13 Times The Media Brainwashed Us Into Thinking These '00s Celebs And Characters Were "Fat"

The toxic beauty ideals of the 2000s were horrendous.

Looking back at the 2000s is wild. So much of that time period is characterised by body shaming, fatphobia, diet culture and toxic beauty ideals that were projected onto female celebrities and then, in turn, passed down to young, impressionable minds.

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Celebrities who looked perfectly fine were heckled for being "flabby", "jumbo-sized" and "obese" — and the thing is, we believed the headlines the media ran because we had been brainwashed into thinking that anything bigger than a size 10 was scandalous.

Twitter: @clhubes

Inspired by Caroline Moss's viral tweet, which has kickstarted a conversation around the toxic body image issues of the 2000s, here are some examples of celebrities and characters that we, as millennials, were influenced into thinking were fat — when in reality, they were anything but.

@CarolineMoss / Twitter

1. Renée Zellweger during the release of the Bridget Jones's Diaries films.

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While Bridget Jones's Diary is no doubt a fun movie, much of it is preoccupied with Bridget's weight. The film is filled with fat jokes that poke fun at Bridget, inferring that she's overweight — even though she's meant to weigh between 125-130 pounds (57-59kg). Much of the media storm surrounding the first movie and its sequels also centred on Renée Zellweger gaining 30 pounds (14kg) to portray Bridget. To this day, I still cannot believe that we were told — and believed — that Bridget Jones, and by extension Renée Zellweger — was fat.

2. Jennifer Lawrence during the release of The Hunger Games films.

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In December 2012, Jennifer Lawrence told Elle Magazine, "In Hollywood, I’m obese. I'm considered a fat actress." She followed up these comments in an interview with Harper's Bazaar, where she admitted she had been told to lose weight. "Somebody told me I was fat, that I was going to get fired if I didn't lose a certain amount of weight. They brought in pictures of me where I was basically naked, and told me to use them as motivation for my diet."

As pointed out by @criminalplaza, the actor was also constantly asked about her body and eating habits — as a result of being called "too big" to play Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games — which led to her being labelled as the "actress who loves to eat". Looking back and seeing what society's definition of "too big" was is horrific.

3. Kate Winslet during the release of Titanic.

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In response to Caroline Moss' tweet, @britneyqueers_ pointed out how supposed fans of the film body-shamed Kate Winslet following the release of Titanic in 1997. It wasn't just fans who made fun of Kate's supposed "fatness" though, with director James Cameron famously using the nickname "Kate Weighs-a-lot" to refer to the actor.

In 2022, Kate spoke about the "borderline abusive" body-shaming she received at the time, saying, "Apparently, I was too fat. Why were they so mean to me? They were so mean. I wasn't even fucking fat. I would have said to journalists, I would have responded, I would have said, 'Don't you dare treat me like this. I'm a young woman, my body is changing, I'm figuring it out, I'm deeply insecure, I'm terrified, don't make this any harder than it already is.' That's bullying, you know, and actually borderline abusive, I would say."

4. America Ferrera during the release of Ugly Betty.

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The whole premise of Ugly Betty centred on this frumpy, fat girl who has somehow stumbled upon the illustrious world of publishing and magazines. While the attitudes towards Betty change as her co-workers start to realise what a kind-hearted person she is, the one thing that doesn't is the number of fat jokes hurled at her. The thing is Betty — and by extension, America Ferrera — was not fat or ugly by a long mile. She just wasn't pretty by society's standards, really.

5. And also The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.

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America also starred as Carmen Lowell in The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, which involves a pair of jeans that magically fit four best friends. During the movie, her fatness was implied with lines like "You think that a pair of jeans that fits all of you is gonna fit all of this?" But once again, neither Carmen or America were "fat" — they just had a different body shape than what was considered desirable in the 2000s.

