Celebrity Fatwatch: Eyeroll Edition
Has there been more uproar lately about celebrities gaining and losing weight, or have I just noticed it more? Three posts I ran across today in quick succession:
1. “Carnie Wilson’s War” (with video from the Tyra Banks show, of course) is Carnie’s battle with her weight after her highly publicized weight loss surgery.
2. Britney Spears is on the Posh Spice diet (water with lemon, steamed fish, edamame, and seaweed) and has gone from a size 14 to a size 10!
3. Oprah has gained weight again!
From that last post:
I hate how we are so quick to pay attention to how much weight everyone loses and gains. I know, Oprah has tons of money and I’m really not a big fan… Nonetheless, money or not, she has the same body issues many of us “normal” women have — probably moreso because she’s constantly being scrutinized by people. When she loses weight, people give her a hard time. When she gains it, people give her a hard time and laugh at her. It’s sad. Maybe I’m just sensitive, but I really hate seeing people being judged by their weight — fat, skinny, whatever.
I don’t want to point out again that all of the posts I ran across today were about women. But, oops, I guess I just did!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Britney Spears, Carnie Wilson, Celebrities, Feminism, Guest Post, International, Oprah, Tyra Banks, Victoria Beckham, WLS
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people need to leave these women alone!! I agree that weight issues are tough to deal with (I am on the same boat here)….but c’mon.
Oprah has struggled with her weight for the last 20yrs or so….she is almost a little too eager to try the latest fad diet. She needs to just find her own balance and what is best for her.
As for Brit Brit….she has never been a size 14 (In U.S. sizes, at least)!! C’mon, people! I am a size 14….this chick is no where near that!!! A few weeks ago she was at the beach with Mel Gibson in Costa Rica wearing a bikini and she looked great. You can google the pics and see she is no where near a 14!!
Brit has been pictured at Bally’s working out up to 2x a day for the past month or two with personal trainers. I will give credit to that for her slimming figure. But it hasnt been easy for her either kuz she is on a billion different medications for her mental illness…which seem to be hindering her weight loss….
I remember in a psych class I was taking, we were talking about stress and weight class. And it outlined Oprah’s weight gain and loss over the years. With the numbers listed, and it had a section detailing opinions on whether or not she would keep it off this time. I would be mortified.
Sunrise, it sounds like you are PRAISING people
for losing weight, which is fine but I thought this
was a size acceptance blog, not a diet blog.
Am I wrong????????????????????????????????
Instead of bashing celebrities for losing/gaining
weight, we need to stop looking toward them to
be our role models and turn to each other.
I think it’s fair to assume that, unless you are hearing this information about weight gain/loss and diets directly from the person involved, we are hearing it from media. How can you trust a single thing that media say? media will say anything, stretch anything in order to sell their stories.
Those ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of Britney? Yeah. She looks THE SAME.
Maybe I don’t have a good eye for weight loss or whatever, but I just don’t see headline news here.
I dislike celebrity fat-watching, but I have to say… Carnie Wilson and Oprah have come to define themselves by what they weigh and they constantly put their weight at the forefront of their public personas. Can we really ask the media to let them be and leave their weights alone when they keep inviting them to monitor their scales?
Sunrise: What Oprah needs is a good shrink and a healthy dose of Health at Every Size. With as many crazy diets as she’s tried through the years, you’d think she’d realize by now that no diet works for long-term weight-loss maintenance.
I still think that if Oprah embraced HAES (and I do mean without the excessive exercising phase she once went through in the 90s) instead of striving so hard to slim down to a body that’s not meant to be hers, she could help change mindsets about the whole “you need to slim down to be healthy” attitude. She’d probably adapt it into her world of personal cook and personal trainers, but it’d still be an important step into making women stop hating their bodies.
She sure is the proof that all the money in the world can’t buy you a change of body type (regardless of how much she’s tried over the years).
The Daily Mail is a British newspaper, so they are talking about UK sizes. A UK size 14 is actually a US size 10. Just for clarification.
I think you’re just noticing it more, female celebrity weight gain and loss is always a constant topic.
And I know it’s hard to judge weight from a picture, but I really, really see no difference between the before and after pictures of Britney. She looks pretty much exactly the same size in both.
