Rebel Wilson covers the new issue of Cosmo UK. Does anyone else feel like 2015 was actually sort of a bad year for Rebel? While she was part of the massively successful Pitch Perfect 2, she was also caught out for lying about her age, and she did not handle that controversy very well at all. It also feels like people are kind of tired of her “shtick” at this point, but maybe that’s just me. As for this Cosmo UK interview… it’s not bad. It feels a little bit like she’s trying to overcompensate for some of the BS she gets about her size, and I actually like how honest she is about her relationship to food.
Her size makes her unique: “Being unique and different was a really good thing. When I walked into my agent’s office for the first time, they looked at me and said, ‘Wow, we have nobody on our books like you.’ And they signed me on my second day here.”
She doesn’t compete with the glamorous people: “I wouldn’t ever want to compete with what I call ‘the glamours’ — the really gorgeous people. I’m about the brain, the heart and what’s on the inside. I feel really lucky to be the body type I am.”
Food is her friend: “I love me some ice cream or dessert, and it comes at times when I’m happy or sad. So when I have an incredibly successful day, I want to celebrate and reward myself with food. If I’ve had a sad or stressful day, food is also comfort. I bought this hilarious slogan sweater the other day that says, ‘Food is my only friend’. I thought it was really cute. You would probably describe it as emotional or stress-eating. I don’t do drugs; I don’t really drink… so eating is my one vice. I wouldn’t ever want to totally give it up.”
She does try the trends though: “Living in LA you learn a lot about health. I now drink green juices and I’m trying to do gluten-free. But I don’t do it 100% – I’m not a maniac!”
On Jennifer Lawrence: “She is just the most naturally hilarious person. She’s way funnier than me and a real story-teller. If she was in a comedy, she’d smash it. We’ll hang out or have a barbecue. That’s the cool thing about living here [Los Angeles] — you get to meet so many people you respect and work with.”
She likes being single: ” I’m very independent and have been single for most of my life,” she says. ‘I see people who are very co-dependent and I think they’re missing out on life It’s good because I do whatever the hell I want. My mum really sacrificed her life when she started having us kids, and so she always encouraged us to go out there and chase after our dreams and live our lives. I’m hoping the right guy will come along. But if it doesn’t happen, I’m alright.”
“I feel really lucky to be the body type I am”?? Don’t get me wrong, love yourself and be comfortable in your own skin. Absolutely. But as someone who comfort-eats and reward-eats just like Rebel, I would never say that I feel “lucky” to have my body type or metabolism or anything. Even at my thinnest, I was still a “thick” and curvy girl and I have never felt “lucky.” I look at women who have naturally slim, athletic builds as “lucky.”
As for Rebel’s vice-eating… I understand. That’s how I felt about it when I gave up alcohol (for the most part). It was like, you can only do one of the other: you can enjoy donuts or cocktails but not both. And I chose donuts. Donuts are my heroin!
Photos courtesy of Cosmo UK.
Dude, i don’t drink or do drug, and i eat. But i comfort myself in other ways too, not only with food. Food as the only answer to battle stress is a recipe for disaster.
I am not shading her or anything but i find exercising a great stress reliever.
I agree that food is the worst comfort item if you are prone to overeat. I used to choose food, but it brought on a 15 year eating disorder. Now I exercise and drink coffee. Occasionally I will have a glass of wine, but as I am now older, I feel like wine causes me to look bloated in the morning.
I also strongly roll my eyes that she feels lucky to have that body type. I mean, nobody thinks being overweight is ideal.
Maybe she feels lucky because she was seen as different when she walked into that agent’s office, and that might be responsible for part of her success. Adele said she had wondered whether she would have been as successful if she had not been plus size. I think Adele could have been just as successful without being plus-size, but perhaps their size is what appeals to a corner of the mass-market, and, as a consequence, Rebel feels lucky in that sense too.
Didn’t Oprah’s ratings go down when she lost weight? Privately, these women probably want to be thin (as most of the rest of us want to be too), but maybe the money makes them happier. Oprah has expressed a desire to be slimmer but even she must like her billions much better.
Both Adele and Rebel don’t identify as glamorous, but the funny thing is that I think they both have much prettier faces than someone like Miley Cyrus who is thin (and works to be thin).
