We live in a beautiful time where many celebrities are speaking out about body positivity and body image, and fighting back against the narrow traditional ideal of beauty in the media. However, we are also living in a time of many impostors, those being the celebrities who cry “body love” one day and then completely contradict their own so-called positive message the next day. We are calling them out. Celebs, women and men look up to you. If you dub yourself a body posi person, maybe even make money off of that body love branding, and then go post about your waist trainer and weight-loss tea on Instagram, you may as well do us all a favor and stop even pretending to be a rioter. We are calling you out, once and for all.
1. The Kardashian/Jenners (yes, all of them)
These women cannot stop talking about embracing their curves. In interviews, on their show, everywhere. They have even posted about plus models on Instagram who they claim to admire and support. However, the very next IG post you are likely to see is one of the girls wearing their waist trainers or raving about the magical weight-loss teas they swear by. After Kim’s second pregnancy, her Snapchat story was filled with photos of her scale, as the numbers went down. You are not body positive if you promote altering bodies with waist trainers and teas. You are not body positive if all you can talk about post-baby is weight loss.
2. Jessica Simpson
In 2010, Simpson had a reality show called The Price of Beauty. On the show, she and friends traveled the world to learn about different standards of beauty and the lengths women would go to to achieve the “ideal” look in their culture. Simpson had faced a great deal of media criticism regarding her own body, and the show seemed to be her way of fighting back and making a statement about body positivity. Not long after, Simpson became a spokesperson for Weight Watchers. Even long after her Weight Watchers ads came out, she got even thinner and went on and on in interviews about her weight loss. There is nothing wrong with losing weight, and there is nothing wrong with joining a Weight Watchers program, as long as it is done in a healthy way. The issue here is that Simpson created a brand, a reputation, and a fan following based off of body positivity and body acceptance, and then went on to brand herself as being all about weight loss. Not cool. At all.
3. Jessica Alba
Alba has spoken about her plan to promote healthy body image in her daughters by making sure not to criticize her own body in front of them. She claims to be more comfortable with her body now than before having children. However, Alba is notorious for crediting a waist trainer with her “post-baby body.” You cannot say you are comfortable in your own skin if you wore a corset for months in an attempt to change your natural body. See how that doesn’t work?
Really, none of this does. Either walk the BoPo walk or don’t. What doesn’t work is furthering your brands with a body positive message and then telling all of us to change.
We see you, and we are not here for it.
