I’m not going to take the time to regurgitate my position on Lady Gaga’s “Body Revolution” movement – you can read yesterday’s post on the subject here. I want to thank so many of you for discussing the issues involved with a great deal of intelligence and pragmatism. Gaga started this movement just a few days after her thighs were photographed looking slightly bigger and several body-snarking tabloids were all “Gaga’s fat”. Gaga has been endlessly tweeting and retweeting and posting messages onto her Little Monsters site, where her monsters have been submitting their own “to inspire bravery” photos, some of which are genuinely moving. Gaga posted a longer statement to her site too:
Lady Gaga is getting personal about her struggles with body image. Since the “Born This Way” singer started a “body revolution” Tuesday by posting unedited photos of herself in her underwear on her website, fans have been doing the same.
“I have been startled and overwhelmed with pride and emotion the past few days. Gratitude mostly. Seeing you post photos of things on your bodies and in your minds that you feel society tells you you should be ashamed of. You are showing them you have no shame,” she wrote on her website Tuesday. “Watching you all create a safe space online for people to be compassionate is the greatest gift you could ever give me.”
The 26-year-old singer started the “revolution” with her fans after she posted photos of herself in yellow lingerie with the caption, “[I’ve battled] bulimia and anorexia since I was 15.”
Gaga continued to open about about her history with eating disorders by writing, “My weight/loss/gain since i was child has tormented me. No amount of help has ever healed my pain about it. But you have,” she wrote. “My boyfriend [Taylor Kinney] prefers me curvier. When I eat and am healthy and not so worried about my looks, I’m happy. Happier than I’ve ever been. I am not going to go on a psycho-spree because of scrutiny.”
The pop star’s open discussion on body image comes after a recent radio interview with Elvis Duran, in which she admitted to being on a diet “because I gained, like, 25 pounds.”
But the Grammy-winning singer says she’s happy with the her weight right now.
“This is who I am. And I am proud at any size,” she wrote. “And I love you, and want you to be proud in any form you may take as well. Please don’t look for kindness in critics, go where you know the gold is. Here, in our hearts. Love, Gaga.”
I know I’m a cynic. We live in cynical times, and I was bred to be cynical person – it’s the nature and nurture of cynicism. I dismissed Gaga’s “Body Revolution” out of hand because I thought (and I still think) that this is mostly a stunt, a classic Gaga stunt queen move that is more about HER than her monsters, more about style than substance, which is revealing only in its inauthenticity. But I have to say… something good might come out of this. It’s not all about Gaga posing in her underwear, sucking in her gut and being photographed from a flattering and slimming high angle. Gaga has managed to make this about her monsters, and she ended up engineering a conversation about body image and societal beauty norms and eating disorders and how the negativity damages people in waves. And good for Gaga.
But is it okay to still think she’s is full of sh-t?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Or fucking triggering to those who – unlike her – don´t fit the narrow beauty standarts of the media. I still don´t want her to be the poster child of body acceptance, because her body still looks like 90% of what we see on TV and in magazines anyway: Cis, white, abled, thin 20-30 year old blondes. What is revolutionary about that?
Her “revolution” just eats up important space and keeps minorities in silence. I want real diversity!
http://realbodyrevolution.tumblr.com
(It´s not my blog, I swear. But it´s a great one.)
Te you one of those people who goes on tumblr rants about transracial people and whatnot? Sounds like it.
I am one of “those people” who actually studied that shit (= M.A. in sociology, philosophy and gender studies) and I´m one of those who call themselves feminists because they care for equality 😉
@UNF Joan Jett — how long has this been around? Is this in response to Gaga’s Body Revolution or was it preceded by it? It’s hard to tell — it looks like it was just started?
I think projects like this are great, but not in the hands of someone who self-exploits to the extent that Gaga does. I can’t believe more people haven’t picked up and run at her with the line she adapted from Kate Moss’ ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.’
