Let’s Chat: Here we go again

By Linda Tooth on May 29, 2024.

I had no sooner submitted my previous column on body-shaming when the day it appeared Barbra Streisand came out via an Instagram post and asked Melissa McCarthy if she looked good due to taking the controversial diabetic and weight loss drug Ozempic.

If you have been living under a rock and are not familiar with Streisand or McCarthy, both are respected and well-known entertainers in Hollywood. Streisand, 82, is most noted for her role in the 1968 movie Funny Girl and the 1976 version of A Star is Born.

McCarthy, 53, is most noted for her role in the 2010 sitcom Mike & Molly, the 2011 movie Bridesmaids, and perhaps my most favourite, the 2018 movie Life of the Party. Streisand’s post has since been deleted, but her words’ ramifications are still being discussed. McCarthy, who considers Streisand a friend, publicly stated she was happy that Streisand had noticed her. For the rest of us, it was just another attack on how somebody looks.

Another example of body shaming has come to light with the recent success of the Bridgerton series shown on Netflix. This Netflix-Shondaland production of Julia Quinn’s Regency romance novels follows eight fictional siblings as they navigate London’s ‘ton’ society.

Seasons 1 and 2 have shown a friendship between Bridgerton son Colin, played by Luke Newton, and Penelope Featherington, played by Nicola Coughlan, that has now moved toward a ‘love match’ in Season 3.

Coughlan has been the object of much scrutiny because of her body shape. In a recent interview with Vogue, Coughlan says, “I am just one real-life human being, and it’s really hard to take the weight of thousands of opinions on how you look being sent directly to you every day.”

The term fatphobia is also used throughout the article and that is so disturbing. Did you know that fatphobia is the “abnormal and irrational fear of being fat or being around fat people,” according to Butterfly.org?

In another interview with Evoke, Coughlan states, “It’s no one’s business how much she weighs.” You go, girl!

Why do we always need to be commenting on someone’s size? A lot of the time this is being done on social media and it is anonymous. Can we not look at a person and admire them for their job, their compassion, or better yet, the good person they are?

Both McCarthy and Coughlan make my heart sing when they are performing. They are amazing women who need to be appreciated and commented on for their work, not how they look.

Linda Tooth is a communications instructor at Medicine Hat News

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