Jen – this: “I also strongly roll my eyes that she feels lucky to have that body type. I mean, nobody thinks being overweight is ideal”–> Actually some people do, did you see the Alice Randall article in the NYT a few years back? In some black communities, being bigger is viewed very favorably. In some parts of Africa, too, when you are too thin people look down on you because they think you’re poor and that you can’t afford food, and it was that way in Samoa (though changing).
I just think it’s interesting how overweight is defined so differently by culture, like what Lupita was saying.
I think she’s gorgeous and her schtick is hilarious — she’s really better than Amy Schumer sometimes, it’s just that she’s Aussie and so weird.
Not speaking about Rebel, but I think the body positive attitude is not really honest.
I know a lot of obese women and all of them would like to lose some weight, even if only for medical purpose.
It’s important to not hate yourself, but I doubt the women who push this “enjoy your fat body” are really honest.
I agree.
Agree. More like “Enjoy your fat body, but not for long.” Everything you do catches up to you eventually, whether your health is fine now or not. Nobody, fat or thin, is immune to the effects of unhealthy habits, especially when you have many.
@Freebunny @Lisa
DOUBLE YES!
True body positivity and self-love is giving your body the nutrition, movement and overall health it needs. THAT is body positivity, that is loving yourself.
I guess I took what she said a different way – I thought she was saying that she felt lucky that she wasn’t glamorous/thin/gorgeous because it means she doesn’t feel the pressure to compete (professionally) with those who are. She has her own niche because she’s so different-looking, and being a fat woman in a sea of LA 10s opened a lot of doors for her.
And I also think you have maybe misunderstood the point of body positivity. It isn’t about ‘never feel the desire or need to change your body ever’. It’s more about accepting the fact that your current body IS your body, whatever shape its in, and you shouldn’t feel shame or self-hatred about it not being exactly what you or society thinks it should be. I think Mindy Kaling said it best when she said, ‘Sure, I’d like to be thin, but my weight isn’t the most important thing in my life.’ Speaking from my own experience, I know what it is to be so uncomfortable in my own body that it affected my ability to live the life I wanted to live – I felt too ashamed to travel, too ashamed to go out with friends. So when Rebel talks about being happy with her body, that’s reaffirming to me. Would I like to lose a little weight? Sure! Would Rebel? Probably! But that’s not the most important thing. And it IS honest (not to mention refreshing) to listen to a fat lady talk about being fat without being ashamed of it or trying to qualify it.
TLDR: Self-hatred and body-hatred is practically de rigueur for women in general and fat women in particular, and I think ANY woman saying ‘I love my body’ is a radical act that should be encouraged.
Well said! Exactly 🙂 It doesn’t mean you aren’t working at being healthier, it just means you accept who you are at the size you are at.
I agree.
Well said, I agree, I think that she was only talking about herself and her situation. She’s lucky to have her body type in her profession because with her personality it works, it’s different, it’s in demand. Would someone in a different position feel the same way, probably not but since when has any one celebrity spoken for us all, never.
Agree with you. I’ve spent a lot of time, energy and $$$ fighting/hating my natural curves. I’m trying to be accepting and kinder to myself. Good for her. I think she looks gorgeous in the photos. Beautiful face and hair. She photographs really well (now I should hate her – I’m a troll in photos).
Couldn’t have said it better myself! I’ve been thinner and I’ve been heavier but it’s all about self acceptance and looking at things in a positive light. Self hatred rarely leans towards positive change.
OMFG. YES. Thank you!!! Some of the comments above scare me. I grew up with an anorexic mother and a triathlete father. Though they were great with us and thought us many important values, all of my sisters and I grew up feeling we’d never be accepted or love able if we were anything other than very thin. My mother would criticize and try to “help” us if we put on any weight. Currently, I have a sister who works out for hours every day, a sister who is bulimic and skips meals, and another sister who doesn’t eat much at all. They’ve all called me fat. And I’m a size six. This bullshit about needing to be thin has to stop. Different people. Different sizes. Different ideas. Different lives. That’s what counts. Beauty fades. Everything else is bullshit.
Thank you for this, I think a lot of other people missed the boat on what being body positive really means and how our perception of ourselves effects our health.
I agree. She is feeding a lot of cliches here and that’s the first time I can say- I start disliking her.