I’m a very petite, size 00, white person, and the only reason I mention this is that I’m an amputee (lost my leg below the knee in an accident). Dressed/undressed, it’s like Jekyll and Hyde in how it affects how people view and treat you. I wish there were more sites like this for men, women, etc. and the conversation didn’t always primarily revolve around weight, with everyone else stuck on the periphery of increasing awareness/tolerance.
The name sounds like it was a response, right? But no, the blog was around quite some time. When you look trough the pages there are some stories and images of people who have disabilities, scars or other condtions. I think there are more sites/projects like that, but they seem so disconnected from each other so it´s hard to find them.
There is for example an awesome project from trans men on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/FTMTelevision
Or one obout the representation of women in the media: http://www.feministfrequency.com/
Blog about politics and equality: http://absquesetentia.tumblr.com/
Body positive blog with diverse participants: http://stophatingyourbody.tumblr.com/
Mostly pictures: http://fyprosthetics.tumblr.com
Art, fashion, amputee: http://natgeo-covergirl.tumblr.com/
Thank you so much @UNF Joan Jett! That was my first time on Tumblr. So nice to see such diversity… I can’t tell you how tired I get of everyone pulling the Aimee Mullins card — model-actress-amputee-etc., etc. Her experiences are not representative of most people’s… she has a very privileged position that she’s speaking to people from, and that needs to be acknowledged, at the very least.
Like Gaga — damn. So, the Body Revolution is NOT “Gaga’s Body Revolution TM.” Maybe I’m underinformed (and undermotivated to check out her project’s credits) but there are so many similar, but like you said, too scattered projects out there. Would be really great if they linked to each other.
She is one fake bitch. She will abandon this “body project” as soon as she will figure out something more controversial. How about joining PETA next week. Caca will show fur cold shoulder!!!!
I wish there was a “like” button for this
thanks UNF ive browsed through the blogs your recommed and they’re great.
I like Gaga’s message (better than nothing, i dont think her message eats up space) but I totally agree with you that she fits the mold more or less of the industry.
We definetly need more real diversity in the media.
Thank you so much for posting those blog links. I am obese and should look at positive images/beauty pics of obese people more often.
OH I love it! Thanks Joan Jett
i totally agree with you UNF Joan Jet!
Please. Her photos were just so narcissistic. Try a Jamie Lee Curtis pose, just standing there.
Gaga will be out there ultra skinny like she was last year in no time or she will start working out again and be all toned (just because), just watch, and where will her poor fans be then who thought they had a kindred soul?
I agree, the thing about these stars is that they don’t take criticism well at all. They talk about how great it is to have curves and blah blah blah but a month later they’re back to the triple zero size they were before. This reminds me of Miley Cyrus she was called out for weight gain and spoke out against it on twitter and how men love curves and then bam a month later she was a hard core pilates addict and is now back to her tiny size.
My only concern is where does this go once Gaga is bored with it?
Wasn’t the whole message of her last album “Baby you were born this way” but when it suited her she was indifferent to people mocking Adele and Christina Aguilera about their weight. At that point it wasn’t about celebrating the individual.
When Gaga loses the weight does she go back to tweeting “Pop stars shouldn’t eat” and romanticizing drug use and non-eating? Because once she’s back in heroin chic size I seriously doubt she’ll give a crap.
She is going to do whatever it takes to sell the records, I guess.
I think she’s a phoney of Salinger proportions in near everything she’s done up ’til now but I love that she’s sparked this. It’s become almost an act of defiance to be a woman in showbusiness- one of the last bastions of misogyny- who gains weight. Now when we talk about a female star gaining weight, we veil it in concern-trolling about “health” but most of the time it’s just pure “fat chick”-bashing for schadenfreude-y sport.
Yeah, but Gaga’s Little Monstas, so incensed that Adele bypassed Gaga’s sales last year by a landslide and took home all the awards, were calling her all kind of fat names. It went on forever. Not a peep out of Gaga over her Bully Monsters until someone in the media called her out on it. Then she said she didn’t condone it, nothing more. Where was all this Revolution then? Oh, that’s right, she didn’t care about a real heavy person being bullied by her own fans and body image.
