My Essay on SheKnows: “Why Complimenting Adele’s Weight Loss is Toxic”

Have you been following the story about Adele and the reaction to her weight loss this week?? In a word, the reaction is gross, so naturally, I tweeted my thoughts about it. And then, that tweet had a semi-viral moment of its own, which became the basis for my newest piece for SheKnows…

We first saw people commenting on the singer’s new, slimmer figure back in December when she posted some holiday photos. I was disgusted then when I saw comments saying how “gorgeous” and “beautiful” she looked. So it’s no surprise that I was even more disgusted when people started in again with those same types of comments last week. Adele posted this photo on Instagram to thank people for birthday wishes and to thank frontline workers for all they’re doing.

She made NO MENTION of her body or her weight-loss journey. And yet, that’s what people chose to fixate on.

After I tweeted this, my thoughts had a mini viral moment of their own! Hooray!!

Not so hooray?? Tons of disappointing comments about weight and beauty. Some of y’all need to check yourselves. Your fatphobia is showing and that’s most definitely not beautiful. The responses to that tweet made me want to write about Adele even more and I’m so glad my piece found a home!!

Here’s an excerpt of the piece, in which I tackle our society’s misconception that weight is somehow tied to beauty and that thin is the ultimate standard…

I’ve been thinking a lot about the reactions I’ve seen over the last two days, especially when it comes to the unspoken meaning behind people’s words. When people praise Adele for her “beauty transformation,” there’s this fatphobic subtext implying that fat is bad. We live in a culture where there are only two ways of being: Fat or thin. Fat is bad and thin is good. Fat is wrong and thin is right. Fat is out and thin is in.

That’s it. People have taken something as complex as the human body and reduced it down to such simplistic extremes, leaving zero room for anything else. We need to get away from this simplistic thinking because there’s a whole host of shades in between; people are not monoliths who are one or the other. Our bodies are as individual as we are and there are so many different points on the continuum. As cheesy as it sounds, we really do come in all shapes and sizes.

You can read the full piece here and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to email me anytime at mellow1422@aol.com and let’s chat! And of course, feel free to share my essay on Facebook, Twitter or even your local refrigerator. If you share on Twitter, be sure to tag me @melissablake so I see your tweet and we can connect! I can’t wait to hear from you! Love you all… xoxo