A giant eye-roll for …”I’m about the brain, the heart and what’s on the inside. I feel really lucky to be the body type I am.” So the glamorous people are per se never ever about it?
She said “I.” She didn’t claim to know what the glamours (“they”) are thinking. How else do you construct a sentence without putting one or the other in there as a subject, and she chose herself as the subject. Honestly, I thought she was talking about herself in relation to what society considers ideal, not what glamorous people concentrate on (whatever that may be — she didn’t state at all what she thinks they concentrate on. All she said is that she didn’t want to compete with them, which I think makes sense, because even glamorous people probably feel like they’re failing when they stand next to another glamorous person. Society pits different beauties against each other, as if we will all universally agree that one particular standard trumps everyone else, and in the end nobody really wins. Except for maybe Charlize Theron? And yet even in her case Michael Fassbender wasn’t interested….So no matter how pretty you might be, the game really makes no sense.)
That might be one take of her words.
I’ve read it as- I’m happy with my body type (obese) because anyway I’m more focused on the inside (brain,heart, liver, kidneys…) I see as a denial of the fact that glamourous people might be interested in having some substance and a blanket presumption that they can’t, being too busy being glamorous.
And why shoudn’t she be lucky being normal weight comedian? (think Amy Schumer) Is being obese somehow more funny? I find this another cliche.
She said she specifically didn’t want to compete with the truly glamorous people, though. She didn’t claim to know what they’re actually interested in. And she referenced “the really gorgeous people”, not regular good-looking people — which I took to mean the women that most everybody would pale in comparison to, even women who are size 2 but might have an average face (just because someone is thin doesn’t necessarily mean that that person’s face is exceptional like Natalie Portman’s.) I think her stance makes sense with respect to competition, because even thin people in real life would fail at competing with them too. She’s talking about people in Hollywood (where everything is a competition), not regular thin people in real life, who are nowhere near as good looking as Charlize Theron anyway. Let’s be real — just being thin isn’t the same as looking like Theron or Halle Berry or whoever else is deemed as extremely good looking. Heck, It think even Victoria Beckham fails at competing with them and she’s as thin as she can get. Hollywood is a highly competitive industry in that regard. Magazines will often put beautiful women side-by-side in pictures and ask “who wore it better”? Even people who would be deemed as good-looking in real life might fail at being considered good looking next to the ultimate beauties in that industry. And she seems self-aware enough to know that that’s a losing game for most people, including herself.
People who are miserable in their bodies for lack of self-care and self-control often feel exactly as Rebel. It’s a luxury of the young that not even all young people get. It’s seriously not fun to be morbidly obese at 40, at 45, at 50, when you’re really upping your chances of some horrible chronic illnesses.
The idea that people get additional depth because they overeat, especially when they are conscious that that their eating is out of control and detrimental to their health is delusional. The argument “at least it’s not drugs!” mocks other kinds of addiction and is the logic of a teenager (‘you’re so lucky I’m good and don’t do drugs, Mom!”). Lisa Randall is physically gorgeous and the country’s arguably most eminent physicist. Is she less about the mind and expanding the known universe because she probably exercises and eats decently just to have the energy to kick ass at Harvard?
And that is
Who knows what Rebel actually thinks about her body in private, but not competing with other really gorgeous people is something that makes sense to me, and I’m not obese or plus-size. I wouldn’t want to try to compete on the level of extreme gorgeous beauty, because there is always someone who is going to be prettier than me or perceived by someone else as being prettier, and it’s futile to participate in that particular kind of competition. Maybe that’s why I could relate to her quote. (I’m not saying that I don’t want to look pretty for myself or don’t want to do certain things that make me feel better about myself — but actually competing with other people over something like beauty probably isn’t going to get me anywhere, because no matter how hard I try, somebody out there is going to say that Person X is better-looking than me or that I appear somewhat unattractive to them because I don’t appeal to their tastes.)
Even if Rebel doesn’t like her body, I don’t see why we should expect her to admit this to the world though — that is something you tell your therapist or your mom, not the media. I wouldn’t even tell my friends that I dislike my weight, because then they’d assume I was fishing for compliments. When it comes to the body, I really wouldn’t expect someone to share their neurosis about it with the world, unless they’re being paid at least a million dollars by Weight Watchers.
