Body-positive celebrities like Lizzo and Meghan Trainor rose to prominence in the 2010s, ushering in an era of joy and self-acceptance. They told curvy girls that they were not fat, but beautiful. They challenged the status quo and proudly sang songs about being content with their physique. But what happens when, a decade later, those same celebrities lose weight?
It is a conundrum. Plenty of stars have recently made headlines with their weight loss journeys. Selena Gomez, Oprah Winfrey, Sharon Osbourne, James Corden and Adele, to name a few. In fairness, these people have never claimed to be plus-size advocates. Celebrities whose entire careers were founded upon body positivity, on the other hand, are now facing increased backlash for ‘abandoning’ the fat community.
But do fans have any right to feel this way?
BoPo Betrayal
Meghan Trainor broke into the American music scene in 2014 with ‘All About That Bass,’ in which she preached the message that she’s ‘bringing booty back.’ With lyrics such as ‘every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top,’ the hit quickly became a body positivity anthem. Six years later, with a legion of Megatronz behind her, she released ‘Genetics,’ a song praising natural beauty.
How fitting, then, that earlier this year Trainor unveiled her new body on her Timeless Tour, having had plastic surgery in the form of breast implants and losing over 60 pounds (about 27 kg) due to a combination of dieting, strength training and Mounjaro. This is the same star who made her debut singing about happily not conforming to the expectation that she must look ‘like a Barbie doll’ to be attractive. Now, she couldn’t look more Barbie-like if she had Mattel tattooed on her forehead. Is it any wonder that her fans are calling her ‘fake’?
Lizzo is another plus-size celebrity whose weight loss has been gaining traction. A self-professed icon for ‘big girls,’ her empowering hits often focus on learning to love her body as a plus-size woman. However, after months of speculation, she finally admitted to trying Ozempic and a calorie-deficient regimen in June. Soon, social media became rife with comments of how she was a ‘sellout’:
‘All these people who claim to champion beauty at any size jump on the easy solution as soon as they can afford it,’ claimed one user. ‘Hypocrisy at its finest.’
It seems that the plus-size stars who once told fat women to love their bodies no longer want to be fat themselves. Amongst a backdrop of Ozempic faces and thinner-than-ever celebrities, plus-size advocates were a refreshing beacon of hope. They represented those who disagreed with the notion that women must shrink themselves to be deemed attractive. But now they are caving to the same pressure that they’d previously rejected, turning their backs on their fans and leaving mid-size and plus-size people without role models. Many view their dramatic weight loss as a betrayal of the values they once claimed to uphold. How can Trainor and Lizzo tell others to love their curves when they have chosen to shed theirs?
Prioritising Health
What if we consider this from a different angle? There should be nothing wrong with someone losing weight to prioritise their health. Obesity is a serious global problem, particularly in the UK, India and the US. Nearly three in four American adults are overweight or obese, raising the risk of diabetes, mobility issues, high blood pressure and cholesterol, heart disease and cancer. Rising obesity rates are often attributed to a sedentary lifestyle and a poor-quality diet. One instance of this is that a worrying 60 per cent of foods purchased by Americans contain artificial additives. Meanwhile, there is growing evidence to suggest that just ten minutes of exercise a day can have huge health benefits and that by simply walking more, we can reduce our likelihood of developing dementia.
With this in mind, can we blame celebrities like Trainor and Lizzo for wanting to change their habits? Meghan claims she lost weight, not to look thinner, but to be the ‘healthiest, strongest’ version of herself for her young family. And Lizzo has said that overeating was her reaction to ‘stress’ and became a form of ‘self-harming.’ Part of her weight loss journey was switching from consuming ‘fake’ vegan meat and snacks packed with preservatives to healthier foods like chicken, beef, fish, spinach, cucumbers and nuts.
‘We must give [celebrities] the freedom to make decisions about their own bodies without judgment,’ says Alex Light, author of You Are Not a Before Picture. ‘Celebrities don’t owe us a body that doesn’t change, and they don’t owe us an explanation when it does.’
We must acknowledge how difficult it is to be a plus-sized woman in the public eye. Too often, they are called fat, unattractive, and people who glorify obesity. And should they happen to lose weight, they’re labelled sell-outs with no morals. Lizzo and Trainor have found themselves at the receiving end of both fat-shaming and skinny-shaming at different points in their careers. One can only imagine the psychological toll this must take on those who are always under media scrutiny.
Balance is Key
Celebrities with unconventional bodies were the perfect antidote to the decades of toxic diet culture we have endured, so it’s understandable why fans feel betrayed when plus-size advocates lose weight. After making such great strides in terms of size-inclusivity in the 2010s, it is disappointing — to say the least — to witness curvy A-listers shedding pounds. Maybe that’s because we’re thinking of them primarily as celebrities, rather than human beings with possible health struggles or a potentially tricky relationship with food.
Whilst we should never equate being skinnier with being healthier, we must acknowledge that when someone is overweight, choosing to lose harmful body fat is not something they should be shamed for. As long as the decision is made with health rather than aesthetics in mind and is achieved through safe means instead of dieting fads or dodgy influencer advice, then that’s their business.
No one, no matter how famous they are, deserves such unrelenting scrutiny about their weight or appearance. The internet should take note.
DISCLAIMER: The articles on our website are not endorsed by, or the opinions of Shout Out UK (SOUK), but exclusively the views of the author.
