chunky me 1983. getting @officialsting autograph backstage. cut to… pic.twitter.com/Uj1dmN9GPL
— Gwen Stefani (@gwenstefani) February 2, 2014
Gwen Stefani, 44, recently tweeted the above photo, an awesome picture of her in 1983 getting Sting’s autograph. I thought that was Billy Idol at first! I love that photo so much. It’s got Sting looking like a badass on a motorcycle, a dude wearing bowling shoes, and Gwen, 14 years old and sporting an asymmetric haircut. (I had one at that age too!) Only people are up in arms over the fact that Gwen called herself “chunky” in that photo. People tweeted responses like the following: [via Huffington Post]
@kategoesboom @gwenstefani I totally agree. She is about a size 4 and that is a bad way to set expectations for other girls.
— Colleen Woods Heikka (@colleen6339) February 5, 2014
Yahoo! has an editorial with this perspective, writing in part that “If Stefani—indisputable rock star who was once voted as having the ‘most inspirational mid-riff,’ accomplished business woman, and mother of two gorgeous boys with one on the way—is still cringing over her perceived baby fat from when she was 14, well, that bums us out.”
I don’t see it that way. Even my skinniest friends say they eat too much or complain that they’ve gained weight, and honestly it makes me feel better about my more average size. I don’t think they’re full of it, I know that’s real to them, and I know that whatever size we are, many of us tend find fault with our bodies. People are often more critical of themselves than they are of others. To me that’s normal, and Gwen is talking about herself, not anyone else. Just because she thinks that she was “chunky” as a teen, that doesn’t mean she sees other women that size and thinks the same.
Here’s a photo that Gwen recently posted on Twitter of her growing bump. She looks tiny otherwise, but this photo is angled really weird too. She looks like she’s due in a few weeks, right?
bump it #allblack #inappropriateshoes #capturethemoment #miracle gx pic.twitter.com/HHrJmx9mdj
— Gwen Stefani (@gwenstefani) January 21, 2014
Gwen is shown out in January and earlier this month. Her style game is always so high. Credit: FameFlynet and WENN.com
OMG, now we are not to comment about our own perceptions of ourselves? Good Lord! This world is going mad.
+1
+2
ITA…she was joking and now people are freaking out about it? Give me a break. I can look at old pics of myself and go “Lord, I was a hot mess” and it’s just a little joke. Everyone needs to take a breath and relax.
@LADYMTL you were never a “hot mess” you have always been “perfect” Now repeat that three times daily LOL
LadyMTL, that’s totes irresponsible of you to say, think of all the women who are actual hot messes that will be reading your comment and be all like, ‘But… but… I’m a hot mess NOW!’ You have too many women looking up to you to even vaguely suggest that you are anything less than enraptured with every look you sported in your teens.
Seriously, people need to chill. I’m a little self-deprecating so I make comments like that too, only I’m not on Twitter for the world to hear, thank god.
Same here. They would rip me to pieces with my auto-irony and constantly self-depreciating comments. Now we even condemn the fun we poke at our own expense? Sheesh, some people are overreacting big time…
Good grief! She can call herself chunky if she wants to. If that bothers you then get to a gym and control your portions. Then you won’t be making comments about someone being “chunky” because it won’t apply to you anymore.
Yeah, I’m usually on the side of “if it offends or hurts someone, don’t say it,” or I try to be, but really, it’s getting ridiculous.
For real. Gwen has notorious body issues, and even writes songs about it sometimes. I wish people would stop skewering famous women for not being the role model they want for their daughters. There are like 100 million mothers in this country. Nobody can please them all.
I agree. Be your own role model!! Make a decision about how you want to live and what kind of person YOU want to be — and then do it! Don’t go through life looking around for other people’s behaviors to “model”.
Could not agree more. I’m sick of this “role model” culture the Mommy Brigade pushes on celebs. Be your own kid’s role model and stop trying to make celebrities lie to fit your agenda. Gwen has said numerous times she had a fat complex as a kid and still has it to this day. It does no good to try and force her to pretend she’s cool with her body just so she fits an ideal. Nobody is ideal, we all have hang-ups and this role model business strikes me as a cop-out.