She did say she’s trying to take the green juices and do the gluten diet, so I don’t get why people are assuming she doesn’t try to take care of herself on some level.
Maybe Rebel can find something else to talk about besides her body? Maybe show all that mind and heart that she’s about, and that by obvious implication no matter how you’re torquing English, she needs to believe thinner ‘glamours’ are not about? How lame and immature!
If you aren’t allergic or intolerant of celiac sprue, gluten-free isn’t necessarily a path to greater health. It’s a lot of buzzword nonsense up in there.
jc126 below said it simply and best.
“Maybe Rebel can find something else to talk about besides her body?”
Maybe COSMOPOLITAN magazine could ask actresses other questions besides stuff about their bodies? Does Cosmopolitan generally ask any other kinds of questions to either thin or not slim actresses? It rarely seems like it. The mandate of this particular magazine seems to be to ask women either about how they look or what kind of sex they’re having…
If I had looked at the header to see Time magazine or Newsweek, I think your question has resonance. But when I saw Cosmopolitan magazine, I figured Rebel was simply answering questions that Helen Gurley Brown has asked her journalists to focus on for the last how many decades.
I feel criticism should be directed more at this particular magazine than at the actresses who answer questions to this particular publication, because this magazine has never been about anything else but women’s bodies and their accompanying sex lives. Cosmopolitan magazine has never struck me as the type of publication that strives to showcase anybody’s depth outside of beauty and sex.
@perplexed: I’m sure I’ll miss some of the points I want to make but I’ll try:
“.I don’t want to compete…I’m about the brain……I feel really lucky to be the body type I am.”
I can understand that she doesn’t want to compete. Here I don’t snark about her weight.There are people, who avoid competition, so it’s a personal trait. She feels lucky to be obese because she can focus on “the inside”.
I prefer people, who can show some “inside” and may I suggest we go over SB posts from the last month. We’ll find actresses, who are able to discuss in depth some other topic apart from their “gorgesity”.
As for that it’s very personal bias who is gorgeous and who not. Rebel doesn’t go into detail herself.
I think she tries to put body type (in this case weight) in direct connection with “inside” depth. And that is simply not true. The “brain” is not prerogative of the obese. And if you take the level of “brain” on ist own I’m not so sure she’d like to compete either.
HGB’s no longer with us.
So…Rebel’s immaturity (to some if not to you), inability to come correct with things like her age, and reliance on sad, silly tropes insinuating that women who aren’t fat aren’t as deep as heavier women, is down to all-caps Cosmopolitan? Please stop with trying to tell me I’m reading her words wrong. I’m reading them just fine, as are multiple other posters. We don’t agree.
Of course she doesn’t write the questions, but some, including me, just find her answers immature and carrying a hint of delusion. More than a hint of delusion. Obviously YMMV.
My next point.
You write:”Even if Rebel doesn’t like her body, I don’t see why we should expect her to admit this to the world though”
I don’t expect her to admit anything actually. Celebrities have turned media into confession chamber themselves and overshare regularly.
But I expect not to be bs-ted, especially by the perpetuated “fat, but happy with a heart of gold”, “enjoys the life to the full”or something other… I don’t see this in the everyday life. And Rebel for all her famousness is still not in the liga of completely- detached- from- the- reality Hollywood stars.
I went over her interview again and it read more fake by every turn.
What is this …” That’s the cool thing about living here [Los Angeles] — you get to meet so many people you respect and work with.”
Does it mean she won’t be able to work anywhere else? And she’d think again about respecting you if you’re from Bufallo?
And I won’t start with the last paragraph otherwise I won’t be able to leave my soapbox.
Of course they’re lying.
Kaiser when you get older you may have much better bone health than the slim women and they will think you’re the lucky one! It’s all relative.
What about the slim women who lift weights?
Actually, bone health is tied 100% (for women) to having periods every month. If you have amenorrhea or oligomenorrhea, doesn’t matter if you do lift weights or exercise, you need to get your period back. Being on birth control and having a period on pills is not a real period.
Studies show that most women need at least 19% body fat to ovulate and menstruate (and that’s a bare minimum), so say you’re a fitness competitor, female, doesn’t matter if I can see your six-pack and you can outlift a man, you’re probably in trouble because your body fat is way too low.
