And I do, indeed, internalize that, even though I don't want to. So, yeah. I hate it when celebrities lose weight, especially those who are or once were plus-size. It has nothing to do with who they are or why and how they did it but has everything to do with the ways our society and subconsciouses trick us into believing the fairy tale that everyone can and should be gorgeous and skinny.
If, somehow, there are any celebrities reading this, I'm not asking you to abandon dieting or exercising or posting photos of yourself at any size. I'm asking you to consider refraining from sharing how you lost the weight the next time a magazine asks . Because, as Dr. Deidrichs explained, our brains are impacted by the false narrative that anyone can lose weight quickly and easily, regardless of whether or not we understand that it’s false.
While I believe the responsibility to stop this narrative lies mostly with the media, one also has to consider how the people seeking out and reading weight-loss content at home play into the equation. Media outlets determine much of their content based on what their audience is naturally drawn to and what people en masse are typing into their search engines. If celebrity weight-loss content is what brings traffic to a publication, they’ll keep making it.
Being triggered into body shame is not something we can avoid, nor is it something can we expect celebrities or the media to manage for us. Regardless of how media outlets change or don’t change, Dr. Diedrichs says increased media literacy is the solution for people struggling with these unrealistic standards on a personal level. “We know from research that if we increase people’s knowledge and understanding of what goes into creating a media image, that can sometimes disrupt the process of comparing ourselves to other people because you’ve dismissed that as a relevant target that’s actually achievable,” she says.