Selena Gomez Doesn’t Owe You A "Relatable Body"

Gomez’s body has come under a lot of scrutiny in recent years, as her weight began to suddenly fluctuate after maintaining a slim figure since she was a teenager. 

People debated whether the weight gain was a side effect of medications to treat her lupus or if she was simply growing less concerned with meeting strict body standards. The speculation was so noisy that Gomez felt compelled to address it on Instagram Live, where she shared that her medications make her retain water and she tends to lose weight when she’s off of them. 

Gomez’s body quickly became a mainstay of social media debate. Some ridiculed her for gaining “too much” weight and made crass jokes wherein Gomez being “fat” was the punchline. Others, particularly young women, took comfort in what they termed representation of “regular bodies.” After the public had gotten accustomed to a more shapely Gomez, the internet was set ablaze when the Only Murders in the Building actress turned up to the 31st annual SAG awards looking noticeably slimmer. 

Donning an elegant dark blue off-the-shoulder Hollywood glamor custom Celine gown, a bold red lip, and a perfectly coiffed bob, she truly looked like Snow White IRL. Side-by-side comparisons with her look from the previous year revealed a stark difference. In the least shocking turn of events possible, people had opinions about Slender Gomez; some praising her weight loss, others expressing disappointment, and a heated debate ensued over whether the weight loss was natural or a byproduct of Ozempic. Women are now robbed of the glory of even taking ownership over their (presumed) hard work. It’s a cruel world.

It doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to understand what Gomez’s motivations for weight loss might be. She’s an actress and pop star who’s been in the public eye since childhood. Her body is the topic of conversation so often that it makes headlines, and she has an upcoming wedding to plan. If she feels more comfortable at the lower weight she was accustomed to for most of her life, that’s her prerogative.

Yet, as expected, a segment of body positivity activists feel betrayed when celebrities who become the unwitting faces of representation for normal bodies (a backhanded compliment I can assure you no woman has ever asked for) rescind their voluptuous status for a thinner aesthetic. When Gomez gained weight, she became an unintentional figurehead for various body positivity and neutrality movements, few of which seemed particularly interested in her personal preference. 

While celebrities adhering to a more conventional beauty standard may make you feel inferior, those emotions are ultimately your burden to bear. No one can “betray” a movement that was projected onto them by insecure people. It reasons to say she wasn’t thrilled about the weight gain, which she hinted was an unsavory symptom of a health condition or medication used to treat that condition. And as Glamour Magazine pointed out, losing weight in Hollywood often isn’t just a personal choice but a professional necessity. 

If weight gain is so easily lauded as a positive (something that often feels extremely disingenuous), why is simply “adhering to normative beauty standards” an act of cowardice? Gomez has a public facing career, and makes money off of her likeness. She acts in an award winning television show, poses for spreads in magazines, and is the face of a beauty empire. Holding herself to exceptionally strict standards may be a personal choice, but it’s certainly not a moral failure. If weight gain is now framed as an act of brave defiance, why isn't the discipline required to uphold an aesthetic ideal given the same respect? Is that not an art in itself?

Body neutrality may be an attractive concept, though in practice, it often feels like little more than a performative cope. No one is truly “neutral” about their own body or anyone else’s. Even so, the core idea that it’s generally rude and invasive to comment on someone else’s body is a far more reasonable stance than the entitlement fueling modern fat activism. The insistence that models and actresses must cater to the insecurities of ordinary people to affirm their value is absurd. 

Beauty ideals are not arbitrary social constructs conjured out of thin air, and Selena Gomez certainly did not invent them. If you believe in body neutrality, great, but let’s not pretend that Hollywood is an industry of indifference. It is, and always has been, deeply invested in the human form and humans have innate aesthetic preferences that it’s only natural to be affected by. Furthermore, I’m not convinced it’s evil to take some pride in your appearance.