6. Britney Spears during her performance at the 2007 VMAs.

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Although I remember the savage media headlines at the time, I cannot — for the life of me — think of a single argument as to why we collectively thought that Britney Spears looked fat during this performance. Yes, she is wearing a revealing outfit that leaves no room to hide, but the fact of the matter is that she looks incredible — you can literally see how toned she is. Contextually, this was an important comeback performance for Britney, and both the media and general public tore her to shreds.

7. Jessica Simpson during a performance at the 99.9 Kiss Country Chili Cookoff in Florida.

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Out of all the examples on this list, this is the one that personally sticks out to me because I remember seeing these exact photos in a tabloid my mum had purchased. I loved Jessica's outfit — the cute jeans paired with the black tank top and accessorised with the leopard print belt that was perfectly on-trend back then. So, you can imagine my shock when 13-year-old Isha read that Jessica was being called "jumbo" in an outfit I loved. I was devastated because just seconds before I was wishing that I looked like Jessica. Growing up during the 2000s was so much fun, wasn't it?

Looking at these images now, it's laughable that Jessica was ridiculed for wearing "mum jeans" because those are the exact style of jeans that are considered fashionable now.

8. Nicole Richie being referred to as the "fat one" when photographed with her on-screen best friend Paris Hilton.

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The 2000s tabloids were obsessed with Nicole Richie's weight, beginning with her introduction in the reality TV show The Simple Life, in which she starred alongside Paris Hilton. Nicole was, of course, not fat, but the media immediately branded her as such — which led to all of us believing it too.

While promoting the first season, Nicole was even asked about how she felt being a "voluptuous woman".

9. Martine McCutcheon during the release of Love, Actually.

Toni Anne Barson Archive / WireImage, Universal Pictures

Love, Actually is — like many films released during the 2000s — a product of its time. In the storyline involving Martine McCutcheon, her character Natalie falls in love with the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) while working as his secretary. Throughout the film, Natalie is subjected to several digs about her weight, where she's referred to as having "thighs the size of tree trunks", "plumpy" or "the chubby girl".

10. Tyra Banks being referred to as fat when she was photographed by paparazzi at the beach.

The CW

In 2007, Tyra Banks famously told her critics to "kiss my fat ass" after she was criticised for a series of paparazzi images that showed her wearing a one-piece swimsuit at the beach.  Like, just take a second to soak that up — the media sought to label Tyra as fat when she looked LIKE THIS. It's sad thinking that Tyra went through all of this, only to throw it back and fat-shame a number of America's Next Top Model contestants. 

11. Raven-Symoné during the release of That's So Raven.

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Even though Raven-Symoné was just 15 years old when she landed the leading role in That's So Raven, she was constantly reminded about her weight and given notes on what she could and could not eat. It's so upsetting to think that as a child whose body was still developing, Raven was subjected to the horrific body image ideals of the 2000s. These attitudes then trickled down to the fans watching — I remember schoolyard conversations and Raven was seen as "curvy" or on the "bigger side".

In a recent interview, Raven spoke about the fat-shaming she received as a kid and said, "I look back and I wasn't even fat. I'm so confused."

12. Jennifer Stone during the release of Wizards Of Waverly Place.

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Similar to Raven, Jennifer Stone landed the role of Harper while she was still a young teenager. She was quickly typecast as "the funny, fat friend" and was subjected to a number of hateful comments throughout her career that fat-shamed her. Jennifer goes into more detail about her experience on the Wizards Of Waverly Pod, which she co-hosts with David Deluise.

13. And lastly, Anne Hathaway during the release of The Devil Wears Prada.

20th Century Fox

In a scene from The Devil Wears Prada, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) admits that she took a chance hiring "the smart, fat girl" in reference to Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway). In fact, all throughout the film, Andy is referred to as someone with whale-sized proportions, when she has a perfectly normal body. The film is more of a dig at the toxicity present in the fashion world, but an impressionable young person watching would instantly feel bad at their normal-sized body being ridiculed like this.

What other toxic, fat-phobic moments from the '00s still haunt you? Let's heal together in the comments.