Jillian Michaels is one of the most well-known fitness experts out there, but she may be a bit behind the times when it comes to understanding body positivity. Jillian made some comments on BuzzFeed’s "AM to DM" yesterday about another celebrity's body, and those comments are coming under fire. The reason people are so amped up over the comments isn't that hard to understand. Especially because she was talking about our beloved Lizzo, who, in addition to being one of the most talented artists of our time, has also rapidly become admired for her body confidence.
Lizzo's body is larger than the bodies of most female pop stars, but she doesn't let that stand in her way. She still wears whatever she wants, struts her stuff, performs for hours on end, and breaks down barriers just about everywhere she turns in the process just by doing her thing. Her music is a joy to listen to and is filled with messages about loving yourself. Watching Lizzo feels good for one's soul, to be quite honest. Many people, especially women, feel like she instills confidence in us all just by being her.
It doesn't seem like Jillian has been paying much attention to Lizzo's messages about self-love (though she claims to enjoy her music). When she was asked about Lizzo, she had some pretty harsh words. "Why are we celebrating her body?" she asked, confounded. "Why does it matter? Why aren’t we celebrating her music? ‘Cause it isn’t going to be awesome if she gets diabetes." Ouch. That sounds like straight-up body shaming, to be honest.
Her words felt tone deaf to a lot of people. She was quickly called out on social media for criticizing Lizzo's body. People had a lot to say about it. They were angry that she was speaking negatively about another celebrity's body. Some said her comments were "fat phobic."
Jillian definitely had the opportunity to backtrack, but she didn't. Instead, she doubled down on her comments in a tweet the same day. "I also feel strongly that we love ourselves enough to acknowledge there are serious health consequences that come with obesity ― heart disease, diabetes cancer to name only a few,” she wrote.
This morning, she reiterated the same sentiment when talking to TMZ. The network caught up with her in New York. She said even though she's always said that "your weight and your size have no bearing or merit on your value, your beauty, your worth, your ability," it's important to understand the health risks of being overweight.
While Jillian is a health expert, it's not necessarily her job to publicly call out others for being overweight. To some, it felt catty and off-putting. Most people know that there are health risks associated with being overweight, like an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes. Still, someone's else's body shouldn't be up for critique, shaming, or judgment, even by a personal trainer.
While some commenters were clearly fired up, slamming Jillian left and right, some made some very good points about why the comments were harmful. Jameela Jamil, who has been a fierce body positivity activist, weighed in on the subject. She shared that everyone in her family has the health issues that Jillian brought up, and those people are thin. Yet it seems like it's always OK to critique people for being overweight. Health problems can arise for a number of reasons, though, and thin people aren't often subject to the same kind of cruelty.
“If I had been exposed to more Lizzo and less Jillian Michaels when I was younger, maybe I wouldn’t have spent half my life hating my body,” one Twitter user wrote. It's a seriously valid point, because too often, people, especially young girls, are taught that there is only one version of beautiful. Lizzo inhabits so much beauty that comes from her confidence and teaches us a lot about how to love ourselves in the process.
Jillian might be a totally killer trainer and thrive on helping people get in shape, which is valuable. But the truth is, she was a part of a show that held onto some seriously damaging ideas about what constitutes healthy weight loss. The Biggest Loser was heavily critiqued after several years on the air for many reasons — mainly because contestants who took part in extreme weight loss challenges didn't have healthy ideas about how to lose weight.
Most Loser contestants ended up gaining their weight back — even the winners. While that has more to do with ideas about health and fitness at the time that accepted extreme weight loss goals as "healthy," it's tough to listen to Jillian's recent comments and think that her ideas about weight have changed all that much. It seems like more of the same old-school mentality.
To many, those ideas feel more harmful than an issue with weight. But more importantly, the fact is that it's up to an individual to decide what to do with their body. That goes for what they wear, what they eat, and what makes them feel comfortable and beautiful.
What it seems like the greater public would like Jillian to understand is that while of course there are issues that stem from being overweight, there are more issues that come from a lack of acceptance for others' bodies. Lizzo is a breath of fresh air for so many who have grown up with harmful ideas about their own bodies. Critiquing her by calling out her weight isn't doing much good for anyone.
Lizzo is confident, talented, and beautiful, and she knows that her body is her own. Perhaps Jillian could take a page out of Lizzo's book. She doesn't have to celebrate Lizzo's body. But it'd be great if she at least kept quiet about it. Oh well. No matter what anyone says, you better believe Lizzo is still feelin' good as hell.
