20 Times Famous Women Were Ruthlessly Body-Shamed By The Media

Rihanna deserves an apology.

It's no secret that celebrities (especially female celebrities) are intensely scrutinized for their looks.

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So we asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about female celebrities who were body-shamed by the media. Here's what they had to say:

Note: Some submissions include discussions about eating disorders.

1. Christina Aguilera

Dave J Hogan / Getty Images / Daily Mail / News24

"She gained weight during each of her pregnancies, and the press treated it like a moral failing when she didn't immediately snap back to her 'Genie in a Bottle' days. After her appearance at a Michael Jackson tribute concert, the press could not stop talking about her body and suggested alcohol was contributing to her 'messy' look, going so far as to publish the hotel bar bill for her entire team. Oh, and her feud with Kelly Osborne was raging at the time; Kelly was on Fashion Police and called Christina a 'fat bitch' and worse."

—chelseajack

2. Zendaya

Steve Granitz / WireImage / Getty Images

"Back at the 2015 Oscars, Giuliana Rancic from Fashion Police infamously said that Zendaya’s locs made her look like she smelled like patchouli oil and weed. So ridiculous! 

"When you think of body-shaming, hair might not be the first thing that comes to mind, but I think it’s an important part of this discussion. Black women have continually been shamed for their hair, whether it’s in school, in the workplace, or on the red carpet."

—sweetpeaprincess

3. Britney Spears

Kevin Winter / Getty Images / Today

"When Britney did the first performance after her breakdown, I vividly remember the phrasing that she had ‘ballooned to a size 10.’ BALLOONED to a SIZE 10!!!! I wrote and complained about how those words could have a devastating effect on the young and impressionable girls who would be reading it, but I never got a response."

—Kp

"Britney even calls people out for it in 'Piece of Me,' singing, 'I’m Mrs. She’s Too Big Now She’s Too Thin.'”

—Belleyre

4. Taylor Swift

Netflix

"Taylor Swift was body-shamed before, when she was suffering from an eating disorder but didn't publicly state it. People said she looked 'sickly' and 'the kind of skinny that makes girls conscious.' Then, when she took a few years off and worked on herself, she was body-shamed again for gaining healthy weight during the Reputation era. She said that it affected her mental health, too."

—rishibhak

"Taylor also mentioned in her documentary that people speculated whether she was pregnant because her tummy stuck out a little. She said that started her downward spiral into her eating disorder. It’s horrifying what the media has done to her."

—rachrupp

5. Jessica Simpson

Page Six / Splash News

"Jessica got so much vitriol. She had curves, so she automatically got a lot more attention for her body rather than her incredible voice. Later, she gained a bit of weight, and every headline was focused on how she 'ballooned' and 'is out of shape.'"

—movinonup319

6. Selena Gomez

Warner Bros.

"She was photographed at the beach in a bikini by the paparazzi, and everyone went nuts about how much weight she had gained. She has talked about how her chronic illness and her struggles with her mental health are responsible for her fluctuating weight, and I found it disturbing that she had to even explain why she had gained weight in the first place. Like, why are we putting people in a position where they have to give us an explanation for their weight? That is so messed up and rude."

—freyagabes

7. Victoria Beckham

Metro / Anthony Harvey / Getty Images

"I once read and photographed this short article in the Metro (London):

"'Victoria Beckham’s worst fears have come true as she has joined the wrinkly hand club — which also includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Courteney Cox, and Madonna. The 39-year-old surprised onlookers at the Vogue Festival in London on Sunday when she exposed her withered fingers as she adjusted her designer shades. The immaculately turned out Posh showed that style can’t stop the aging process as she joins fellow A Listers in the aged finger club.'

"Notice how no men are part of the 'wrinkly hand club'? What is the exact point of this article? To shame women for having hands and for the natural process of aging? Who writes this bullying, toxic garbage?"

—larasaur

8. Cameron Diaz

Stuart C. Wilson / Getty Images

"As a young teen, I vividly remember seeing some random magazine cover with a picture of Cameron Diaz wearing a bikini, bent double, so OBVIOUSLY her skin was rolling up around her belly. God knows how long they had to wait for her to contort herself into a position where she looked like she had belly fat. The headline said something like 'Maybe Those Fat Rolls Are What Chased Justin Away.' It's at least 15 years later, but I still remember that stupid tabloid headline every time I lean down to tie my shoes and get the little roly-poly. 

