I didn’t plan on posting today. My wrist still hurts and is cramping and I will make a video on it, but I couldn’t not talk about this Adele situation. Many of you who found me through my Tanya Gold post expressed wanting to see more body positivity, and while I’m working on more of that content I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk about the current situation.

The Post

In case you live under a rock (or are doing a social media blackout) Adele started trending on Twitter yesterday, May 6, 2020, because of an Instagram post about her birthday and first responders and essential workers.

View this post on Instagram

Thank you for the birthday love. I hope you’re all staying safe and sane during this crazy time. I’d like to thank all of our first responders and essential workers who are keeping us safe while risking their lives! You are truly our angels ♥️ 2020 okay bye thanks x

A post shared by Adele (@adele) on May 5, 2020 at 9:38pm PDT

Within hours the post had blown up all over social media not talking about first responders, how much the singer has achieved before her 32nd birthday, or really anything else mentioned in the post. Instead, the world was talking about her body.

[See also: In Response to Tanya Gold]

Still, 24 hours later, the top comment on that Instagram post is James Charles saying “YOU LOOK AMAZING”

The Problem

Here’s the problem, no one should be saying anything about her body for several reasons: The post wasn’t about weight loss and did not invite the world to comment on her body, the world missed the whole point of the actual post, and we just reduced a 32 year old woman with several achievements and awards under her belt to her appearance.

The Post Did Not Invite You to Comment

If Adele had posted something along the lines of: “Feeling so good after so much hard work on myself” or something along those lines then she would have opened the conversation up to her weight loss. Without that invitation– from anyone– you really shouldn’t comment.

Here’s why:

1. Weight loss isn’t always positive. Here’s the thing, while the reason behind Adele’s weight loss could have been very healthy for her we just don’t know. I’m not trying to insinuate that it wasn’t unhealthy, but for some people weight loss isn’t a good thing. Every time anyone has a weight change it could be healthy or unhealthy. We need to stop this societal stigma that all weight loss is good and all weight gain is bad because it’s simply not true. Her weight and health are between her and her doctor. And that goes for anyone else, too.
2. Women’s bodies don’t equate their worth. A lot of people have been talking about their experience when they lost weight. A lot of people claim that they got a lot more compliments and felt more worthy of their success. (Or at least that other people felt that they were more worthy.) By constantly complimenting people because they lost weight we perpetuate a standard that women (and others) are only measured by their appearance.
3. Adele has always been beautiful. She isn’t more or less beautiful now than she was back in 2012. Period.

That Wasn’t the Point

Adele posted this beautiful message for first responders and essential workers on her birthday and the world ignored that very important and kind message and made it about her body. She tried to use her spotlight to highlight the heroes battling the pandemic every day and Twitter talked about her tight black dress. That’s frankly disgusting and so far off the point, I don’t know what to tell you.

She’s More Than her Appearance

Do you know what we should be talking about on Adele’s birthday? The fact that before the age of 32 she’s won an Academy Award, had nine nominations and five wins for American Music Awards, broke a record by winning 12 awards in one night at the Billboard Music Awards, won a Golden Globe, won 15 Grammy’s out of 18 nominations, and that’s just the highlights!

This woman has been nominated for 307 awards and won 147 of those before the age of 32.

Adele is gorgeous now. Adele was gorgeous 4 years ago. Adele is just gorgeous.

— Nayamka Roberts-Smith, LE (@LaBeautyologist) May 7, 2020

Also, her album 21 has held the best selling spot in the US for longer than any album since 1985. It’s the fourth most sold album in the UK ever and is certified diamond. On her birthday we should talk about her intelligence, talent, and achievements, not how good she looks in an Instagram photo.

The Global Point

I’ve seen a lot of articles claiming this is either good or bad for the body positivity movement. But it is what you make it. I personally always looked up to Adele because she was one of the first celebrities I saw as looking like me. She became big when I was in middle school and the body positivity movement was just really starting to peek its face out of the woodwork.

I still look up to her. She’s still a beautiful, talented, and inspiring woman no matter what size she is. She is also not the only face of body positivity nor will she be the last. And finally, you can be body positive at any size! She can still be your role model if you want her to be and if she inspires you to lose weight (in a healthy way!) then go for it!

Body positivity is not about being “fat” or “curvy” and I think this is where we lose a lot of people. The movement is about loving the skin you came in and recognizing that weight doesn’t define your health, you can be gorgeous and worth love at any size, and that we need to stop idolizing unrealistic body standards.

Big take away: Stop judging people based on their appearance, mind your own business, and focus on loving you.

Let me know your take in the comments!

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