Body Shaming And The Shame Of It All
By now, you should be familiar with fat shaming and the rise of the body acceptance movement to combat it. According to the body acceptance movement, society should accept all bodies rather than discriminate against people for not being a certain size.
Sounds good, right?
We should judge people on the content of their character and not on their double chin.
Those advocating for body acceptance sure are fighting a noble cause.
Okay, then what explains fit shaming?
Not as familiar with that as you are fat shaming?
Well, fit shaming is the act of putting people down for their decision to lose weight, work out, look in shape, etc.
Now that you’re familiar with the definition, what explains fit shaming when it’s done by those on the side of body acceptance?
I don’t know about you, but I love double standards.
Absolutely love ’em!!!
If you love them as much as I do, here’s one for you…
The pop star Adele recently posted a photo of herself on Instagram in celebration of her 32nd birthday. In the photo’s caption thanking first responders and essential workers for their efforts throughout the coronavirus pandemic, she didn’t mention anything about her weight loss, as she appeared much, much smaller in size than she’s ever been. Her not mentioning her new appearance didn’t stop others from commenting about it, though. And boy did they comment!
Adele’s new shape was met with praise in some corners, but it was met with as much, if not more, consternation by a number of fans who now feel more trusting of Judas than her. They feel betrayed!
Why they feel as such goes a little something like this: as someone who went from being the victim of body shaming to an advocate of the body acceptance movement, Adele isn’t living up to the message of self-love and acceptance she champions because her actions via weight loss are the polar opposite. At least that’s what the argument is.
What we have here, folks, is a situation mirroring Ashley Graham’s about three years ago.
If you remember, the plus-size model unveiled a (somewhat) slimmer body on Instagram.
Not familiar with her?
No biggie.
She’s a cutie, so I’ll give you a few minutes to Bing her for research purposes, of course.1*nudge, nudge*
…
Now that you’re back from your Google expedition, we can get back to biz.2Who are we kidding, NO ONE fucking uses Bing!
Much like Adele, Graham too was perceived as the figurehead of the body acceptance and positivity movement. And she too was attacked for her weight loss, a supposed about-face that’s tantamount to her having lied to the people who looked up to her.
Are Adele’s and Graham’s fans just behaving in pure uncut hateration?
Yup, it has to be jealousy!
Both ladies are fucking bangable!!!
There’s no other logical explanation!
Or is there?
The shade thrown at both women is because through them, those with body issues were made to feel like they too were beautiful and could be sexually wanted. That’s in the case of Graham, a successful model who’s graced the 2016 Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover. With Adele, those fans vicariously felt like they could be valued because of their talent and nothing else.3This isn’t to say that pre-weight loss Adele wouldn’t have gotten piped down, because she would’ve.
The beef with either woman has little to do with betrayal. It has more to do with their fans, those with weight problems, using them to validate their own lack of eating properly, lack of exercise, general lack of giving a fuck, with each woman’s shedding of weight placing many of them in the uncomfortable position of feeling bad about their own weight and deciding to do something about it, which by all appearances they’re not ready to do.
Although not having to agree with either woman for what basically amounts to their conforming to society’s standard of beauty, their fans struck out in retaliation by essentially body shaming them for the decision they made concerning their bodies instead of celebrating and accepting that decision.
Members of the body acceptance movement weren’t too accepting of someone else’s body?
Oh, the irony!
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