Now that it’s all about her she cares. Milk it, Gaga.
Of course. It’s only c’mon-guys-this-is-like-really-important when it’s aimed at her.
But is it okay to still think she’s is full of sh-t?
Are you kidding me? SHE *IS* full of shit!
She’s always full of shit — and not the good kind, the kind that can be used as manure. She’s the toxic, biohazard-y kind.
I can’t believe people are falling for this. Nothing this worthless piece of shit does is sincere. Absolutely nothing she has done so far has been anything other than to get attention.
ha ha, the kind that can flood your front yard and leave it smelling for weeks..
100% agree, Eve & Marie.
As Mort said, those photos were just to prove to the world that she’s not fat. This isn’t about “body acceptance” or starting a revolution.
There are few celebs that I actively hate but Gaga is getting there for me, between the fur coats and now this “body revolution” nonsense. Ugh. She truly disgusts me.
Why didn’t she post these pics as a rebuke to all her “monsters” who were shaming Adele about her weight? Maybe THEN it would have come across as an honest, genuine message. THEN I would respect her.
The problem with this woman is the rampant hypocrisy/conflicting messages:
Anti-bullying yet doesn’t tell her fan base to lay off Adele, wears fur the ULTIMATE form of bullying-killing harmless animals for fashion.
“Born this Way”, yet gets plastic surgery, fake nails, weaves etc.
Love your body and accept yourself how you are unless you’re Adele or any other “competition” for Gaga.
It’s just a lot of bullsh*t, period.
OKitt, Can I get an amen and Hallelujah! Thank you.
Is it me, or Lady Gaga has started plumpling her lips??
Yep. She tweeted a closeup of her blowup lips to her fans.
Yes. And this was not long after she said she would never have cosmetic surgery because it sends a bad message to fans.
Yeah, she had them done in July.
why did she quit her natural hair? She is always wraped up in wigs.
Because her real hair fell out due to over-bleaching.
I’m over the halloween costumes. Just sing and stop focusing on the bizarre.
Phony …..fake….revolting….narcissitic…….oppertunist….Nasty piece of trash….that about sums up Lady Gag Gag… I would just plan shyt myself before I would follow her in a bathroom..let alone on one of her publicity stunts..Six months from now she will be flaunting her ultra skinny ass around from were she had a massive liposuction treatment done saying it was done on Watch Watchers to make some money…
Once again Gaga is commodifing victimhood. This is what she does. Forget that she went to a private school with paris hilton – she was ‘penniless’ in her pre-fame years(though she does admit that her dad paid her rent, how lovely of him) and now this weight issue, have i missed where she explicitedly told her fans to back off on adele? Nobody that savvy with social media didnt know what was going on. Also i could write a thesis on her monolopisation of gay culture but i won’t. Well not here. Her next album better be an undeniable hit or she will be o.v.e.r
She always plays the victim and encourages her fans to act victimized as well. It’s disgusting.
Exactly, the ‘body revolution’ led by a gym-honed narcissist who’s always trying to be sexy! Whatever…
OK here is my issue with it, and I hope I do not offend – I think we have to be very careful of crossing into “fat acceptance” territory. Gaga is not fat at all, but the way she claims to have put on weight (just carb loading) is NOT something anyone should emulate. And the blog that UNF Joan Jett linked to (which is full of great pics, btw) makes me afraid for the health of those women. My point is that many, many, many of our young women are obese and it is a health risk. To say it’s OK to gain 25 Lbs from eating poorly is NOT a good message, and any kind of fat acceptance is dangerous. Women should love themselves no matter what, but should not accept being unhealthy with their weight. Anyone feeling me on this?
I know what you mean, the focus should be on health, not on weight. Skinny doesn’t necessarily mean healthy, and bigger doesn’t necessarily mean unhealthy. There should be more of a discussion on women’s HEALTH than women’s bodies. Pressure to be skinny causes so many problems for women and men, but if the pressure was to be healthy, well, maybe people would be healthier
^^ yes, this! ^^
Sugar and carb-loading are very unhealthy behaviors.
