I find the online world fascinating. But hear me out… fascinating can be a negative thing. I am happy that a lot of my childhood memories don’t revolve around the internet, and I feel for kids who don’t get to experience that nowadays because an iPad is shoved in their face when they begin to cry in public. With over a decade of digital experiences, I find it appalling that some parents are letting their children have freedom on the internet at such a young age. We’ve already begun to see the effects of it, such as little kids being influenced to wear makeup, use skin products that will cause more harm than benefits, and wear clothing that shows off their ‘figure,’ all because of what we’re doing. The media is constantly criticizing celebrities’ bodies and faces, telling young people that they should look a certain way. When will it stop?
I made a TikTok about how much I loathe comments about my body. Not because I’m insecure, but because each remark has that slight undertone of disgust masked by concern. In the video, I mention how telling me I should “eat a sandwich” makes me want to fight. You wouldn’t tell an overweight person to lay off the sandwiches, so why are you telling me to absorb them? At the end of the day, any comment like this is rude, and I’m over the idea of me being labeled dramatic because others ‘wish they had that problem.’
The reason why I’m discussing body shaming in the media is because of a comment someone left on my TikTok. Thankfully, no, it wasn’t cruel. However, they were just curious as to what “you should eat a sandwich” meant. And that’s when it struck me: not everyone has experienced something like this before. You don’t even have to be a celebrity to be shamed online (or offline for that matter), and yet, I feel this overwhelming sense of empathy for celebrities. They are ridiculed every second of every day. It’s bad enough that the public is making disgusting comments on social media, but even major news outlets are sharing how they’re too skinny or too fat, too old-looking or too young-looking, too arcane or too basic. We’ve normalized talking about bodies the same way we talk about movie trailers: reviewable, ratable, public property. Of course Gen Alpha is growing up too fast, we’re giving them reasons to.
The String Bean Vs. The Roly-Poly
Recently, I’ve seen a lot of negative comments about the female stars of Wicked. Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, and Michelle Yeoh have been in the public eye for the past year due to the release of Wicked (2024) and Wicked: For Good (released on November 21st). During the promotion of the films, there have been an absurd amount of news stories, social media posts, and comments about all of their weights. Apparently, some people believe they were forced to take drugs on set, like Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz (1939), in order to lose weight.
People create collages to share pictures of what Cynthia, Ariana, and Michelle looked like years before filming to compare to how they look now. Many comment that they look so skinny that they could drop dead in the next minute. This is weird. Didn’t the media learn not to enable comments like this after what happened to Chadwick Boseman?
For those who don’t know, Chadwick was an American actor most known for his role as T’Challa in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Months before his death, the media criticized his body, claiming that he was all skin and bone. He had a private fight with colon cancer no one knew about until after his passing. But isn’t that all the more reason not to say things like this? We don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, whether someone is sick or is struggling.
I think people should stop nitpicking these three women. We don’t know them, and they don’t know us. Anyone trying to defend the comments by saying they’re concerned is a load of bullshit. Half of these comments are condescending underneath the skin. Can you imagine losing weight due to the amount of singing, dancing, and stress you’ve done for years, just for people to tear you down?
On the other hand, the media also hates when women are considered ‘too big.’ I am a big fan of The Hunger Games and believe that Jennifer Lawrence was a perfect Katniss. However, I recently learned that she was almost not cast because people thought she wasn’t skinny enough for the role. This is CRAZY. J-Law has a great body. And yes, I know Katniss is from a poor district and didn’t have easy access to food, but she was strong. She developed muscles from hunting and from her time in the Games. I don’t think it would have made sense for her to look completely malnourished when she does have a great amount of muscle on her body.
According to Cosmopolitan, J-Law said in an interview that someone in the industry called her fat and shared almost-naked photos of her to suggest she use them as motivation for a diet. Hello??? Fat where? When has it ever been okay to talk to people like this? And who even has the audacity? I believe that as the years pass, we become more and more judgmental as a society. Is this due to social media, or are we just desensitized to everything and don’t care about others’ feelings anymore? Either way, I love J-Law’s response to this comment. She stated that if anyone suggests she go on a diet, then they can go fuck themselves. In my opinion, we should all develop this attitude. If we don’t care about negative comments, then it gives the comment no power. If we stop flooding a celebrity’s Instagram comment section, then, major news companies will stop. We spent years in elementary school learning why bullying is wrong, and yet, we’re taking part in it now. It doesn’t matter that you don’t personally know them, they are still real people with real feelings.