But of course, everything depends… stress, genetics (some families naturally have lower bone density), medical history (it takes up to 7 years to reverse the bone damage from starvation, or a restrictive eating disorder), etc.
Some women menstruate at BMI 14 in my job (and go on to develop osteoporosis), so clearly everyone’s body is not the same. But the vast majority of women need to have their periods regularly to keep their bones healthy.
@mp – I’m really interested in what you wrote about. Do you have a link to the study you mentioned?
It sounds like you’re saying that taking birth control that limits the frequency of one’s periods can have negative effects on bone health. Does that mean bone density or other aspects of bone health? I’m curious since I’ve never heard that link made before.
@MP:
Do you have any articles you can link to that will explain your “bone health is tied to periods” claim? I have never heard of that before and am interested.
Strategies to reverse bone loss in women with functional hypothalamic amenorrhea (Vescovi et. al 2008) – “Functional hypothalamic amenorrhea (FHA) impairs the attainment of peak bone mass and as such can increase the risk of fractures later in life.”
Functional hypothalamic amenorrhea = no period, or a period but no ovulation. It’s typically triggered by undereating or extreme stress (Female Athlete Triad, for example, is quite a common source).
Here’s a more general paper, The Menstrual Cycle A Biological Marker of General Health in Adolescents (Vaishali et. al 2009).
“Delay in the evaluation and treatment of disordered menses in some cases may contribute to reduced bone density. The ovary is an important endocrine organ that helps maintain health, especially bone health.”
@Mileni – Birth control is not bad. If you had regular, ovulatory periods before being on the pill, and you have them getting off (i.e. are fertile), your bones are fine.
However, there are women who are on birth control for 10-30 years who have never had a natural period, don’t have one when they stop taking the pills, and that is concerning for their overall health (heart and bones and brain and ovaries and insulin and everything).
Specialists thought being on the pill offered some protection for women who don’t ovulate and menstruate naturally, but actually, it’s very minor protection against osteoporosis.
It’s complicated but cool to research.
Love her.
I’m so tired of food being a moral issue. It’s not. You’re not good if you juice and bad if you eat donuts. Fasts and detoxes are nonsense. It’s just moralizing repackaged as “health”. Anyone reading this comment: eat what you like, in moderation, and drink lots of water. You’ll be fine. And find a way to cover the noise whenever someone tells you how “bad” they feel because they “cheated”.
Preach!
This whole thing – from Rebel’s feeling she has to explain why she looks a certain way, to the writer’s claiming that only thin, athletic types should count themselves “lucky” in the body department – was cringe worthy. I’m not thin or athletic, but I’m healthy, strong and can afford to eat a donut or two or a dozen without tipping the scale too much. Each person should absolutely feel lucky to be in the skin they are in (even if you are working to better yourself).
Amen. You ladies all nailed it.
And it is such a manufactured, first world problem. I am not diminishing the extremes of weight problems – anorexia or severe obesity, because obviously those are very serious health issues.
But the amount of energy, effort, money and anguish that goes into dress sizes or whether a woman who has given birth and has a full, busy life also has a small poochy belly… Talk about waste.
And none of the fads seem to have resulted in an overall epidemic of slimness, have they? It just helps some companies report fat profits (pun intended).
I don’t own a scale. I don’t care to. I don’t have the body I had at 18 and I am okay with that. Do I occasionally think I would love that body back? Sure, who wouldn’t. But I don’t care to starve myself to achieve it, I enjoy my desserts, the cream in my coffee… And that doesn’t make me a bad person, or one without self control. There are lots of other things in life to worry about, to strive for, or to exercise self control over.
Oh god, I hear you. I also find the way we look at food and eating rather vulgar. The majority of people in this world wish they had our “problems”, i.e. the gluten crap, the vegan thing, the I-only-eat-raw-fruit-grown-by-elves-in-August-bullsh*t. Yes, being mindful is important. For our health, our environment, our karma. But it’s gone way too far and most of it is not about any of those things. It’s about status and judgment.
And I hate “cheat days”. I don’t cheat. It’s not a bad thing to have dessert, I don’t need to feel like I did something wrong. I ate chocolate. I didn’t betray my closest friend.
