Bebe Rexha hit a major milestone earlier this year when she became the longest charting female on not one but two Billboard charts, Hot Country and Dance/Electronic (and for Dance/Electronic that was at #1). Fantastic, right? But sadly she’s in the headlines for a different long charting story: that most of the suggestions for her in the TikTok search bar are some variation of “weight” and “fat.” This has been a broken record issue for Bebe to deal with, and she’s owning it like she has about her health issues. Bebe recently tweeted two photos, one a mirror selfie with her shirt up with the caption “Yes I’m in my fat era” and another of a screenshot with searches related to her weight. She’s been hitting the promo tour for her new self-titled album, and last week she sat down with Jennifer Hudson to talk about body positivity:
Bebe Rexha is speaking out against the body shamers out there.
The Grammy-nominated music artist took to Twitter to post a screenshot of searches that showed her name and the word “fat,” writing, “Yes I’m in my fat era and what?”
Rexha also posted a photo of herself holding up her shirt in a bathroom mirror to show her stomach.
This isn’t the first time that Rexha has called out the search bar on TikTok. In mid-April, she posted a screenshot of it to Twitter that showed people were looking up “Bebe Rexha weight.”
“Seeing that search bar is so upsetting,” she tweeted at the time. “I’m not mad cause it’s true. I did gain weight. But it just sucks. Thank you to all the people who love me no matter what.”
Rexha recently opened up about how she’s impacted when people discuss her body, while in conversation with Jennifer Hudson. “Listen, we’re in the public eye, so that’s bound to happen,” she told the talk show host, adding, “But we gotta just be positive and just show people love.”
“I was a lot thinner and I did gain some weight–that comes with the territory,” Rexha said, after talking about her recent polycystic ovary syndrome diagnosis. “I’m not mad about it because it is true, but when you see things like that, it does mess with you.”
“[PCOS] is one of the leading causes of why women gain weight and are obese,” she said. “I literally jumped, like, 30 pounds so quickly, maybe a little bit more.”
“You don’t know what somebody’s going through, what they’re going through in their life, so it kind of is tough,” she added. “But I feel like we’re in 2023… we should not be talking about people’s weight.”
Bebe is really quite delightful in the interview, and I thought Jennifer Hudson did a great job in teeing up the issue for Bebe to talk about, and then moving on to questions about her music. Did you know she studied opera? And can play the trumpet? Those should be in the TikTok search bar! The only thing I wished Jennifer had followed up on more was asking about the Albanian music Bebe said she grew up with.
So to echo Bebe’s own words, she’s in her fat era. And what? Some of that is due to PCOS (and thank you for sharing that, yes I will be asking my doctor to screen me for it) and some of that is because Bebe, like most homo sapiens, likes to eat food. Even when she was a size 8 Bebe was vocal about designers refusing to dress her. (You know who else was a size 8? Marilyn Monroe.) Can we finally move on from talking about the fact that she’s a different size today from other sizes she’s been in her life, to talking about the string of fabulous jumpsuits she’s been wearing?
Yes I’m in my fat era and what? pic.twitter.com/d3T4od8JYE
— Bebe Rexha (@BebeRexha) June 2, 2023
photos credit: Julie Edwards/Avalon and via Instagram
Yes! I love her jumpsuit phase! Let’s talk about that, especially when she goes full Farrah Fawcett with her hair. She and Dolly Parton should hang out and look fabulous together.
She should be whatever size she wants to be. But, just to clarify, In Marilyn Monroe’s time, a size 8 was a 23″ waist. A size 8 today would have been a size 16 back then. It’s all vanity sizing.
I don’t understand what you’re trying to clarify here? That people got bigger since the 1950s? That sizes changed? If anything, this proves how silly it is to adhere self-value to your dress size. It’s all relative, anyway.
The author said that both Marilyn Monroe and Bebe Rexha are/were a size 8. I’m saying that the comparison is meaningless because women’s sizing has changed drastically over the decades. Marilyn would be a size 0 or less today. She and Bebe are not the same physical size.
And yes, people have gotten bigger since the 1950’s and manufacturers have changed the sizing so that women can feel better about what size they’re wearing. As for self-value and it’s all relative – yes, of course.
