The response to Bebe Rexha’s weight gain reveals a wider problem

A famous star has spoken out this year after gaining weight and even called herself “fat” but there’s a wild truth behind it.

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If there’s one thing you can’t do as a woman, it is gain weight, especially if you’re a famous woman.

This year, slimness muscled its way back into pop culture and cemented itself there with such grandeur that it already feels normal now. The rise of the thick figure that dominated beauty standards from the mid-2000s has been replaced with the rake-thin look.

The conversation online has been titled from body positivity and body neutrality to diet culture that even dominates spaces like TikTok that has been carved out by the supposedly woke and inclusive Gen Z.

The words diet and weight loss on the platform have been used millions and millions of times.

Sure, the newer generation might not wear skinny jeans but they are just as obsessed with weight.

How could they not be? They’ve lived through the Adele weight saga.

Adele’s weight loss made international news. Picture: Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images

It is complicated to comment on women’s bodies because by pointing out when a woman has lost weight, you become part of the problem, but it’s also impossible not to acknowledge that famous women’s weight often influences body standards for regular women.

It is as simple and as complicated as this.

When Adele lost weight in 2022, that was her choice, and who cares? The truly interesting thing about her is her incredible voice … but still everyone does kind of care.

Her weight loss made international news, and the commentary about how much better she looked, whether it was directly said or heavily implied, had consequences.

Sure, it had consequences for Adele, who is probably sick of people talking about her body but at least she has the comfort of living a successful, affluent, millionaire life that does come with some perks, like probably having the pleasure of disengaging from a lot of the weight noise.

Yet for regular women who looked like Adele before she lost the weight had to endure months of people discussing how much better the slimmer Adele looks now … what message did that send them?

It’s unfair and depressing, but Adele’s weight and commentary became more significant than her.

She was always gorgeous. Picture: Robyn BECK

She’s been praised for losing weight. Picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

2023 has been the year of female celebrities shedding weight and being slightly cagey about revealing how they did it. It’s been talked about endlessly and ultimately the famous women that have lost weight have been praised for it.

On the other side of the coin, we’ve seen how singer Bebe Rexha was treated this year after gaining weight in 2023.

Rexha’s weight became something that became endlessly hounded over and it seemed to eclipse everything else.

In June she tweeted that she got “fat” but was sick of people talking about it and basically asked everyone to move on.

No one did.

She then appeared on The Jennifer Hudson Talk Show and further opened up about weight gain after being diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, a common hormone imbalance.

“I was a lot thinner, and I did gain some weight — that comes with the territory. I’m not mad about it because it is true, but when you see things like that, it does mess with you,” she admitted.

Bebe is sick of people talking about her weight. Picture: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

She’s a hugely successful songwriter. Picture: Christopher Polk/Getty Images for NARAS

By July, Rexha, 33, was still talking about her weight and uploaded a text message screenshot with no context or caption to Instagram. The message is believed to be from her ex-boyfriend, producer Keyan Safyari, 38.

In the message, the sender writes that he never said he did love the singer but that he was always going to be “honest” with her and then the person proceeded to ruthlessly comment on her weight gain.

“Your face was changing, so I told you it was … that was the conversation we were having, and you asked,” it reads.

“Would you rather I lied to you? You gained 35 pounds obviously, you gained weight and your face changes? Should I just pretend it didn’t happen and that it’s OK? Come on, I gain three pounds and you called me chubbs and fat. That doesn’t mean you don’t love me.”

She uploaded a text message about her weight gain to Instagram. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

She’s spent the whole year talking about her weight. Picture: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

The insane thing is that Rexha still looks excellent, and yet a woman gaining weight in 2023 becomes a huge deal, no matter how little that weight might be.

Sure, Rexha’s been on tour, writing more killer songs, and going viral on TikTok, but her weight has become the year’s overarching theme.

We all know that 2023 was the year that suddenly all the famous women started to shrink, and while the response to that might be problematic, what is more harrowing is the way famous women get treated when they gain weight.

Somewhere between “love your curves” and “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”, we’ve ended up fat-shaming women just as badly as we used too in the early 2000s.