She’s also been out front about how she hates to go without makeup and she is NEVER without it even around her husband. Even around her husband she can’t relax. Well, I’m sure she washes it off at night and he sees her obviously, but I get the feeling she hates that he has to see her without makeup even for bed time. She’s being honest about her displeasure with her face and body, and she corrects her own problem by wearing cosmetics and working out. Doing those things makes her feel BETTER about herself and that’s fine by me. If anyone should be a role model it would be people like Gwen who are HONEST about having the same feelings the rest of us have.
Well said, Maureen. I’ve always found Gwen so accessible, if not relatable because she doesn’t act like she’s above her insecurities or try and hide them. At a certain point it’s okay to just accept what you’re hung up on, rather than deny it.
I remember reading an interview of hers when I was 15, where she admitted she has lots of fat days, never goes 2 weeks without bleaching her roots, and the makeup thing like you said (this was before Gavin). As an overweight teenager, I went ‘wow, so even skinny girls have fat days?’ My mother, also overweight, unintentionally made me think everything would be better for us if we were just thin, and that was the first time I realized that there was more to it.
Going mad? That ship has sailed already. Now we have to be PC in what we say about ourselves? Enough.
Exactly! Fact is, she WAS chunky. She can say whatever she wants about her 14 year old self. And whoever said that that pic of her at 14 has her at about a size 4 is dillusional. That is in no way a size 4. People! Please stop lying about sizes to make yourself feel better about your own size. She’s about a size 4 now! well, minus little baby in there. If anything, it’s good for young girls to see that what you look like in your teens is not necessarily the way you’re always going to look. BTW, Sting was and still is the Bomb!
The Thought Police will always tell you what to think.
Won’t it be just great when we don’t have to do any thinking for ourselves anymore? 🙄
+ a million, bazillion!
P.S. She WAS chunky but not as bad as the dude with the mismatched bowling shoes and fucked up blue socks, LOL! I had forgotten we used to do that back in the 80s. Starting to miss my freshman year of high school, LOL!
Totally agree, this is getting way overboard. People should be able to comment about themselves free from the hangups of other people, a line has to be drawn somewhere. When do other people start taking responsibility for their own self-image?
+1
Haha! I was about to go off but you said it first. Nobody is going to tell me what to say about my own body! Jeez.
I know – totally. So ridiculous. And why assume that the word ‘chunky’ is so insulting anyway.
Just an aside here – I think the shorts she has on alone are the issue. Pleat-front shorts were the worst!
I don’t think anyone can say anything anymore without someone getting offended and/or the internet police slamming them.
pretty close to accurate. there is always someone ready to take issue with something or take issue with the fact issue was taken.
+1
I look at photos of my 14 yr old self and think “awkward stick figure” and “damn, that haircut did me no favors”. But I guess that could be offensive to underweight, flat chested girls and people with bobbed haircuts and unfortunate bangs. It didn’t look good on me.
I see pics of me when I was 14 and all I see is gangly legs, freckles, and too uneven red hair with bad bangs. And slightly bucked teeth. I was a bit unfortunate looking between the ages of 12 and 15.
Same here! Overbite and braces. It was rough! Thank god I finally grew into all of those limbs. By my late teens, my hair grew out, I ditched the horrible bangs and those long legs became my best asset. Go figure.
I still tried everything to fade my freckles though. It took a long time to embrace them. Now that I’m almost 40, I’m loving those freckles – they shave at least five years off a face. 🙂
This just about couldn’t be more absurd. It’s time people stopped ordering everyone else to be their perfect role model and just role-modeled their own damn selves.
haha great post! 🙂
But she WAS chunky! People are so ridiculous. If she wants to call her teenage self chunky, what does that have to do with anyone else and their perceptions of themselves? Anyway, she looks cute in that photo.
Yep she was chubby and Sting looked like Billy Idol
yes thank you! she was a little chunky…nothing wrong about that and she has every right to call herself that.
Agreed. For 14, she does look to be a little chunky. Not a big deal. It’s not like she’s calling herself a fat cow, or dosgusting, or anything negative. She was a little chunky at 14, same as a lot of girls are beanpoles at 14. It’s an awful time for development and I’d be hard pressed to find ANY photos of me looking decent at 14!
She does look chunkier in that old photo compared to her now. I don’t see the big problem in that.
Maybe these people should get on Kelly Ripa’s case. She’s the one always complaining about her body even though she’s a gym nut.
Yes – Exactly!
