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

Rihanna deserves an apology.

Morgan Sloss
by Morgan Sloss

BuzzFeed Staff

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

VH1

So we recently 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. Britney Spears

Britney Spears wears a sparkly bikini with the words, "Lard and Clear is cruel headline in New York Post"
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."

—silentword

"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

2. Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift saying that her disordered eating is triggered by pictures where her stomach looks a little big or comments that she looks pregnant
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

3. Jessica Simpson

An article with the image of Jessica Simpson waving at a concert, and the headline: Jumbo Jessica Simpson Packin' On The Pounds
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

4. Tyra Banks

Tyra Banks wearing a bathing suit and talking on her show, with a picture of her in the same bathing suit at an unflattering angle on the screen behind her
Warner Bros.

"There was that infamous moment Tyra 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 exploits women's bodies like that to make money."

–grundlefresch

5. 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?"

—laraevalinehayes

6. Christina Aguilera

An article saying Christina Aguilera is wearing clothes unflattering to her very curvy figure, and
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

7. Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker smiling, a screenshot of Family Guy where a horse introduces itself as Jessica
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

8. Michelle Obama

A talk show host saying that Michelle Obama needs to drop a few pounds
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."

—clothildedauphin

9. Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Clarkson sings into a mic, and the headlines about her "yoyo weight nightmare" and "massive amount of weight"
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."

—s4bb472acb

10. Megan Fox

Megan Fox biting her thumb, and the headline "Megan Fox's Chode Thumbs"
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

11. Rihanna

A tweet asking, "Is Rihanna going to make being fat the hot new trend?" and a picture of her walking
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.

12. Soleil Moon Frye

Soleil saying that men treated her like a woman instead of a 13-year-old, and that people called her Punky Boobster
Hulu

"She was so body-shamed and inappropriately sexualized when she became a teenager that she got a breast reduction at FIFTEEN. I was in my twenties 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

13. Kate Winslet

Kate Winslet grinning and the headline "Curse of the Curvy Bottom"
Gregg DeGuire / Getty Images / Daily Mail

"I rewatched Titanic recently and was absolutely enraged thinking back on people 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

14. Jennifer Hudson

Jennifer Hudson smiling and the headline "Now she's TOO thin"
Jason Merritt / Getty Images / Daily Mail

—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!

15. And finally, Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett smiling, and a paparazzi pic of her from behind in a bikini
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

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