And this picture of her is scaring me – she looks like Hillarity Clinton.
Well said Evelyn
I do see what you are saying, and health is absolutely a priority. I think what is hurting many women, and keeping them either eating or not eating, is the shame of what they look like. I have always battled my weight, and I am still considered overweight, but as soon as I decided my body was just fine I became inspired to start taking better care of it. Perhaps when we feel better about ourselves, health and fitness is not such a chore?
Fat acceptance is not about eating like crazy and gaining more weight. It´s about accepting and starting to love yourself no matter what, even then when you happen to be fat. Because mental health is also important.
Also:
1. http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.de/2006/11/obesity-paradox-1.html
2. http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.de/2006/11/say-it-isnt-so-part-two.html
Thanks for the links UNF. I agree that women who do not love themselves will probably not be on a track to better their health. So yes I see how fat acceptance, from that perspective, is actually vital.
This subject interests me greatly, as both a woman who struggles with some extra weight and as an educator whose heart breaks for obese young women. It’s a hard roe to hoe.
GagMe is so full of sh-t. Her dumb fans are some of the biggest bullies I’ve ever encountered.
God, I hate her. She’s way too pretentious and self centered for my taste.
Oh my GOD. This narcissist.
The only thing not fake about her are all those dead animals she loves to wear so much.
She must have gained at least 5 lbs in her lips. She is just so freakin fake! Used too like her but not anymore.
if she really care about her fans and herself she should get teraphy and once recovered she’ll be able to give a usefull message to “the world”.. posting pics of yourself in undies is pointless..
when you have a mental disorder -ED- your life stops..this disease destroys you physically and mentally.. and to me she looks perfectly fine.
While I think that she is full of shit and will get bored with the topic and will soon be teeny tiny again, I don’t necessarily think she has started something bad here.
This topic rresulted in a a conversation with my best girlfriend last night about body acceptance and how we need to not be so hard on ourselves. This is a good thing. Getting women talking is good. I have a few almost (if not already there) obese friends who are constantly on about bigger is beautiful and this and that and I think it’s good to be happy with who you are but it is not good to be unhealthy and being obese or damned close is not healthy. There is a fine line there between ‘chubby’ and ‘fat’; ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’. If that doesn’t get lost then we are golden.
The other unfortunate thing is that women are always hating on other women. Whether it is because they are prettier, skinner, have nicer skin, a nicer house, a nicer car, nicer clothes, etc. Somehow, someway we need to stop that too. LOL, hell I work in an office and wear heels and skirts and generally dress nicely and yesterday I had a girl (not quite a woman) yell out a car window at me that I was a skank! WTF? Because I likely was dressed better than her? I was shocked!
I have no issue calling a celeb full of crap if they claim to be a Size 4 when they are for sure no less than a Size 10 don’t get me wrong. But we are so critical of each other and ourselves. Something has to stop. We can’t keep going on like this!
Oh jesus, people.
She posted photos of herself with acne on her butt. Sure she sucked in her gut but overall the effort was pretty raw. I would NEVER post photos of myself with zits all over my butt, that’s bravery, lol.
She is what she is. She’s definitely a narcissist, but I think within the framework of her narcissism–which will probably persist throughout her life no matter what she does–she’s trying to do a good thing. Why does everyone have to be so incredibly judgmental? I swear, I would never be able to stay sober or have a decent life if I had remained that judgmental.
Without splitting hairs or resorting to slippery slope, tell me how Lady Gaga launching a slightly vapid but mostly good-intentioned campaign against body shaming really going to hurt anyone?
And anyone who says her weight gain and current shape actually fit with the “standard of beauty” promoted by the media is daft. She looks fine to me, but the media does not agree. The media does not tolerate even 10 extra pounds of weight or a person being more than a size 2. I’m a size 4 to 6 depending on the month, and I do not see my body type represented much in the media. I used to be a size 12 at one point and definitely felt entirely inadequate and ostracized when I turned on the television or read a magazine. But I still recognize that Gaga’s body in its current form is going to draw ridiculous criticism from tabloids and probably her studio. So while yes, she is on the very low side of “chubby” if even, that makes her kind of a perfect person to stand up against these extreme and unrealistic body standards we see so often. If even a person of her size can’t catch a break, who can? I can’t tell you how much it hurts when even at my relatively small and OK size, I am told I’m chubby.