Love all these comments!
Thank you Sara. My 4 year old came home with her cookie in her lunchbox uneaten because her teacher told her it was “bad food”. To say I lost it on her teacher is putting it mildly.
I hear you girlfriend
OMG @ your name! ha ha ha. A woman with a sense of humor. Love it! 🙂
She is empowered because she is built like a walrus. That is feminism! Love it.
I’m not sure if I’m just taking it the wrong way, but is she implying that skinny, pretty people can’t also be about the brain and the heart and what’s on the inside?
Having a vice it is not compulsory. You can have none if you want to.
True, but does anyone in Hollywood really have no vices at all?
But that’s not a good argument. That’s saying “Everyone else is doing it, so it’s of course fine when I do it too.” Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t make it right. That was Elle’s point (if I’m not mistaken.)
I don’t think people with vices claim that having a vice is compulsory though (I’ve never heard anyone claim such a thing). Most people just say they have a vice, probably explain why they have the vice, and leave it at that. From there, the rest of us draw our own conclusions and speculate about why that person has a vice.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding what the word vice means, however. She described eating as a vice, and since that doesn’t affect my life in any way and only hers, I guess I don’t understand why there would be an assumption that anyone would claim that having a vice is compulsory.
Aren’t those green juices full of sugar? I comfort eat too so I sympathise.
Yes. Juicing is ridiculous – ask any GE (general practitioner/general physician). Anybody who swears by juicing is nutritionally clueless.
The MOST important component of fruit is the fiber layer and its digestive benefits of breaking down in your system. When you juice, that benefit is gone – literally, you have taken it out of the equation by juicing the fruit. You are drinking liquid sugar, the only nutritional remnant of juicing. Highly unhealthy. Will help keep the weight on too if you want to lose it.
I think she said it is ‘lucky’ because it kinda lead her to where she is now. Not that she wouldn’t have otherwise but that’s what she’s saying.
I like her, and I’m glad she feels good about herself, but I don’t think it’s especially good for you to use any substance – food, drugs, alcohol, whatever – to cope with your life. You’re basically using the substance to self-medicate and avoid your feelings. I spent so many years avoiding any feelings that made me uncomfortable and when I finally stopped, I realized how much energy it takes and how exhausting it is, and how much simpler it is just to accept that I feel shy right now, I feel foolish, I am hurt, or I feel angry. I’m not sure what I was afraid of all those years. Even the most extreme sadness and anger will get better if you allow yourself to experience it and work through it. (I’m not talking about depression that needs medication, just normal anger or sadness of nervousness). I adore food and cooking, but I try not to use it to squash what’s bothering me. I’m still tempted at times, and ask myself “why do you want to eat that right now?” because old habits die hard, and I even give into it in some extreme situations, but I try really hard not to use food as medication on a regular basis.
Changing the shift to start eating intuitively has been a REALLY great thing for me.
I think her comment about eating for comfort is honest and refreshing, but I guess the main problem I have isn’t with the food she eats, but that when there is a weight like that, it usually means that the food isn’t being balanced with exercise – which to me is the key.
I don’t even like calling myself *thin* though I am, but I will never be 110 pounds, although I am a solid size 4. However, I work out for an hour and a half a day, I eat clean for the most part, and for the most part have everything else in moderation (except when I don’t haha). If I just ate and didn’t balance it with working out I would get big, regardless of what I ate. My body is the type that needs the activity to metabolize correctly.
I love being called fit though, and that to me is what we should strive for. Fit bodies come in ALL shapes and sizes and to me, are much more worthy of envy because it usually takes an amount of work, dedication and care about your body as a tool and food as energy.
It Starts With Food is a great book. So is Woman Code – all about eating for your menstrual cycle.
“I love being called fit though, and that to me is what we should strive for. Fit bodies come in ALL shapes and sizes and to me, are much more worthy of envy because it usually takes an amount of work, dedication and care about your body as a tool and food as energy.”
I agree with this. I admire fit people more than just simply thin people. And I admire the work ethic that fit people put in.
Agree with you both that just being thin is not a desirable goal. Fit is much healthier, I think, mentally and physically.