The Lolita Panic vs. The Aging Witch Hunt
Just like the public’s outrage over a celebrity being too skinny or too fat, they also don’t like when someone is too old-looking or too young-looking. Billie Eilish, an American musician, first became popular in 2015 due to her SoundCloud release of her song "Ocean Eyes." Billie’s jump to fame was quick, but she was only a teenager at the time. So, not wanting to be sexualized, Billie’s style mostly revolved around baggy shirts and pants. Some people thought it was too masculine, I thought it was cool. As Billie entered her 20s, she began to change her fashion. Let me pause here for a second. She still wears the iconic street-styled clothing. It’s not life changing that someone experiments with clothing, hair, or makeup as they age. She’s just finding herself, like every other person that outgrew their teenage interests.
As she explored adulthood, Billie began to experiment with feminine and figure-fitting pieces on red carpets. Apparently, this was too much for some ignorant folks. Criticism poured in; they accused her of sexualizing children since she dared to wear a dress that shows cleavage when “clearly she still looks like a child.”
I don’t understand the dilemma these people are facing. They were mad that she was dressing too masculine and hiding her body, but then they’re mad when she’s dressing feminine and showing off her figure. The only somewhat reasonable explanation someone provided was that big clothes are her identity, her image. I understand that people don’t necessarily like change, but they have to be reminded that it’s inevitable. And at this point, shouldn’t we know that people are allowed to change up their look? Why must she be accused of encouraging child pornography when all she did was wear something new? I can’t help but wonder if this is how our families secretly react when they watch us grow up and change. Was my family mad when I ditched my galaxy leggings for jean shorts and mini skirts? Was your family mad when you suddenly hated the color pink and started listening to My Chemical Romance?
Alternately, the media has a problem with celebrities who look too mature for their age. Either these celebs are aging too fast, or they must have had work done on their face, right? When I thought of this argument, my mind immediately focused on Millie Bobby Brown. A British actress most known for her roles as Eleven in Stranger Things and Enola in Enola Holmes, Millie was another celeb who grew up in the public eye. And just like everyone else, the public found their niche to attack her. Instead of saying she looks too young like Billie, she looks too old, too mature for her age.
With every press tour, new social media post, or marketing for her Florence by Mills brand, comes weird comments. These discussions aren’t just coming from social media nobodies, they’re generated from major magazines and news outlets. I’ve seen claims that Millie looks “far beyond her age,” was “mistaken for someone’s mother,” and “has had copious amounts of work done on her face and body.” Why is this even newsworthy? Shouldn’t we stop tearing down women and focus on things that matter, such as millions of people dying in Palestine or Ukraine, or millions of others being wrongfully accused and thus are ripped from their family and sent to a country they’ve never been before?
So what if Millie experiments with different makeup, hair colors, and clothing? I can imagine that she just wants to be treated like an adult since people still treat her as the 10-year-old child that first made an appearance in Hollywood. Due to all the criticism, Millie actually made a statement about these comments. On Instagram, she calls out journalists by name to bring attention to the fact that scrutinizing women based on their appearance isn’t journalism, it’s bullying. She even mentions that some of these articles were written by women, which is even worse. Women and girls should be sticking together, not beating each other down. I hope more celebrities stand up for themselves and others like Millie or J-Law did. It goes to show that even though this type of criticism has been around for decades, it doesn’t make it morally right.
To conclude this spiral, I want to bring all this hate to a rising issue. I remember walking through grocery stores and seeing magazines with red arrows and close-up shots of a celebrity’s body or face. The text would often say “Check out how fat/ugly she became!” The unflattering images and text would stick in my head, and it had a great hand in me becoming an insecure pre-teen. I’d realize things about myself that I never paid attention to until then. Here’s the thing though, I was only seeing this type of content about once a week.
Now, with the average child using social media, they’re seeing it everywhere, all the time. They’re being exposed to insecurities at a young age that they feel they need to ‘fix’ before it's too late. In their minds, if an A-list celebrity can be torn apart for the way they look, then so can they. Therefore, of course they look more grown up at that age than older generations did. We’re pointing out what’s hideous and providing ways to hide it. I must ask again… when will it stop? We can’t control the media, but we can control the way we talk about people, especially around children who are still learning how to see themselves.
Written by Emily Fadako
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