Saturday, February 07, 2009

Jessica's FAT! Says Who?


Jessica Simpson is fat! Jessica is normal! Jessica is a musician, so stop obsessing about her weight!

Sorry about all these exclamation marks but we were standing in the grocery store check-out line this morning and the tabloids were screaming about Jessica Simpson. You don't know who Jessica is, nor care about her weight? It doesn't matter because apparently lots of others do.

There are some rather unflattering photos of Simpson floating around these days, leading to a lot of cruel jokes at her expense, including one about her leaving football star Tony Romo for Ronald MacDonald. Just so you know, the photo above is of "hefty" Jessica.

Jessica Simpson is not fat by the standards of mere mortals, but she may be "celebrity chubby" because of the bizarre expectations for those in the public eye. So Brittany Spears was lampooned for weight gain, and Angelina Jolie is watched like a hawk because she is too skinny after childbirth, along with other celebs. Little wonder that so many people are messed up about body image. It may be none of our business, except that watching the stars is a business and they want to be watched.

A couple of weeks ago I spoke about honouring the body as one of the spiritual practices Christians can observe. I addressed healthy body image as part of that discipline. I got more responses to that message than for any other in quite a while. The tabloids reminded me this morning that my sermon didn't exactly change the world.

Do you think that society's attitudes can change, or will we just have to come to our conclusions, one person at a time?

1 comment:

Deborah Laforet said...

I'm back and trying to catch up. It may take me some time. It is a busy month!

As for body images, it's no wonder girls/women have such difficulties accepting their own bodies! I hope that our society will one day change, but I don't see it happening any time soon.