When you’re overweight, or anything other than model-thin, especially if you’re a woman, you’ll hear a billion things. These pearls of wisdom will include discouraging glares from “well-meaning” aunts and uncles when you reach for the dessert platter. They will tell you that nobody will marry if you don’t lose weight. They will suggestively praise Deepika Padukone’s physique when you are around, to make you “realise” you need to lose weight. It’s all for good health, right?
Celebrities are no exception to this constant nagging, which, despite being partially beneficial for fitness and better health, can also border on shaming. So, being people who are constantly criticised for their looks and their bodies, many such celebrities always feel the pressure to lose weight, hoping, like most regular people, to get critics off their back. That, however, does not happen. Post weight-loss, their fitness routines, including diet, exercise, and bowel movements, became a matter of national scrutiny. Nobody was happy when they weren’t thin, and nobody wants to be happy for them when they get fit. After all, how dare a celebrity (or any person) take control of their life and body, and work to improve it? Enter, weight-loss shaming that has become a trend across the globe. This targets a host of celebrities, be it Khloe Kardashian or Kareena Kapoor.
Kareena, who followed an 8-meal diet plan and did intensive yoga to get in better shape, received tonnes of media criticism for her “size zero” body and alleged orange-juice diet. While she never advocated surviving on juice or shamed anybody for being more than a size zero, people didn’t return the favour. These were the same people who had earlier called her “chubby” and criticised her for being too plump.
A similar thing happened to Khloe Kardashian, Kim Kardashian’s younger sister, who was constantly mocked for not being as thin or attractive as her siblings. That was, until she dropped quite a few kilos and transformed her figure, and started openly discussing her fitness routine. Naturally, this didn’t sit well with a large section of the internet which is more predisposed to spewing hate than anything else. So, they criticised her, saying that Khloe’s old size is what made her “relatable” and “endearing.” This criticism came from all quarters, and even Amy Schumer mocked her for her weight loss, saying “We have to be a role model for these little girls, because who do they have? All they have really is the Kardashians…We used to have Khloe. Khloe was ours, right? But then Khloe lost half her body weight. She lost a Kendall. Now we have nothing. I want good role models.”
Now, while these two are famous examples who stirred up many controversies, this practice of dissing women who lose weight and start advocating a healthy lifestyle is true for many others, be it Lena Dunham or Parineeti Chopra. Shamed for not indulging themselves and working hard towards keep themselves healthy, women simply cannot win no matter what they do.
The reason for this is unfortunate, but simple. Many of us cannot make changes to our own lifestyle, for whatever reason, no matter how much we want to be Kareena’s size. So, we project our insecurities by mocking those who manage to take that leap.
Then, that person, especially if she is a woman, who tries to work on their body, is conveniently labelled superficial. The very human discomfort they felt because they were unfit, is what led them to lose weight. To critics, this is something they aren’t allowed to feel, though. These changes are unacceptable, because women’s bodies are not treated as something they can take ownership of. Losing weight implies that she is probably doing it for a man (enter, the ridiculously sexist excuse for a phrase to describe weight loss: the revenge body).
While most of these women are glowing, healthy and fit, the world acts like the sole aim of their weight loss was to make everyone else feel bad, not to get healthy. So, the next time we point fingers at someone who is genuinely trying to improve their lifestyle, let’s think about the amount of effort, courage, and will power it took them to get there, and applaud them for it. After all, losing weight does not mean you are asking everyone else to lose weight, as well.