Yes & yes. I’ve turned the channel so many times when Kelly starts her ‘fat’ talk. It’s annoying. One day she’s calling herself fat then the next she’s telling everyone how her 12 year old daughter’s skirts are too big on her.
Since when are people no longer allowed to insult their own old self? Whenever I see pics of myself when I was eighteen, I refer to myself as a ‘dumb naive bitch’. She probably meant it as a joke anyway.
ROFLMAO!!!!! oh my God, that made me laugh out loud!!!
A lot of us go through a period of “chunkyness” as young teens and it’s fine and normal. She posted the photo so she’s obviously not ashamed of it. Don’t really get why people are slamming her for calling a spade a spade.
She can call herself whatever the h*ll she wants. PC thought has moved into the realm of the absurd. At some point we have to give people the benefit of the doubt…Gwen is a good role model is so many ways. Do they have to be called out over every little perceived trangression?
She did nothing wrong, and those who are editorializing it and wringing their hands over girls body image because Gwen called herself “chunky” are Reeeeeeeeeeeeally reaching here.
ITA!
Freedom of speech only applies to their own freedom, apparently.
If she has to issue an apology for this, I’ll spit.
Seriously!!! I will actually find it more offensive if she has to apologize to these zealots for calling herself chunky. I guess I’m offended by the people who were *originally* offended. So there over-sensitive, easily offended thought police people! YOU are now offensive.
Ha. Take that.
*stomps off in a huff*
It’s her body. If she thinks she looked chunky that’s her opinion. She has every right to critique her own body. People are so quick to be offended now.
She looks chunky in that photo to me! You dont even want to see my 14 year old photos… dear lord.
I wish I had pics of me from 14 to post handy. It would make everyone laugh.
She WAS a little chunky in that picture. She looks absolutely fantastic these days and works hard to maintain her figure. She’s obviously happy with her body. This isn’t a case of someone else posting the picture and saying, “Look how chunky Gwen Stefani was! Ew!” It’s HER picture, HER body, and HER opinion. I swear, people get offended by just about anything.
Ever since I read about her once losing her shit completely when she could not fit into a 00, I’m kinda weirded out by her.
Me too. I think she mentioned that in the same interview where she said fitting into couture was more important than eating. As someone who has struggled with an eating dosorder, I lost all respect for her then.
Yep, she said those things more than once. She has a right to call herself chunky if she wants, but I do wish she wouldn’t, since it sounds bad when combined with all of her other statements about her negative body image.
Yes! That was the one. I don’t care if she criticizes her 14 year old self at all but that in light of all the other sh-t she’s more or less said, such as stuff like: ‘Wearing pretty clothes is more important to me than eating food.’ ‘I wear makeup for my husband because he insists and I never don’t wear it in public.’ ‘I am compulsive about exercise, what I eat..’ she just kind of repulses me.
People shouldn’t idolize celebrities to the point that if they call themselves chunky in a picture from 1983, gets them upset. People are entitled to their own opinion, especially of themselves.
That’s what I was thinking – people get worked up over the strangest things.
I thought that was Spike from the Buffy days.
Mouahahahaha. So true!
Not only did Billy Idol steal his look, but Sting did as well.
I hope you’re joking, considering that Sting, and Billy started rocking this look and been famous since the late 70’s – early 80’s. lol
@prayforthewild – Yes, it’s a joke. It’s a reference to a line from the series. Someone calls Spike a Billy Idol wannabe, and Buffy says that Billy actually stole his look from Spike.
🙂
LOL! Okay, I was like, “Am I in the Twilight Zone that because seems backward…” I should have know better but I never did get too into Buffy. 🙂
As someone who spent her teenage years fat, I hated when my skinny friends complained about getting fat. It definitely didn’t make me feel better.
I always did that and my friend hated it.
All I know is, Gwen has looked absolutely fabulous with this pregnancy….really beautiful and stylish…if Kim K ever gets preggo again, she should go to Gwen for dressing pointers, not Kanye!
Oh, come on now. It’s not as easy to dress someone who is built like Kim and who gained a lot of weight as it is to dress someone like Gwen who gained very little.
true…but Kim did herself no favors with the super tight, horrible outfits she wore…I’m sure with all her and Kanye’s money, she could have bought some adorable outfits that would have flattered her size…
But Kim K didn’t do herself any favors, either. She insists on wearing things that don’t fit/flatter her.
And Gwen doesn’t have fat injections that gained weight too.That’s what happened to Kim and she literally exploded.It was just not her horrible taste in dressing herself.Also her first husband said she has had lipo and you are never supposed to gain weight back because it comes back somewhere else. Gwen has looked fabulous with all her pregnancy’s.
Agreed, if Kim K had stepped out on that outfit in the last pictures while at her most pregnant it would have been a completely different look… and nowhere near for the better.
Gwen’s maternity style is f*cking awesome though. I want to steal it but I can’t even bring myself to Google ‘maternity leather pants’.
What do you expect from a vain, superficial woman who’s life revolves around her looks? Seriously no girls should look up to women like her, idolize someone who has some substance to them and isn’t so preoccupied with their appearance.
As much as I adore Stefani and her ‘look’ and her music and career, I do not look to her for positive body image.
She’s admitted being uncomfortable/unable to leave the house without makeup, she never has roots in her bleach-blonde hair even when she’s pregnant, she’s crazy about being thin and staying that way. it’s nothing new.
and that’s OK. She is her own person and she can treat herself however she wants.
But I think it’s up to us, as fans or non-fans, to be able to see that about celebrities. Just because you like their music or style or fashion line, doesn’t mean you have to do everything they do, doesn’t mean you have to have the same insecurities or beauty routines or attitudes they have.
I see why people are insecure seeing thin actresses and beautiful models, but at the same time you need to take responsibility for yourself and say “hey, this lady I adore is thin and blonde, and I like her, but that doesn’t mean I have to feel like shit because I don’t look exactly like her. She doesn’t exist to make me feel bad about myself, only I can do that”
Nicely said.
I agree with the responsibility aspect to an extant, but it is easier said then done when you are dealing with people with low self-esteem, distorted body image, and eating disorders. Young people dealing with these issue don’t look at this actresses and models say “unrealistic” they say “Why am I not like this, I am a fat, worthless cow until I am like X person”. That is a part of the mental illness aspect of it, and the media definitely puts that out there.
No famous person should be idolized, period. It’s fine to enjoy their talent. I agree when you say that young girls shouldn’t look up to her. I am reminded of something George Carlin said years ago referring to the hero worship of athletes, and how parents were pushing them as role models.
“If your kid needs a role model and you ain’t it, you’re both f#cked.” -George Carlin
Oh FFS, she can call herself what she wants. I hate Twitter..
She WAS chunky and she should be allowed to say it if she wants. Anyone else look at that picture from 1983 and think to themselves “that could be me”? Her hair, her shorts, her white sandals with the back strap – I believe I had that exact outfit in 1983. Love the guy with the bowling shoes too.
Did she get lip fillers?
She looks SO cute in that pregnant picture wearing all black.
I always thought she had some type of eating disorder cause there was a time where she looked gaunt like around 2004-5. She even admits to being an extreme dieter and exercise fanatic. Of course this behavior is typical of Hollywood and she’s been Hollywood for several years now.
Anyway I’ve been over Gwen Stefani ever since she used Japanese girls as props and that dumb No Doubt video that appropriates Native American culture.
Enough with the sanctimonious twitter patrol. She can call her 14 year old self chunky if she wants. I’ve been chunky. Dear God can we not say anything anymore without a bunch of self-proclaimed thought police sanitizing every innocent comment?
*BANGING HEAD ON DESK*
WARNING – judgment ahead: I loved her back in the 90’s, but her whole riot grrrl schtick went out the window when she started jacking with her face. she reminds me of Madonna and that’s not necessarily a good thing anymore.
Except that she never was part of the riot grrrl movement?! That were bands like L7, Bratmobile, Bikini Kill, The Butchies, Calamity Jane, Excuse 17, Fifth Column, Sleater-Kinney, etc.
That picture actually surprises me though. I’ve always thought of her as very slender and assumed it was her natural build.
I thought the same. Granted, people’s bodies can change over time, but the usual trend is for people to get heavier, not lighter, over time, especially after 2 pregnancies. This would suggest that Gwyn puts a huge amount of effort into maintaining her figure. Then again, as others have said, she does appear to be a very superficial person – admitting that she’ll never even let her husband see her without make up. Sounds like an exhausting lifestyle.
Seriously??? Now we can’t comment on our own looks??? What is wrong with people!! And for those saying that comments like Gwen’s are damaging to the young girls, here is a news flash. Parents are responsible for their children. Not celebrities. It’s a parent job to teach her/his kid to be comfortable with who they are and how they look regardless of what the media say.
When I was younger and complaining to my mother that I was too skinny (imagine that today!!!!) she said that girls are all different and everyone is beautiful, regardless of what some people might say.
That’s an awfully naive view, if you truly believe it. The media has a great deal to do with the way young girls perceive themselves.
http://www.upworthy.com/5-reasons-why-my-girlfriend-thinks-shes-not-beautiful-enough-no-matter-what-anyone-tells-her-5?g=2&c=ufb1
I think Anna is partially right. Putting the blame only on the media isn’t the right approach. It isn’t as if Gwen’s tweet is going to cause an eating disorder; if it was a factor, there was probably something brewing before. Parents should have more influence on their child than a celebrity. EDs are way more complex than “I saw this in a magazine.”
I can’t relate to the whole “average” woman thing, because a) I’m not American and b) every body IS different, and their body is not mine. Calling a six plus is bull, I agree, but that infographic oversimplifies a lot.
I did not blame the media, but it is a contributing factor. I’m speaking as someone who’s struggled with an eating disorder for most of my life. Perhaps you should read this link about eating disorders before you discount media and celebrity contribution to body image issues
http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/media-body-image-and-eating-disorders
No, the media isn’t the only problem since distorted body image and eating disorders are psychological, however go to any Pro-Ana (Anorexia) website and blog and what do you see? Pages and pages of thin or emaciated models and actresses. So it can be said that the media is definitely sending an image and the more vulnerable among us definitely take it to heart. Again, the media doesn’t control the individual but they are more a part of the problem then the solution.
Further, not everyone is fortunate enough tho have parents who actually care. And some parents work two or three jobs, they have no time to work against the 24/7 media input their kids are subjected to. So yeah, media and society do need to take on some of the responsibility, as well.
Give me a break. This is becoming overkill
Here’s my take – the statement is only bad if you believe the word “chunky” to be bad. It’s not. “Fat” is not a bad word. They’re just descriptive words. Only people who assign a negative connotation to the words would take issue with this. I have bloated days that I call “fat days.” That doesn’t mean those times are bad, or I’m unhappy. It just means I’ll be wearing a stretchy skirt as opposed to pants. I have friends who are fat – they call themselves that. But it’s not used in a bad sense – they are fat, and they know it, and they say it, with no negative connotations. People get out of control with this stuff. Hopefully, there will be a day when you can describe your body with any adjectives you want and nobody takes offense.
She’s a celebrity. She’s in the public eye. She has a unique responsibility that accompanies fame. Calling herself chunky will negatively affect fans. And she’s not even chunky in that photo.
She’s not even chunky? Come on.
I actually prefer women think the way my grandma did…she thought she was beautiful in every stage of her life and still thought she looked good until her last breath. She also believed that if you publicly put yourself down, others will assume you feel the same way about them AND that it’s okay for them to put you down too.
Also, I think “PC” stands for public critique. If you say or do something publicly, you should expect the public to tell you how they feel about it…publicly.
No, it doesn’t. It stands for “politically correct” and it’s a trend that’s getting hella out of hand.
I didn’t say that PC stands for public critique. I said that I think “PC” stands for public critique. However, thank you for letting me know that my thoughts on an abbreviation were wrong.
Holy, talk about pressure.
I bet these are moms who love that commercial about their daughters growing up to never know the word diet, blah blah blah. How about teaching your kids that bodies change, and an opinion about your appearance is YOURS alone, whether it’s negative or positive.
Everyone is so oversensitive about their weight, she can’t even comment about her own photo. Crazy!
Besides, I think that Gwen has serious body issues. I remember when she gave birth to her first child, she did this photoshoot, with a tiny infant, all made up with heavy lipstick, eyeliner etc. and dressed to the nines. It looked so ridiculous. I mean, she is not confident enough to allow anyone to see her make up free, just enjoying the baby.
First of all the picture with Sting is just too cool. Here is this young girl who will grow up to become a huge star in her own right, getting an autograph from an already established star. It’s fantastic! Gwen looks amazing, and I don’t know how she does it. Yes, I know she has her entourage but seriously she always looks so pulled together and stylish no matter where she’s being photographed. Even taking her kids to school. I can’t imagine what time she’s getting up to look that way. How she is not mentioned constantly on Fashion Police is beyond me. No one rocks a pregnancy look like she does. Love her!
I can’t reply in the thread, but @MorticiansDoItDeader I’m speaking from my own experience too. Based on the stories of the people I met while I was in treatment, the media wasn’t a gigantic factor. It came up, but it was more like it just wasn’t helpful when trying to recover. As far as causing negative thoughts that led to an ED, it was overwhelmingly an inside influence, like some family trauma or a parent who was always dieting/food focused, that kind of thing.
I know a lot of this stuff sneaks into your mind and gets internalized, but honestly, not one thought about models or men comes into my head when I think of what drives or affects my ED. And that was true for the majority of people I talked to.
I certainly agree that there has to be an underlying issue, and that personal experiences and trauma contribute to EDs, but the media is most certainly a contributing factor according to studies listed in the second link provided up thread.
Good grief. This reminds me of that “thin privilege” crap that someone sent me.
People need to stop acting like everyone is out to personally offend them specifically. She WAS chunky in that photo. As was I in a middle school photo that hangs in my parents’ house and makes me cringe. I was the same size as her. I looked CRAZY chunky. If that makes you feel offended, then that’s YOUR problem, not mine. People need to stop giving other people such a a responsibility over their own emotions and reactions. If I was constantly on the verge of being horribly upset by what other people said/did, I would be miserable. Maybe this sounds harsh, but some people need to grow a spine.
My sister has scoliosis and I find your “grow a spine” comment really offensive.
Lol
Ha,ha.
I agree with everyone who feels this so much ado about nothing.
Um, excuse me, Judy, but my college roommate was attacked by a man with scoliosis. I see your offended-ness and raise you PTSD by proxy.
@Katia and @Judy’s comments for the win. Love it!
Some people are in a state of perpetual outrage because they are over-thinking and overanalyzing words, actions, and behaviors that they have been taught are “politically incorrect”. Really, it’s the only explanation for how/why society has come to the point where we see this kind of mass eruptions over every.single.little.freakin’.thing. And it’s every day, all day, week after week, month after month, year after year. You would be extremely hard-pressed to see a day go by without a news story about SOMEONE taking “offense” to something someone said or did. It seems a really miserable way to live. Whatever happened to just coping and letting bygones be bygones and TOLERANCE?
Exactly!
Besides – I mean, maybe I wouldn’t suggest that a starlet with a YOUNG following call herself “chunky” in an old photo, just because younger girls ARE very sensitive. But it’s GWEN STEFANI. Her fans are now women between their late twenties and early forties. She doesn’t need to be some pristine role model. If anything, this makes her more relatable to her target demographic.
Gwen needs to get over herself and lay off the social media for a while. In terms of A-list celebrities, she’s the worst when it comes to putting herself out there via Twitter or whatever. To an extent I can understand why various Dlisters are on twitter 24/7 promoting themselves and reporting on every bowel movement, but Gwen hardly needs the publicity. She comes across as being insecure and narcissistic.
this post is about chunky v.s. not chunnky, not twitter. get a grip
Does this mean I can call Kim Kardashian chunky? Because to me, she will always be a big sausage trying to get into a casing three sizes too small.
Kim K is NOT fat. She is, however, who wears dresses that are grossly too small for her. Britney Spears is in the same boat.
Urgh. I’m a size 4/6 and think I look hideous in bandage dresses. I leave those for the size 0 ladies.
She’s always had body issues (her words) I used to love her not so much not sure why
LOL at her teen pic! She really WAS “chunky”. What’s the big deal? She was just a kid. Kids often thin out in later teens/young adulthood. I don’t see the big deal … about her comment (she can call herself chunky if she wants to!!!) or her picture.
Just another excuse for perpetually-outraged people to whine about something. God, it’s like Speech Fascism. Word Policing. Thought Crime. “You’re saying things that I think you shouldn’t say, so I have the RIGHT to bully and insult you on the internet, and to get others to join me in doing it!!” Appalling.
She was chunky. Come on people, mellow out.
Love Gwen. That is all.
She was just being self-deprecating and trying to beat others to the punch. Though if I were as famous and influential as her, I’d have thought twice. Hell, I’d think twice now. I honestly don’t know what to make of celebs’ responsibility toward young girls’ self-perceptions. I was never directly influenced, but then I was a stick. I actually wanted to gain weight and envied girls at school who were curvy and today would have definitely been seen as chunky. I think every girl has something they’re insecure about and it’s not necessarily extra weight. You don’t know what’s going to resonate. I now have a daughter and I couldn’t possibly blame a celebrity’s words if she developed an eating disorder or something. I think self-esteem starts at home.
I can’t even. Are you still even allowed to say word “Fat” in America? Or you will be arrested right away and put in prison?… She can’t call herself chunky or say” I was little fat when I was that age”?
Oh God. Obsession of denying your own weight and that fact that majority of the amercians are overweight and obese will come to that situation when thin people would be soon bullied for being thin and they would be forced to gain extra weight “to be like everybody else”. Seriously – that will happen eventually.
Did they bullied her for jokingly calling HERSELF chunky? For real? I can’t. How is that Biggest Loser show is not forbidden still? It calls overweight people overweight and tells them to lose weight and forces people to work for it and lose and proves that you can do it when you want.
How it still airs? That show totally hates overweight people and makes them become thin. And no one ever should cal overweight people overweight. Because they are not. They have big bones., they are just big, not overweight.
I seriously can’t with this Gwen story and bulling for calling herself chunky. She should have said: “little overweight me 1983. Also I have nothing against extra weight. It’s beautiful and I admire it and dream to become big one time. getting @officialsting autograph” backstage. cut to… “
I know no one here minds that she called herself chunky, and that’s great we are in her peer group. But I guarantee that with the number of young girls seeing her call herself chunky at that very normal and average size will cause them to view themselves more harshly, and even punish themselves psychologically or physically.
Why is everyone defending her by saying she WAS chunky? You understand what is chunky to one person is normal or “thinner than I could ever be” to another person. I’m not worried a celebitchy commenter is going to see this as thinspiration, I’m worried about the young girls who see Gwen call a young person (even if it’s her own self) chunky just because she’s not a size 0-4. I think it’s a dangerous precedent to say, not skinny is chunky, when everyone views chunky as a euphemism for fat. In that picture she is normal!! Let’s not forget she goes to ABNORMAL lengths to get the body she has now, like the other women in HWood she is always on a diet, always restricting calories and working out with a personal trainer, she has even admitted to essentially starving herself to fit into couture clothing. She is not a good role model for positive body image, and us commenters should not be normalizing her comments. If we look at young Gwen and say she used to be chunky, we are exhibiting our collective image and body dysmorphia. I know I’m in the minority but it’s true, and we need to be called out when we let our neuroses rear it’s ugly head and try to act like it’s the truth, it is not!
Well you will be surprised that people actually CAN have normal weight without torturing themselves with diets and starving. When I was her age I looked normal and I did not starve myself and did not worked out. I lived normal life, eating normally and had perfect weight comparing to my heist. You know like you can read those stuff in health books and magazines. They show people’s heist and say what perfect weight suits that heist and at what weight they will feel comfortable.
Obesity and overweight problems get worse and worse every year in USA because of this new wave, when they say: “Stop hating yourself for being overweight. You are perfect, they are bullies. Love yourself the way you are. You are only 10 kg over the ordinary weight. Don’t work out to drop it. Stay the way you are….” Only no one says that if you don’t watch and control your weight and eat the same and don’t work out then that weight adds and adds every month. Soon 10 kg become 12, then 20. Then 30, then person who started with being little “chunky” and loving herself in few years weights 120 kilograms and doesn’t know how to stop weight gaining, because it adds and adds all the time.
Yes, she was probably a bit heavier in the 80s when this shot was taken, but so was everyone else. Body styles change and what was popular in 1950 isn’t necessarily the way you would want to look today. Also, the clothing styles have evolved as well, so those Bermuda shorts she is wearing are definitely not slimming. I know that I get chunky sometimes and then I have my ‘thinner’ look, so what’s the big deal in calling your own standards based on what you want your own body to look like? Why make a big deal out of this? She looks fine either way, but I’m just saying that in the 1980s, I think we all looked and dressed differently than we do today. That’s an awesome photo of Gwen and Sting, love it !!
“Chunky”, whatever. What I’m invested in is how at 44 years old, she’s pregnant. I guess I’m jealous, having not been successful at procreating at age 40 or 41 or 42 or 43.
F^ck