Remembering When J.Lo Was Juicy
Last week, many of the celeb gossip sites (OK, OK, the Daily Mail UK, my guilty pleasure…) picked up on a viral Twitter thread that “exposed” a bunch of celebs who were considered “thick” in the early 2000s. Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez were among the names that kicked it off. The reason I put the word exposed in quotes is because part of the reason the thread went viral was Gen Z’s absolute disbelief that these women were ever considered thick. The thread caught the attention of Lizzo (another reason it went viral), who praised how far those working for body neutrality have come while still acknowledging there is more work to be done.
“I’m not here to convince you that beauty standards were different back then… what I am here to do is just remark on how quickly the conversation and culture can change. All it takes is 20 years to completely erase an ideal, a thought, a pattern, behavior, the way we treat people, the way we talk about people.” —Liz
From where I sit, it doesn’t feel like we’ve done enough to loosen diet culture’s grip on society. With Ozempic and the rise of this new class of weight loss drugs called GLP-1 receptor agonists, and the positioning of ob*sity itself as a disease, some days, it feels like we’re moving backward. But those of us who have been around long enough do remember the early buzz around these women, and their bodies were very much the topic of conversation.
Many on the Twitter thread argued the reason these women were considered thick is that we just weren’t as fat as a society as we are now. This is true. The average adult woman’s weight increased 6.8 pounds from 1999-2000 to 2015-2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
There was also the Lizzo camp that attributed it to society then not being as accepting as it is now. Another explanation is that we were coming off the “waif” model/heroin chic fashion era. We simply weren’t used to seeing famous women with curves.
This was before we were having our own fat injected into our butts. In fact, it was our quest for backsides like Lopez’s and Kardashian’s that drove demand for the Brazilian butt lift, or BBL. Between 2000 and 2010, it was the fastest-growing cosmetic procedure in the U.S., according to the Association of Plastic Surgeons.
We just couldn’t get enough of the juicy butt. And now thanks to surgical intervention, despite the BBL’s status as one of the most dangerous cosmetic procedures, Lopez’s and Kardashian’s rears seem rather modest.
Let’s be real, though, they were never fat. Lopez had honed her athletic physique thanks to years of hip hop dance, including as a Fly Girl on “In Living Color.”
“When I started working, the beauty ideal was very thin, blond, tall, not a lot of curves. I grew up around women with curves, so it was nothing ever I was ashamed of.” —Jennifer Lopez
Still, there was so much buzz around her backside after she landed her big break playing the late Tejana singer Selena in 1997. In recent years, she has recounted how she was pressured to lose weight, including by her own manager, whom she later fired. She was literally the butt of jokes, and her derriere was even the focus of a “South Park” episode. But for thousands of women with curves, she was an inspiration, a new model.
Kardashian also knew her curves were playing against accepted celeb standards, and she put them on full display, posing for Playboy in 2007 and then again for Paper Magazine in 2014 with a cover that “broke” the Internet.
While her body was a huge part of her claim to fame, it was also a never-ending source of scrutiny, especially through four highly visible pregnancies. In the last two years, though, her curves disappeared, intentionally. She openly (dangerously) discussed the great lengths she went to in order to shrink to fit into Marilyn Monroe’s iconic “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” dress for the 2022 Met Gala. While she steadfastly denied using the weight loss drug Ozempic to drop the weight, the rumors fueled the drug’s popularity and subsequent supply shortage.
So in some ways, it feels like we’ve come full circle rather than moving forward. Yes, trends come and go, including for beauty aesthetics, but for those of us working toward body inclusivity, it doesn’t feel like there’s been enough progress.
Farrah Storr, the former magazine editor who put Tess Holliday on the cover of Cosmopolitan, recently questioned whether the body positivity movement was one big lie. From less size inclusivity on recent catwalks to the rise of Buccal fat removal, she posits we’ve taken a step back.
“The problem with the current strand of activism is that it leaves no room for debate or individual expression. It is all rage and anger and jostling for power. You are either on the right side of history. Or the wrong side.” —Farrah Storr
I see her point. I think a lot of the problem is we’ve simply drunk the Kool-Aid. We’ve made thinness not just the physical ideal but the physical embodiment of health, something we must aspire to at all costs. While those in thin and “normal”-sized bodies face the same health issues as those in larger bodies, they are not treated the same. And while some in the medical community finally acknowledge that some of us—despite doing all the right things—simply cannot be thin naturally, they’re still insisting we need a drug intervention.
It’s a dangerous precedent.
I remember when J.Lo was thick. This was the era I grew up in. I was in my twenties, working as a journalist and a personal trainer during her rise to fame. Through my eyes, her curves were positive, because I had curves, too. And if she was considered attractive, I could be, too. Now, when I think about my daughters, I’m glad there’s a much broader range of inclusive body types, so we can focus on more important matters than just what we look like. And these women paved the way for that, whether we define them as thick or not.
Thanks for reading Almost Sated. Right now, I’m focused on getting this newsletter into the hands of people who need it. If you found what you read interesting, encouraging, or helpful, please make sure you’re subscribed and consider sharing it with others.