I come from a family of overweight women and have always struggled with avoiding that “fate”. As a consequence, I learned about nutrition and fitness from a young age. So even though I’ve spent some time cursing my tendency to put on weight, it’s a blessing in disguise. I’m fit (lean, but not skinny) but it takes dedication and consistency. Conversely, my naturally skinny high school friends are mostly pretty chubby now because they are used to eating whatever they want without gaining.
I don’t know, I never thought of slim, thin people as lucky. When I was thin, I prayed to be thicker, but I think it has to do with the local culture.
Oh, cool. Another fat, sassy woman who has the world by the balls.
In a way, medicating with food is far different than medicating with drugs or booze. You can totally quit the two latter ones, but food will always have to be a part of your life. No way around it. You’ve got to learn how to use it responsibly, as opposed to just quitting it or never starting with it.
I do sort of cringe at her “I’m about what’s on the inside” line. Skinny people can’t be about something deeper than vanity? I’m sure there are plenty of thin women who obsess about size, but don’t paint us all with that brush. And there are plenty of larger girls who are image obsessive – a visit to Instagram will prove that pretty quickly. I wish this old skinny=vain, fat=not vain thing died already.
She didn’t claim that skinny equals vain though. She simply said she didn’t want to compete with the glamorous people (which is maybe what society or the fashion industry expects people to do?, not what actual glamorous people expect), and here are the other things she felt were more important to her. Her answer sounded fine to me.
Whenever someone says “this is what I would rather be doing with my time instead”, people seem to assume they’re putting other people down, which I didn’t get from her answer at all. All she seemed to be saying is that she didn’t want to be put in the position of competing with them (probably because she knows how futile it is to try and compete with Halle Berry or Angelina Jolie. I’m not famous, nor am I Rebel’s size or plus-size, but I wouldn’t want to be put in that position either, because I know I’d massively fail competing with women as glamorous as that, so I might as well concentrate my time on something else.)
Having been diagnosed with actual celiac 20 years ago(long before it was “cool” to eat gluten free), I will never ever understand this current gluten free for no medical reason fad. If I could eat gluten without the resulting cramps, diarrhea and gas(TMI sorry), I would. I would dive into a giant vat of crusty Italian bread and eat my way out, armed only with a butter knife and some Kerrygold butter.
I agree. Two of my daughters *have* to be gf. They are intolerant and suffer if they get glutened. It’s not a fad in our house. It would be so much easier if they could eat gluten, that’s for sure!
I know, right? My friend who is celiac is happy she has more choices on the one hand, but OTOH waiters and restaurants usually think she’s some faker. She’s gotten desserts that had specks of flour that made her end up in the hospital, all because everybody thinks she’s on some stupid fad diet.
People who don’t have any food allergies or intolerances are very lucky. Dairy is a huge issue for me. I’d love to dive into an ice cream sundae and not have to worry about it. I say if you can eat it, go ahead and do it ! Why restrict your diet if you don’t have to? I mean, in moderation of course.
I was appalled by this article and even more so by some of the reasoning in the comments. It seems to me that bigger women are often put in a position where they have to apologize for their size. For daring to be larger. I feel like this is partly because western women, in general and across time, have had to apologize for taking space or existing at all (a generalized statement with much historical research/theory behind it and I’m not going to say all women because I can not speak for every culture on earth). Some of the comments made from Rebel bothered me because I feel like she is falling into this trap of trying to apologize or downplay her size because she shouldn’t be this way. It is also such a gross stereotype to assume that larger women are that way because they simply overeat, are not active, or are lying to themselves. If we, as women, had a more realistic representation of the female body in all its forms and sizes, we would see how normal it is to be different. I often say, ” I am perfectly happy with the way that I am, but the world seems hellbent on making me feel bad for my body, so I guess I should feel otherwise.”
Um, how else do you think one gets to her size if not by overeating? And spare me the hypothyroid line, I was hypo and unmedicated for years and gained 20 lbs in the last 6 months.
So what if it does?
Viveign brings up a good point about why the thought of a woman overeating is considered so offensive.
She’s big, so what? Do you or I really know why she’s big besides food? Because even she’s honest enough to admit she’s using it to cover for some level of stress relief, so what’s the solution.
“Gee Rebel, you stop eating those donuts right now and start drinking.”
Until the underlying issue is resolved there’s always going to be some vice and this is her’s.