be sitting around and gobbling it down. I guess you don’t think we have jobs and activities where food is not involved.
She/he is nothing but a troll, probably crusing fat acceptance sites just sitting there, drooling, waiting to make attacks. Why don’t you get a life. Us “lazy fatties” already have.
OMG! God forbid a woman should endorse a product that has helped countless women acheive a healthier lifestyle by *gasp* actually losing weight!
Yes, ladies and gents (?), if you are overweight and not a muscled athlete, your body will be happier and your organs less stressed if you drop a few pounds of fat. It’s just how it works. In 99% percent of all cases. I didn’t invent it. Consult mother nature if you have a problem with your own physiology.
I am sick of people associating Diabetes 2 with being Fat! I have Diabetes 2 and I am definately Not fat…I am average weight! And I know others that have Diabetes 2 and are Thin!
I am also sick of celebrities like Valerie B. and Marie Osmond saying that (in the past) they loved their bodies the way they were and then Jenny Craig and Dancing with the Stars changed all that! I guess NO women except for Monique and Emme the plus sized model really mean it when they say they love their bodies!
And NO I have NOT called Jenny yet and I’m NOT going to! LOL…. So Valerie and Kirstie and YES you too Queen L. Do NOT ask me!
I just linked to this post on LJ because a friend commented on QL.
I really feel that this has very little to do with her self image and everything to do with the money. Some stars have to shill in order to make ends meet, or they end up like Gary Coleman, Corey Feldman, and other stars who went broke or were nearly ruined by debt (for both of those guys, their parents screwed them over royally, but still). Since QL belongs to three demographics that get shafted in salary (female, black, and fat), I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t fairly compensated for her work compared to thin white men and women.
I found this thread pretty interesting. I am late on the uptake about QL being the latest spokesperson for Jenny Craig — so I googled it and found this blog.
There is an article on essence.com where they interview her about it. She states in no uncertain terms that she 1) has no desire to be a size 0, 2) read an article in Prevention about how dropping 5-10% of your body weight can HELP prevent diabetes (not cure it, not fully prevent it (cause we all SHOULD know “thin” folks can have diabetes as well [e.g. Halle Berry]) and she thought this would be the “way to do it”. I’m honestly not mad at QL for doing this — whether it is really for what she says or to get paid. I’m not mad at her. Although, for the record — I think she says what she means. If she would have wanted to be the first celeb endorser I’m sure JC would have jumped on the chance. [And for the record Rio I’m sure she does not gross as much per film as many thinner majority race actors would, and because of her race and size she gets typecasted into roles. From what I hear its very rare during casting for someone who’s look differs than the screenplay notes to get cased in that role — a great example of that ideal being shattered however is with the very multi-racial cast of Grey’s Anatomy)
As some others have stated earlier in the post, I struggle a bit with some of the ideals of FA. I think that big is beautiful — I think that I’m beautiful, but that dosen’t mean I don’t want to be able to chase my dog with out huffing and puffing. So is it so wrong to do something to loose weight? Is it really mutually exclusive to love your body but want to be at a healthier weight (I’m not talking that ridiculous height/weight chart weight either!)?