Dawn French:
Pauline Quirke:
I wrote the above blog back in 2012 - 5 years ago and think i need to revisit it.
A lot has happened in those 5 years, more and more brands have started doing plus size, the plus size community has grown bigger and stronger, and we've had proper role models emerge from it, people who seemed to be proud of who they were, fat and all. Yet there seems to be a trend recently of some of the more visible fat people out there admitting to weight loss surgery and citing health concerns as the reason (cos you know, us fatties are unhealthy and are all going to die young) and it is playing back into a narrative that you can only be happy, successful, loved, accepted, healthy, if your body occupies less space.
It is also irresponsibly promoting the idea that weight loss can fix all your problems and make you look amazing, but it doesn't help with the emotional side and can create lots of health problems as a result, which none of them seem to be talking about. If you can't love yourself as a fat person, you won't love yourself as a thinner person.
Gabourey Sidibe
The woman who shut down trolls in the most amazing way after receiving horrific backlash for how she looked at the Golden Globes (AKA the audacity to be on a red carpet and not be thin) recently revealed she has weight loss surgery and cited health concerns as the reason
Mama June
A lady who always encouraged her daughter (Honey Boo Boo) to love who she was, no matter what she looked like, has had a dramatic transformation and cites revenge on her ex partner as the reason.
Melissa McCarthy
She was always so positive about her size and i loved her for that, and she proved you could be a leading lady in Hollywood without having to fit in....or so i thought
Ashley Nell Tipton
I was really shocked to hear about this morning that Ashley Nell Tipton has has weight loss surgery and is banging on proudly about it on social media (and what prompted me to update this post). She won Project Runway designing clothes for plus size women and was someone a lot of us saw as empowering and really understood the needs of the plus size market, a voice inside the fashion world. She has cited health reason for her weight loss. But don't worry "she will still design rad clothing and accessories for plus-size women" - oh so you are happy to make money off me, just not look like me.
