Sigh. I thought (albeit somewhat naively) that we had agreed to leave body shaming in 2022, but alas, new pictures published of Selena Gomez in her bikini prove that not everyone got the memo.
The singer, 30, has been on holiday in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz, and the friends were enjoying a yacht trip where Selena was snapped in her swimsuit. Pop-culture Twitter account @PopBase posted two photos alongside the caption: “Selena Gomez looks gorgeous as she poses for paparazzi in Cabo.” So far, so good, right?
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Enter the comment section, where Twitter users casually weighed in with their thoughts on the singer’s body. “She gotta lose some weight she looking tubby,” one wrote, while another read: “Wow, pack on the pounds or what.” Someone even wrote: “OH SHES HUGEE”, and an arguably particularly hurtful comment said: “The pop girlie who’s aging the worst, I fear [sic].”
It strikes me as so sad that we continue to cling to this collective preoccupation with appearance and, to be more specific, weight. We're still so obsessed with people’s size – and why? We have all seen enough body-positive quotes on Instagram now to know that our weight should be the least interesting thing about us. Yet it continues to fascinate…
When you have chronic pain, your physical form can feel like a stranger.
Maybe this isn’t such a surprise, though: we’ve lived in a society riddled with diet culture for decades. Our parents, our grandparents and even our great-grandparents were taught to fear fatness and glorify thinness. They were conditioned to believe that thinness was the best thing a human could achieve – and this false belief has yet to abate significantly until recent years, when body positivity hit the mainstream. But even still, this deep-rooted belief system cannot be dismantled overnight.
So it makes sense, but it’s still sad. And it doesn’t justify the cruel comments on other people’s bodies. Unfortunately, Selena is no stranger to commentary on her weight, and she’s found herself at the centre of many conversations about her body during her time in the spotlight.
In December, the star responded to a viral TikTok analysing her weight. The video showed photos of Selena during her relationship with Justin Bieber, and the caption read: “The reason why Selena is always skinny when dating Justin.” This was followed by a screenshot of an Instagram comment reply Selena reportedly left where she referenced Justin’s preference for being with models over her: “no love. He’d rather models. I’m just too normal.”
Selena left a sad emoji underneath the video, with many speculating that it was her way of showing disappointment that her weight was – yet again – a topic of conversation.
The actress recently opened up to GLAMOUR about the impact of this relentless scrutiny of her body in an interview:
“It’s hard to feel comfortable when you feel like everyone is watching, judging and commenting on the way you look,” she said. “From the time I can remember, I’ve always felt like I had to be perfect or look a certain way. It took me a long time to realise that I only wanted to be myself – that what made me unique was also what made me beautiful.”
A TikTok story posted in April of last year by the star also touched on this but ended with a message of resilience. “So I’ve been trying to stay skinny,” she said, “but I went to Jack in the Box and I got four tacos, three egg rolls, onion rings and a spicy chicken sandwich.”
She added: “But honestly, I don’t care about my weight because people bitch about it anyway. ‘You’re too small’, ‘you’re too big’, ‘that doesn’t fit.’ Bitch, I am perfect the way I am.”
YES, SELENA, YES YOU ARE.
Rare insight into Selena’s real beauty stash.