Yes, sizes have changed. In the 1950’s a skinny person would have worn a size 14 to 16. I know because my mom used to buy sewing patterns and they still had the old sizing. The sewing pattern sizing had not changed. But by the 1970s, that same “size” was marked a 6 or 8. Today, that same size is a 0.
@Eurydice right, okay, thanks for clearing that up, I missed the link.
And yes I know about vanity sizing. My point was how silly that is. I mean, what does it matter what number it says on your dress label? How did we get this far that we let a dress size decide for us if we can feel good about ourselves? It’s such a weird phenomenon.
@BW – the most recent McCall’s size 8 pattern that I’ve seen has a bust of 31″, waist of 24″ and hips of 33″. A US dress size 8 tends to be 37/30/39. It can be very confusing.
There’s never been a standard set for sizing, it’s up to the manufacturers and they play on insecurities and emotions for money.
I knew a girl who refused to buy a certain designer because their size 6 didn’t fit her, she’d have to go to a size 8. She could not get over that. It didn’t matter that the clothes looked great on her, she just couldn’t get past that number. It was ridiculous.
Well, she looks great, period. I’d love her to block twitter or whatever sites on which people are trolling her for her weight. She doesn’t need that shit. She’s a beautiful, talented woman. The negativity is toxic and drains energy and joy.
She is gorgeous!
I feel all of this. I have tons of fibroids and you get what’s called “swelly belly”. It sucks. I’m significantly heavier than I have usually been and one person I met for the first time said, “I heard you used to be pretty”. ??? You just feel uncomfortable in your body. It’s not the weight so much as the assumption that I don’t take care of myself. It’s especially painful because I had disordered eating for a decade when I was younger and eat healthy now. gah….as a society we are so damn hard on women.
Omg. I’m so sorry someone said that. That speaks volumes about the person who said it and none of those things are good.
*“I heard you used to be pretty”. ??? *
I sincerely hope your response to that was, “Really. Interesting. I’ve heard you’ve always been an a-hole. I’ll catch you later, i see the interesting people are across the room.
I was too stunned to say anything productive. I think I said something sarcastic like, “I didn’t know I was ever pretty so yay me”. Your comment would have been so much better (I never have the right comeback in the moment).
@Nutella toast: I had an instant image of you smacking that person in the face with a piece of Nutella toast. Then it occurred to me, that would be a waste of perfectly good food. I never have a good comeback ready, ever; I think yours was pretty good considering what a jerk that person was.
She is so talented and beautiful. It would be wonderful if she was recognized for that. I once saw a video of her singing an operatic aria but now I can’t find it. Damn!
There are several on YouTube. Just Google. I have my 11 year old great niece to thank for my Bebe obsession. 😍🤩
Honestly, it makes a change to see someone in the public eye who looks like a (granted beautiful) human being. I also LOVE her jumpsuits. I hate that she’s having to deal with this and love her for sharing so openly, anything that helps normalise being normal.
I really like her! Plus I love Albanian music and Albania ( my 💩 ex parents are Albanian).
She looks wonderful and healthy. It’s terrible when people just want to criticize your size… I feel her. I gained so much weight due to my thyroid issues and subsequent anxiety problems and it’s terrible how people can treat you and look at you. I am now more accepting of my body changes but it’s a bumpy road. Anyhow, love , love her!
If I were a fabulously talented person like Bebe – or any other normal-sized woman – I’d design my own clothes, and employ a dressmaker to make them. Fuck the fashion industry and their sickening profiting from celebrating unnatural bodies starved into submission.
Here we go! Everyone is loving on Jelly Roll but when a woman is extra curvy she should hide under a rock.
She should turn off her comments and continue posting pictures of herself in all her glory.
It’s time to realize talent comes in all shape and sizes. Sit back and enjoy the talent.
You know what really bums me out? Is that nothing ever changes. As women, we never get a break from the constant evaluation and criticism of our bodies. Karen Carpenter is a case in point. She was an amazing drummer and vocalist. Crazy talent wasn’t enough because someone/everyone thought she could stand to lose weight.
If that’s fat, sign me up.
Seriously, good for her.