I was both repelled and felt sympathy for CW. She is so fat-phobic herself, and yet who would not be when she is photographed everywhere. She said something about how at least they photo-ed her exercising, but it’s that dig about fat people exercising that the pic makes that’s frustrating.
As for the rest – yawn! So over O & B.
Piper, I don’t mean to necessarily praise people in losing weight….unless that is exactly what they are doing because they want to get back to what they used to look like (especially after pregnancy).
Oprah definitely has some sort of self acceptance issues as all the money in the world hasnt brought her any happiness (or weight stability since she does fad stuff). All these women need to accept themselves b/c they are beautiful.
It’s hard to hear all the positivity out there when so many haters are also on celebrity fat watch just tearing these poor women apart! I would hate to be famous and have people taking pictures of me and calling me fat all over the internet and speculating that i am pregnant just because I ate a lot the night before. Ugh!
You know, in her most recent O magazine issue (okay, I read it on the treadmill), Oprah’s “What I Know for Sure” column says that she’s done with scale-watching, because “you’re not you’re body, and for sure you’re not your body image.” I don’t know if she can stick to it (most days I can’t, and I don’t have an empire surrounding my body image), but it’s a noble effort. I hope it’s for real and that she can settle out at somewhere more comfortable, where she doesn’t have to (as she said some years ago) “pay for” a special dinner with a ninety-minute jog. And give the finger to the folks who spend their lives waiting to allege that Oprah’s gained another ounce!
“Sunrise, it sounds like you are PRAISING people
for losing weight, which is fine but I thought this
was a size acceptance blog, not a diet blog.”
Could we PLEASE remember that those two things are not mutually exclusive?
I’m losing weight, and believe in size acceptance. I am sick of being shoved to the side of this movement like I’m some kind of threat or hypocrite for doing something that makes me feel better and happier.
You know how many times I’ve been reprimanded in different communities for even mentioning my weight loss? And you know why? Because of someone else’s assumptions about my actions. People assume I’m a) only losing weight to fit some societal dictation of what I should look like and b) I’m going to come in expounding about how it’s so easy and everyone should do it.
I shouldn’t have to explain my own personal decisions about my body, but I started losing weight in order to feel better and take care of my health. Yeah, I’m happier about my appearance, but it’s a secondary bonus, not the primary reason. And I’m not telling anyone else what they should or shouldn’t do. I constantly say if you’re healthy and happy at your current weight, stay that way. I wasn’t happy OR healthy so I decided to change. I shouldn’t have to feel bad about it.
Liza, AMEN!
Size acceptance is about NOT JUDGING PEOPLE BASED ON THE SIZE OF THEIR BODIES. period.
It’s also, I think, the first step in letting go of the objectification of human beings that is so prevalent in our culture. And maybe, just maybe, when we start seeing people as PEOPLE, we’ll make more of an effort to “do no harm.”
Weight obsession helps channel billions from the middle class to the rich power-elite in the form of diet products. The media is nothing more than a medium to ensure we stay consumers. Since so much money was lost with sub prime, they need to make sure we are more obsessed than ever to keep fleecing us with their worthless and sometimes dangerous products.
Liza, for what it’s worth, many fat acceptance advocates oppose weight loss even when it’s done for health reasons. I don’t want to get into it on Mo’s blog because I know this is a diet/dieter-friendly space, but when people have a problem with the fact that you diet they’re not necessarily assuming you’re just doing it for your appearance.
Oprah’s “What I Know for Sure” column says that she’s done with scale-watching, because “you’re not you’re body, and for sure you’re not your body image.” I don’t know if she can stick to it (most days I can’t, and I don’t have an empire surrounding my body image), but it’s a noble effort.
I wouldn’t count on it, considering today’s show is a repeat of the “Oprah and Bob’s Best Life Challenge” where the tagline in the ad was “Don’t spend another year fat” *sigh*
I know that Becky, and it’s a whole other can of worms. If I got started on that I’d probably derail the entire internet.
It just pisses me off that I have to defend a decision I made to change and live a healthy life. Just under a year ago (last July) I moved to New York and realized how out of shape and unhealthy I was.
It’s not really dieting though. I eat balanced meals and exercise. I changed from sedentary and eating crap to active with good eating habits (most of the time). I’ve lost 55 pounds and will probably lose more, since I’m training to run a 5K in September. But am I “zomg I need to be a size 4?” No.
I’m not ashamed of it and shouldn’t have to be.