“Without splitting hairs or resorting to slippery slope, tell me how Lady Gaga launching a slightly vapid but mostly good-intentioned campaign against body shaming really going to hurt anyone?”
I guess it depends on your interpretation. What you see as “well-intentioned”, many of us see as “calculating”.
What you see as “brave” many of us see as “disingenuine”, ESPECIALLY based on what her fanbase has said about Adele.
For those of us who have truly suffered from an ED (not sure if Gaga has or hasn’t), exploiting diseases like anorexia and bulemia when it suits one’s agenda is rather insulting.
I’m just curious as to what she’ll do when she drops the weight-because you know she will. Will she discuss her weight loss and post pics of herself half-naked with the words “bulemic and anorexic since I was 15”? Do you see what I’m getting at? She’s invoking the names of serious diseases to shame people for criticizing her instead of putting the focus on her being healthy and happy at her current weight.
If she wanted to silence the critics she should have tweeted a pic of herself eating pasta at her dad’s restaurant with the caption “F*ck you”. That’s what I would have done 😉
I love your last paragraph.
word.
🙂
Agree eve, marie, jill and what a great phrase lou “commodify victimhood” What we would we expect from a corporate created pop tart. But everything else aside the problem is that what she has made her millions on, her music, is CRAP period. Again, i’m a little older the great bands/artists of the past – zeppelin,queen, Grand Funk Railroad, micheal, donna summer, etc.etc., – didn’t do any of this because their music sold itself, they had stature, aura, talent, genuine respect, gaggles has none of those, There was a recent article in the USA today about cover/tribute bands/performers for the likes of Zeppelin and the King of POP, she’ll be forgotten in 20 yrs.
If her music were truly outstanding it would stand on it’s own it isn’t and instead we get this jejune drivel from a spoiled narcissist. END of Rant. BTW, does she have a cd in the offing? Of course.
To me – this was the most inspiring site… and it’s been around a while. It helped me understand what I ‘really’ look like. It helped me understand what these celebrities probably really weigh. It was a reality check and I frequently pop back to it when I’m feeling *fat*
http://www.mybodygallery.com/
That is really, really cool!
I’m on there. From a year ago when I was 15 pounds heavier. It is a great site.
She IS full of shit.
But I’m glad these things are being discussed, they are serious issue and everybody should acknowledge them.
Can’t help but laugh at how her fans will do ANYTHING she asks, simply because she asks, and they don’t do it until she does. They are such SHEEP!
Yep. Walking blindly into the monster-filled wilderness.
Full of shit, riding the wave. Just last month she wrote an article about the importance of getting manicures, in which she stated “know that I am judging you by your cuticles”. How very freeing.
She looks like cyclops from x-men in the first pic
It’s not inspiring – its just a ploy to shame ‘bond’ her fans to her. If they identify with her body shaming victim status, they can’t distance themselves from her latest hypocritical PR stance which is always about exploiting people’s sympathy. The trademark of a narcissist.
This whole thing has been especially interesting to me, seeing as (up until recently), I was very tiny naturally, never had to worry about exercise or what I ate, still stuck close to a size 0-2.
But recently I started taking some antidepressant meds that caused me to gain 25lbs, then 15lbs more. Gaga DID NOT gain even 15lbs. But it’s been difficult for me to adjust to, & I’m only now understanding how weight can effect one’s self esteem so badly.
Yes, Gaga is totally FOS, no doubt about it, & she has a talent for BSing particularly gullible people into believing it’s all some sort of ‘plan’ on her part to show the ‘world’ a better way.
But if her nonsense helped even ONE person… Then I can see some good in it. Just not because of her, but the real message others brought to it.