Amy Love

Opinions Editor

aml7458@psu.edu

Beginning with a birthday post from Adele herself, the talk surrounding her weight loss has been ongoing for months. She posted a photo of herself on Instagram in May 2020, and has recently shared her feelings toward the responses she has received. She addressed this during the CBS special “Adele One Night Only,” which included an interview with Oprah Winfrey. 

Winfrey began this conversation by asking Adele how she handled the backlash. In response to her photo, people began to speculate on why she lost the weight, the majority making up their own answers. Headlines were spun out of proportion; there was talk of the alleged diet she did and how you should try it too. CNN even released an article trying to draw inspiration from her journey, passing it onto individuals who were locked inside their house during quarantine. 

Adele was not shocked by this. She responded to Winfrey’s question by saying, “I’m not shocked or even fazed by it, because my body has been objectified my whole career.” She also goes on to say that she’s “either too big or I’m either too small. I’m either hot or It’s either not, whatever.” 

Her body has been the main talk of her career, even this story is blatantly discussing her body. Despite that fact, the artist has an extremely successful music career, having won a total of fifteen Grammys. Yet, her body has been the main focus of discussion, not her voice or her talent. She even released her new album “30” last November, but here we are, still discussing her body. 

This time is a bit different because Adele is sparking this conversation herself. She admits that she did lose 100 pounds, but testifies that it was not intentional. In the interview, she continues to emphasize that she did not intentionally lose weight because she was unhappy with her body. She continued to offer an explanation of how she lost weight, and it was essentially an after effect of her taking care of her mental health.

In 2019, Adele experienced a divocre that, understandably, made her go through a rough time mentally. She explained that exercise helped her deal with her anxiety, as well as giving her structure and centeredness. It helped give her stability while dealing with her divroce. 

Adele also discusses how some people were upset that she lost weight. She struggled to wrap her head around the fact that she let people down by losing weight. She responds by saying that “it’s not my job to validate how people feel about their bodies.” She goes on to say that she “feels bad that it made anyone feel horrible about themselves, but that’s not my job. I’m just trying to sort my own life out. I can’t add another worry.”

She has every right to feel this way. It’s not her job to make others feel better. Her job is to be an artist. She never took on the role to be a body role-model; people put her on a pedestal for that. Of course, there are not that many plus-sized artists in the mainstream who are common role models. Those that are in the mainstream often get set as role models as default, whether they want the role or not. 

That fact does not mean that strangers should get to police the body sizes of anyone, whether they are role models for dy positivity or not. It’s their body, and they should be able to make lifestyle adjustments as they please. Everyone should support each other, and that includes allowing others to choose the decisions they do with their bodies. This should all be done free of judgement. 

Adele is not the only celebrity who experienced backlash surrounding her body changing. For instance, it happened with Lizzo. In 2020, Lizzo shared on Instagram a ten-day smoothie detox. There were mixed reactions from the public, but one tweet stood out to me. From @lofeoftaxxa, who said “Lizzo, a plus-sized goddess who I considered my body confident role model, is now promoting detox smoothie diets on ig and I feel so betrayed.” 

Lizzo had to defend herself, as did Adele, to explain why she lost weight. She had to explain why she was doing this to millions of strangers, even when it is clearly none of their business. She is allowed to do what she pleases since it is her own body.

 Bodies change, intentional or not; it is all a part of life. It just needs to be accepted and supported, and no one should bring down others because of it. It is one of the feelings most people have experienced in their life, and so we all should know better to not discuss others’ bodies in this context.