Let’s play a little game. If someone said:
“Now that I’ve lost all that weight, I’m being hit on…”
“When I was bigger I was invisible.”
“I used to think people were intimidated by me, but the truth is they were just uncomfortable being around me because I was overweight.”
How much weight would you think this woman lost?
And before you answer, realize that the quotes came from Sophie Simmons (daughter of rock legend Gene Simmons) who less than a year ago was telling the New York Daily News “I grew up as a chubby kid and into a curvy girl. I have cellulite, stretch marks and freckles — and that’s fine with me.” and talking about how she “refused to refuses to have her images digitally manipulated.”
Oh how times have changed.
Now, nine months later, she is talking to the Daily Mail about the absolute life-changing magic of losing…wait for it…10 pounds. That was not a typo, she says all those changes in her life are because she is 10 pounds lighter.
You might think it ridiculous that she believes that 10 pounds would make that much difference, especially considering that some women’s weight fluctuates that much with bloating every month. You might wonder how it is remotely possible that a 10 pound weight loss is news. I think the secret is in this line
the 22-year-old – who is promoting her first single…
And there it is. She joins the club of celebrity women who promote body positivity when it gets them some press, then use weight loss to get themselves back on the front pages when they’ve got something new to promote, and, in most cases, come back to body positivity when they gain the weight back, only to start the cycle over.
These women are, of course allowed to do whatever they want with their bodies, [Edit: and it’s entirely possible that as a tabloid the Daily mail made this whole thing up.] I remain frustrated that so many celebrities aren’t willing to take a real stand against weight loss culture, I’m tired of seeing celebrities use the principles of my communities as a way to generate press between diets, I’m sad that these celebrities face this kind of pressure about their body size. I’m mostly angry with a culture that creates a world where women’s talent is a distant second to their ability to uphold some ridiculous photoshop-driven stereotype of beauty, where someone can get national press for becoming 10 pounds smaller; where the narrative, however ridiculous it may be, that people are uncomfortable around us because of 10 “extra” pounds, is something that is plausible enough to be put in print, even by a tabloid like The Daily Mail.
And just for the record, anyone who would be uncomfortable around me now, but wouldn’t be if I lost 10 pounds, or who wouldn’t be interested in me romantically now, but would if I lost 10 pounds, or really any amount of weight, can bite me. Finally, thanks to reader Elizabeth for pointing this story out to me!
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And just for the record, anyone who would be uncomfortable around me now, but wouldn’t be if I lost 10 pounds, or who wouldn’t be interested in me romantically now, but would if I lost 10 pounds, or really any amount of weight, can bite me.
A-fucking-men!!!
I am duty bound to tell you that the Daily Mail is almost without a DOUBT making that up. I can’t adequately explain how bad a rag that ‘newspaper’ is. They are like the National Enquirer, except that they tout themselves as news. They have featured entire pages of interviews with celebrities, only to be found out to have made the entire thing up.
I seriously doubt they even spoke to her.
It’s certainly possible, I edited the piece to make it more clear that this is a possibility.
Thanks!
~Ragen
🙂 They are a hateful, hateful excuse for a newspaper. They steal photos too. My friend has a lovely blog, and write a brilliant piece on explaining consent, (likening it to tea) and they wrote a piece on it, then lifted her photo, of course, without consent.
If there was one paper I could ban, it would be them.
I sure hope you’re right. I’d hate to see yet another person get on the no-win yo-yo dieting hamster wheel. Sophie has always seemed like she was very confident, but I know how this world and it’s fat hating messages can break a person down.
I hope they’re making it up, because otherwise, what in the actual hell is she talking about? I can fluctuate 10 pounds and still fit in the same jeans. How would anyone even be able to tell if you lost 10 pounds, unless you were literally so thin already that you didn’t have 10 to lose?!?!
I was wondering that too (“what the actual hell is she talking about”). My weight has fluctuated on its own over the last year, not connected so far as I can tell to anything I’ve been doing — I was down 12 pounds, then back up 4, so now I weigh 8 lbs less than I did a year ago. And believe me, even **I** can’t see any difference!
I think Laney’s right — the only way anyone could notice and comment on a 10 lb loss would be if the person was thin to begin with. I’ve never even heard of Sophie Simmons before, let alone seen a picture of her, so I don’t know if this story even makes any sense about her.
Same here, except I look the same at 200 as at 300. My cousins (and pretty much everyone in my family) is fatphobic, and are afraid of becoming fat. I dread the day when someone says they’ve never known someone who weighed 300 pounds, because how do I tell them that it’s me?
They probably know a lot more 300-pounders than they realize, because muscle is heavy, and some gym-rats are really heavy!
But for people who equate poundage with fat, this will never sink in.
On a feminist note, I think one reason that women are told to “lose weight” rather than “lose fat,” or “gain muscle,” is because someone, somewhere, decided that it was “romantic” for women to be light enough for a man to carry, and if the man is not strong enough to carry a heavy woman, then it’s the woman’s fault for not being “dainty,” and not the man’s fault for not being strong, and somehow, this “romance,” is REQUIRED, even though there are plenty of men in the world who are never going to be strong, for many valid reasons, and there are plenty of women in the world who are never going to be feather-light, for many valid reasons, and why do we make the whole “carry the bride across the threshold, in memory of the Sabine women, who were carried away by violence,” a “romantic,” thing, anyway? It’s ludicrous.
My Mom told me that the most romantic thing my Dad ever did was clean up the bed, floor, step-stool, and all after she had a sudden diarrhea attack during the night. She was in the shower, and expected to come back to a horrible mess to clean up, but he did it while she was showering, so when she came back, it was all lovely and clean, and they could both just go back to sleep, and talking about it now makes her cry with remembered love and romance, and that is just so much better than women being feather-light, regardless of musculature.
Also, I hate how trainers will teach men how to lift, but want women to do nothing but cardio, because “you don’t want to get heavy.”
Well, my gob is thoroughly smacked. This is ridiculous.
At the supermarket checkout tonight, I saw a magazine touting “15 ways to lose 10 pounds.” So, if you do all of them, will you lose 150???
/absurd!
Go magazines!
Trust me, no-one would be able to tell if I’d lost ten pounds, probably including me because I hardly ever get on a scale.
So, that means that each tip is worth less than one pound? What a rip-off.