Stop Congratulating Celebs For Losing Weight

If you’re a fan of the glossy magazines at the supermarket checkout aisle (guilty), you’re probably well aware of who’s sleeping with who in Hollywood, which celebrity has gone off the rails lately, and the latest annoying-adorable thing Jennifer Lawrence said in a late night interview.

Aside from the usual dish, gossip rags like are increasingly filled with stories of some celebrity’s AMAZING weight loss. I’m no statistician, but I’d say that as much as 9000% of these stories involve Jessica Simpson. At this point, the woman is basically famous for losing weight. No new albums or movie roles to speak of — just her jean size. And those gingham shoes I see at Nordstrom.

Last week, Simpson Instagrammed a behind-the-scenes photo of herself in a super-hot black dress during a shoot for her latest Weight Watchers ad. She accompanied the photo with a tweet thanking the diet giant for her currently-slim figure.

Of course, when the online paparazzi saw Simpson’s tweet, the cheers and congratulations began. Celebuzz gushed that Simpson was showing off her “banging Weight Watchers post-baby body.” The guys at TMZ brilliantly noted that Simpson’s weight loss meant “bad news for chubby chasers,” and that “fat Jessica Simpson has been replaced with a hotter, skinnier version.”

Based on these articles, it’s clear that the only acceptable Jessica Simpson is a skinny Jessica Simpson. Because her weight has cycled throughout the years (and whose hasn’t?!), you can find thousands of articles talking about how fat, ugly, and disgusting Jessica Simpson is — even while she was pregnant.

The same is also true for other celebrities who have had ups and downs on the scale, like Kirstie Alley. Weight loss has kept Simpson and Alley in the tabloids, and they’ve got the contracts with Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers to prove it. There are massive rewards for celebrities to lose weight, even if that means extreme dieting and even bigger body scrutiny.

That’s why we have to stop congratulating celebrities for losing weight and shaming them when they gain it back. We know that significant, long-term weight loss is almost impossible to maintain, even when you’ve got a full staff of personal trainers and chefs. We can celebrate celebrities making healthier choices — like quitting smoking or exercising with their kids — but it’s time to stop berating them for being unable to attain the unattainable level of thinness that we demand from women who are famous.

It’s great that Jessica Simpson feels beautiful in her svelte body, but she shouldn’t have been made to feel like her (NOT EVEN) fat body wasn’t good enough.

Image: Getty Images