Glow Up? Grow Up. The toxic nature of 'glow up' culture in body transformations
Glow Up? Grow Up. The toxic nature of 'glow up' culture in body transformations
A
Work My Femininity and Semi-Detached collaboration
Glow up? Grow
up.
I'll be the first to admit that I have a complicated relationship with the 'glow up' posts that we're all too familiar with. We see them on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. Women (and sometimes men!) posting before and after images and videos of their incredible body transformations.
I remember having a conversation with someone (you know who you are ;) ) who asked me if these types of videos inspire me to get in better shape?
"No, it just makes me feel like shit" I laughed off.
And it was true. As much as I indulged in watching these videos, they often left me with a fleeting sensation of 'wow, I can do this!' and a longer-lasting feeling of 'boy, I am fat'.
And it's the same feeling I had when I first heard of Adele's incredible weight loss.
She looked great, right?!
I mean, Adele was someone whose music I loved. Chasing Pavements? A banger. Rolling in the Deep? A certified BOP.
And, I also loved Adele for her beautiful confidence and championing of body positivity.
This is why I felt a little disheartened when I saw Adele's new bod.
I know. I'm awful. But hear me out.
Apparently, I wasn't the only one who felt this way. Seeing my friend Emma (www.semi-detached-by-ebm.co.uk) post on her Instagram stories that she was sick of seeing these body transformation posts, I realised I wasn't alone!
Maybe I wasn't as bad of a person as I thought.
We ended up having a huge discussion over Adele, weight loss, body standards, yada yada yada. The sort of conversations you have with friends at 11 o'clock at night where you confess your feelings and emotions.
And, from that conversation, came this collaborative piece. It was a lot of fun writing.
So, this one goes out to the girls who are sick of feeling crap about themselves thanks to body transformations.
Hunny, we're with you.
....
Adele's drastic weight loss has been such a huge topic of admiration and respect.
Lest we forget that her recent unveiling came amidst her turning 32, the pandemic, and most notably the divorce from her now ex-husband. Debuting her transformation on SNL- the internet went into a total frenzy. The transformation prompted mixed responses which were felt by so many women including myself and Emma who admitted she too was slightly disappointed with Adele's big Instagram reveal.
Does this make us bad people?
Shall we hand in our feminist membership cards?
Some would probably chunter jealous fat bitch under their breath to those that admitted to having similar reactions.
Talking about weight is hard enough as it is but
especially when it comes to celebrity weight loss transformations. It was
something that neither of us felt that confident to discuss until we were
prompted by posts either positive or negative that compelled us to speak up.
We're very proud of Adele for her weight loss, even more so if it is something she set out to do with intention. It's super important to not make assumptions as some have that her weight loss was too quick or drastic and therefore must be linked to her mental health.
So long as she did it healthily we're happy- we have to be - and ultimately Adele's body doesn't belong to anyone, not the world and not her fans.
As I emphasised in our conversation, whilst Adele always has spoken openly about her weight and championed plus-size women, she was under no obligation to remain the same size and under no obligation to be a life-long plus-sized role model.
If we're
being frank, though, it would be a lie if we said that a part of us didn't mourn
the loss of having Plus-Sized representation.
Adele has been such a phenomenal source of inspiration for plus-sized women and women that might have struggled with weight and feeling beautiful in a world that promotes very unattainable beauty standards.
Admittedly, we have both found ourselves identifying more with larger women and bodies that reflected our own. Therefore, it's only natural that seeing someone like Adele sparked a greater sense of comfort and familiarity and it seemed that her weight wasn't something that she needed to hide nor feel shame for.
Most people would say they felt the same way but many threw hate at her, including the likes of Karl Lagerfeld who had said she was "a little too fat".
These words that came from the
now-deceased Chanel designer sparked a mix of agreement and utter contempt at
the then seventy-eight-year-old who is known for his outspoken opinions.
It's a bit depressing that as a society we have reached a point where it is generally an expectation for all artists over a certain size to either adapt or remain in typecast roles.
Think of Rebel Wilson or Melissa McCarthy - two incredible actresses and two very funny women - but do we not find that, despite comedy perhaps being their niche, they have never really had the opportunity to branch out?
Rebel Wilson was 'Fat Amy' in the Pitch Perfect trilogy for god's sake, and upon losing weight has jokingly told fans to refer to her now as 'Fit Amy'.
To reiterate - the issue is not with women making these choices for their health and personal happiness but with the parameters that the media and entertainment industries have established.
Boundaries like this limit bigger actresses and entertainers to narrow roles that normally feature them being fat, funny, often single, and sometimes quite weird.
It’s exhausting and sends
out the wrong message to women, especially young women, that are trying to figure
their identity out in a world that tells them their body types are unacceptable
or undesirable.
The language we use is important- how many weight loss articles have you read in the Sun or the Daily Mail where the woman was described as “bursting at the seams”, or “teetering the scales at a WHOPPING [insert whatever amount]”?
It’s incredibly harmful.
Using such exaggerative language to describe being plus-sized induces shame instead of love and in doing so equates it to being monstrous or colossal.
On top of this, the language used in the aftermath of a weight-loss transformation can also be really damaging to people’s self-esteem and body issues.
Coded language linked to the idea of having a "lifestyle improvement" creates a kind of good vs. bad narrative.
If
you’re overweight and not doing something about it - you’re bad. If you were
overweight and lost it - you’re good. In the eyes of the media, it’s that cut
and dry.
It's tiring, hurtful, and just generally shit when the representation of your body type is limited to the “before” part of a “before and after” picture or article.
Neither of us are saying that Adele shouldn't lose her weight or that women, in general, shouldn't lose weight - we're not policing women's bodies.
It is hard, though, to constantly feel like you're fighting a lose-lose battle against your body that isn't made easier when the media encourages this sort of scrutiny.
Whilst on the topic of language - it's necessary to talk about the language used to talk about larger women even when it is positive. I recalled to Emma, a David Letterman interview with Lizzo, where she had said that even when people would compliment her stance on weight she'd be described as “unapologetically” large.
Her iconic zero-fucks-response being “what the hell do I have to be apologetic about?!"
And she’s right!
You may think that it's a compliment to larger women when you call them “unapologetically” or “unashamedly” fat, but you're actually just calling them brave for not apologising over their body type - implying that there is something worth being sorry about.
This is not an easy conversation to have. And, if this is coming across as hating on Adele, or envious of her, then that's wrong.
Essentially, we're just trying to say that if a part of you mourned losing another plus-sized champion when you saw Adele's weight-loss - then you're not alone.
Feeling like this doesn't make you a bad person, it actually highlights the length at which society will go to make you feel bad for not conforming.
More importantly, we need to be careful about the language we use when discussing weight.
Adele’s weight loss is an accomplishment, but not as much of an accomplishment as her several Grammys and number 1 songs.
We need to stop trying to tell ourselves that this is the
most important thing about her and stop trying to tell ourselves that we should
all be looking to do the same.
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