Celebrities have always been easy targets for body shamers. In fact, it seems to be an intrinsic part of the price they pay for daring to exist in the public eye. But does that make it right? Well, no.
Anyone who has ever felt their heart sink into their stomach as they witness a friend fat-shame a celebrity will know that the standards we set for the elite can directly impact our own wellbeing and self-worth. There’s a misplaced sense of public-ownership over celebrities and their bodies that mimics how women are treated in everyday life.
While the majority of body-shaming takes the form of fatphobia, celebrities can also become targets if they lose weight or appear to be too skinny or muscular. Yep, they can’t win. And if A-listers are having to answer for their bodies, what hope is there for the rest of us?
Thankfully, more and more celebrities are taking a stand against body-shaming. Madonna took to Instagram after her Grammy‘s performance in February 2023 slamming people for focusing on her appearance rather than her speech, writing: “Many people chose to only talk about close-up photos of me taken with a long lens camera by a press photographer that would distort anyone’s face!! Once again I am caught in the glare of ageism and misogyny that permeates the world we live in,” she said.
Florence Pugh was recently body-shamed for her first-ever nude scene in Oppenheimer, with trolls calling her ‘mid’. Pugh said it best herself last year: “What’s been interesting to watch and witness is just how easy it is for men to totally destroy a woman’s body, publicly, proudly, for everyone to see,” she wrote on Instagram, later adding, “Grow up. Respect people. Respect bodies. Respect all women. Respect humans. Life will get a whole lot easier, I promise.”
Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan also spoke out about her experiences of body-shaming on Instagram in January 2022, asking her followers to stop commenting on her weight, saying, “So just a thing – if you have an opinion about my body please, please don’t share it with me.
Nicola’s post came just days after Clueless star Alicia Silverstone went viral on TikTok after calling out a paparazzi photo that referred to her as “fat.” She posted an instantly-iconic TikTok of her giving the camera a middle finger, with the caption, “Damn. I think I look good.” Most recently, Megan Fox brilliantly used sarcasm against an Instagram troll who shamed her after mistakenly confusing her tattoo for body hair. Facepalm.
In April 2023, Ariana Grande shared a candid video with fans in response to ‘concerns’ over weight. “You have talked a lot about it [my body] over the past decade or longer so I’d like to join in this time,” she told her 32.1 million followers on TikTok. “I know personally for me, the body that you have been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body,” the 29-year-old said. “I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly and at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my healthy but that in fact wasn’t my healthy.”
Ariana proving once more that you never know what somebody is going through, and that commenting on anyone’s weight is never okay. Period.
Here are 29 celebrities who clapped back at body-shamers in the most epic way: