The latest entry in the “Body-Shamers Are Terrible Humans” comes courtesy of Selena Gomez, who chatted with her friend, Raquelle Stevens, for an episode of Raquelle’s podcast, Giving Back Generation. Selena spoke candidly about living with lupus and how people’s comments on social media about her weight-gain deeply hurt and added to her stress:
“I experienced [body-shaming] with my weight fluctuation for the first time,” Gomez recalled. “I have lupus and deal with kidney issues and high blood pressure, so I deal with a lot of health issues, and for me that’s when I really started noticing more of the body image stuff.”
Gomez said that, while her lupus doesn’t directly affect her weight, the “combination” of all the different factors of her health struggle does.
“It’s the medication I have to take for the rest of my life—it depends on even the month, to be honest. So for me, I really noticed when people started attacking me for that,” she shared. “In reality, that’s just my truth. I fluctuate. It depends what’s happening in my life.”
Gomez said that being mocked or criticized during that already stressful period in her life “got to me big time,” and that it ultimately “really messed me up for a bit.”
People have the capacity to be terrible to each other. Stories like Selena’s always make me angry and sad. People who don’t live with chronic or lifelong conditions have no idea the mental and physical toll they take on someone’s body: Good days are gifts, because they are a brief respite from the fact that you can’t get away from your body when you feel like hell. That’s upsetting enough on its own, never mind having to put up with the stress of dealing with a-holes commenting about your weight, besides.
I’m glad (as ever) that Selena is talking about the trolls, though. Maybe some of them will think twice before they go after her again (or someone else) about their weight gain. In fun Selena news, she and her friend, singer Julia Michaels, got little matching arrow tattoos on their hands after Selena surprised fans at Julia’s concert in Los Angeles.
photos credit: WENN and via Instagram
People never fail to disappoint you. If she’s fat I’d hate to see what they think of me, who easy has 100 pounds on her. If people would just worry about themselves they’d be a lot less miserable to shade others.
I think they don’t really, really think she’s fat, they just want to mess her up. I bet they’d exchange bodies in the first opportunity.
I think most of the comments came before Selena announced she had lupus. Nobody knew until a couple of years ago. Same thing with Sarah Hyland. Before disclosing her kidney disease she was slammed for her weight fluctuations. It’s a shame that people, mostly women, basically have to release their medical records because of attacks on their bodies.
Sad for her over this. Seems like a very vulnerable and fragile person. At least she got a number one song out of her ex asshat boyfriend.
I feel like she’s quite troubled, and there is a lot going on behind the scenes here that we will probably never knot about, and that’s fine.
watch Shallon Lester video’s on YouTube. .she worked for an celebrity magazine and in one video explained how they approached managers and PR people for confirmation. It is no secret Selena has a drinking problem. They called her manager and told them that they would skip the story of Selena’s heroin problem if they could get a quote regarding her drinking. The manager simply responded, “Thank you.” basically confirming she at one time was into heroin…nowadays people snort it….
Women are objectified which makes it easier to dehumanize us so many don’t see the whole person and instead see a woman’s value as fitting into the traditional concept of what is seen as attractive- so for many that’s all they care about and don’t consider anything else
There are studies on how we see women’s bodies as pieces and male bodies as whole. Like miss potatoe head. I remember during the royal wedding, everything people kpt focusing on was pipa middleton’s bum.
I am more taken aback by her style choices than her weight gain.
In one of these pics, she is dressed with her sister in “Frozen” theme dress. Too cute!
Her weight fluctuations are more likely from her on and off relationship with drugs and alcohol. That being said, the body shaming still sucks.
Some of the comments here are really ignorant.
A friend of mine had kidney failure in her early 20’s and had to get a kidney transplant (like Selena). She has to take medication for that every day for the rest of her life, including a steroid. It really does affect your weight and, in my friend’s case, the medication has made her look more swollen and thicker.
Steroids are known to cause weight gain. If she has lupus flares, then she will receive mega doses of steroids.
It’s a shame that people still do body shaming in this day and age. I guess some people will never improve, and that’s why this keeps happening. It’s something that I thought would never happen in 2019, to be honest.