Looking back at the 2000s is wild. So much of that time period is characterised by body shaming, fatphobia, diet culture and toxic beauty ideals that were projected onto female celebrities and then, in turn, passed down to young, impressionable minds.
Celebrities who looked perfectly fine were heckled for being “flabby”, “jumbo-sized” and “obese” — and the thing is, we believed the headlines the media ran because we had been brainwashed into thinking that anything bigger than a size 10 was scandalous.
So here are some examples of celebrities and characters that we, as millennials, were influenced into thinking were fat — when in reality, they were anything but.
Renée Zellweger during the release of the Bridget Jones’s Diaries films.
While Bridget Jones’s Diary is no doubt a fun movie, much of it is preoccupied with Bridget’s weight. The film is filled with fat jokes that poke fun at Bridget, inferring that she’s overweight — even though she’s meant to weigh between 125-130 pounds (57-59kg). Much of the media storm surrounding the first movie and its sequels also centred on Renée Zellweger gaining 30 pounds (14kg) to portray Bridget. To this day, I still cannot believe that we were told — and believed — that Bridget Jones, and by extension Renée Zellweger — was fat.
Kate Winslet during the release of Titanic.
Nicole Richie being referred to as the “fat one” when photographed with her on-screen best friend Paris Hilton.
Jennifer Stone during the release of Wizards Of Waverly Place.
Dennings frequently uses her platform to push back against online trolls and toxic diet culture. A notable instance occurred when she publicly defended musician Billie Eilish after paparazzi photos of Eilish sparked an online wave of body shaming