"Not only were they trying to shame a woman for having fat on her body, but they were saying it about one of the slimmest celebrities around, AND insinuating that having fat on your body would 'chase away' your boyfriend."

—RebeccaFitz

9. Rihanna

Barstool Sports / Daily Mail / Robert Kamau/ GC Images / Getty Images

"Rihanna is consistently body-shamed because her forehead is 'too big.'"

—kymwitmer

Rihanna has also been fat-shamed, despite looking gorgeous at every weight. Back in 2017, a sports journalist wrote the now-infamous article titled, 'Is Rihanna Going to Make Being Fat the Hot New Trend?' The queen of calling people out put the writer in his place with the perfect meme, but RiRi shouldn't have had to deal with the body-shaming in the first place.

10. Sarah Jessica Parker

Michael Loccisano / Getty Images / 20th Television

"People have been making jokes for years about how she’s aged, that she looks like a witch, that she looks like a 'horse,' etc., to the point that she became a punchline on both Family Guy and South Park."

—janedoe18273719273

11. Michelle Obama

Fox News

"I just remembered that some guy on Fox News said that goddess Michelle Obama could do with 'losing a few pounds' when she was promoting healthy eating in schools. Nearly punched the wall."

—Clothilde

12. Kelly Clarkson

Fox / Getty Images / Star Magazine

"The one that instantly came into my mind is Kelly Clarkson, who was body-shamed so much when she gained weight during her pregnancy. Body-shaming is bad, but body-shaming a pregnant woman is horrible."

—Shahbano Malik

13. Tyra Banks

Warner Bros.

"There was that infamous moment when Tyra Banks was blasted for gaining weight in the tabloids, where she was pictured in a bathing suit. She wore the same bathing suit on her show and called out the paparazzi for sitting and waiting for people's worst possible angles and profiting off them. It's disgusting that she was dragged for looking heavier — so what if she had gained weight? — but it's completely abhorrent to think that the paparazzi exploit women's bodies like that to make money."

—grundlefresch

14. Soleil Moon Frye

Hulu

"She was so body-shamed and inappropriately sexualized when she became a teenager that she got a breast reduction at 15! I was in my 20s at the time, and I remember it broke my heart the way they wrote/talked about her. 'Punky Boobster.' Disgusting, as if having big breasts somehow made her a 'bad person, a dummy, or a slut.' They acted as if she’d done it on purpose to betray them. It was SICK."

—chrisa443ec9017

15. Alicia Silverstone

Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

"When she played Batgirl in Batman & Robin, the producers would call her 'Fatgirl.' She was criticized by the public as well, despite not being even remotely big."

—lovemma<3

16. Megan Fox

Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Images / The Dirty

"She was rudely shamed for her thumbs. I remember watching some celebrity entertainment 'news' show as a kid with my mom, and I was so confused when they said CGI was used for her thumbs in a commercial. 'Toe thumbs' is what they kept calling it. They were really shaming her for being born with brachydactyly."

—misspikachu

17. Kate Winslet

Gregg DeGuire / Getty Images / Daily Mail

"I rewatched Titanic recently and was absolutely enraged thinking back on how people were saying Kate was 'big' at the time. Feels like it was because she had breasts and was slightly curvy, when at the time, it was still popular to have the 'heroin chic' look."

—hozziebear

18. Jennifer Hudson

Jason Merritt / Getty Images / Daily Mail

Suggested by: purrvana

Jennifer was fat-shamed ruthlessly by the media until she lost weight. Then she was ridiculed and criticized for being too thin. Women can never win!

19. Madonna

Peter Noble / Redferns / Getty Images

"At the start of her career, there were comments about her being 'chubby.' She really wasn't; she had a young, round face, but her body was that of a hardworking dancer. It was utterly ridiculous."

—emmagedge65

20. And Finally, Scarlett Johansson

John Shearer / Getty Images / Pularazzi / FameFlynet / Backgrid / Celeb Dirty Laundry

"Several years ago, a tabloid published a bikini photo of her, obviously captured from a distance, and she had her back to the camera. They were saying how lumpy, fat, and out of shape she was, that she was 'covered in cellulite' and 'over the hill.' It was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever read. Apart from the fact that writing something like that about ANYONE should be illegal, it was moronic because her body is widely considered phenomenal. Just bizarre, stupid, and shameful."

—Glitterycheerios

Have you ever been body-shamed? Share your experience in the comments below.

Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.