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In this op-ed, writer Sara Li discusses the negative impact of invasive commentary around celebrities' bodies.
When it comes to celebrity, the line between public figure and public property is—at best—blurred. Social media has made it easier for us to access entertainers in ways that were unimaginable even just a decade ago. As a result, we’ve seen the internet become a vehicle to launch talent into the limelight, making some so famous they become as much a part of our lives as the people we know in real life. Like clockwork, though, we’ve also seen that attention take its toll on people’s mental health and careers.
Mega superstar Ariana Grande went on TikTok on Monday to address rumors, primarily started by fans online, around her body. “I don’t do this often, I don’t like it, I’m not good at it… but I just wanted to address concerns about my body and talk a little bit about what it means to be a person with a body and to be seen and to pay such close attention to,” she said in her video.
Grande has been shooting the much-anticipated live-action Wicked movie, but her hiatus from social media hasn’t detracted from her presence there. For months, there’s been viral tweets, lengthy TikToks, and relentless comments about her body. Allegations of Grande being unhealthy, having an eating disorder, being in an abusive relationship, having an illness, and more surfaced repeatedly.
The baseless speculations were usually paired with old photos of Grande, a point that she addressed in her video. Regarding how she looked a few years ago, Grande said, “Personally for me, the body that you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body. I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly and at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my healthy.”
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She finishes with a reminder that there are ways to compliment someone outside of appearance and we should refrain from commenting on bodies at all. The point, though, is that Grande shouldn’t have needed to address it in the first place. If her statements sound familiar, it may be because she is only the latest celebrity to have to acknowledge the entitlement audiences have to her anatomy. In February, Selena Gomez also took to TikTok to discuss the dialogue around her weight gain and Lupus.
The internet has always had a parasocial relationship with celebrities. In the aughts, tabloid blogs constantly mistreated female celebrities through invasive headlines. But the rise of social media has only amplified the noise—with the additional caveat that anyone (whether it be a stan, a plastic surgeon, or a “body language expert”) can join in. This has made platforms a toxic place to navigate for many public figures who find their literal figures, well, public.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that most celebrities who find their bodies under scrutiny are women. Lizzo has often gone on record about how pervasive it is for people to talk about her body, even when she has nothing to do with the conversation. In a good faith argument, one can say that, because of how accessible and personable famous people have become, it’s allowed their followers to feel more comfortable talking to them as if they were a loved one. Still, it’s clear that any commentary, whether good or bad, on a public figure’s body does far more damage than good, just as it would for anyone else. Body standards applied to celebrities have implications on the culture at large and, notably you should also refrain from commenting on anyone’s body.
While we may be connected to their work, celebrities are not our loved ones. Visibility is not consent, and just because you see something, it doesn’t mean you can automatically tell what’s going on. It's a good lesson because that's the case for anyone you may encounter.
A popular online slogan—perhaps too overused to resonate anymore—is: “Be kind. You never know what someone may be going through.” Months prior to the passing of actor Chadwick Boseman, the internet mocked his appearances until it was revealed that he had been battling colon cancer. But in an ugly twist, that argument has been used as an excuse to theorize about celebrities’ health. In Grande and Gomez’s case (both of whom have publicly addressed the toll mental health and other medical conditions take on their bodies), their own fans asserted themselves as experts on their anatomy.
And it’s not just the fans, either. Online, medical professionals and practitioners of pseudoscience—who have never treated the subject of their content—offer unsolicited takes on whether certain stars are sick, have had work done, might have an addiction, are healthily or unhealthily gaining weight, might be on Ozempic, and more. While the urge to understand why famous people look the way they do might come from a good place, pushing anyone to talk about their body when they don't want to can be harmful.
It points to a lack of boundaries that many of us have forgotten about the more online our lives become. No matter how you frame it, there is never a good reason to speculate on a public figure’s (or anyone’s) body. And if there ever was a genuine cause for concern, trust that they will not be seeking out the internet commentators for advice.
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