After spending a great deal of time not wanting people to talk to her about her weight, Gabourey Sidibe has shared her story in her own way in her book, This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare. Since then, she’s been very outspoken about calling out and setting straight people who are way too consumed with the bodies of others.
In a recent podcast chat on Never Before with Janet Mock, Sidibe talked about her book and how after people started identifying her as her character of Precious, they also felt they could critique her body and push her to lose weight, for her “own good,” if they reminded her at every turn that she was big. It’s a common practice for people to believe that if they negatively speak or give tough love to you about your body, it will be the motivation necessary to get you to lose weight.
Today’s @NeverBeforePod features actress & author @GabbySidibe — a beacon of confidence, joy, wisdom & ferocity! https://t.co/pZp3vUqZ91 pic.twitter.com/W590ksREHX
— Janet Mock (@janetmock) July 18, 2017
The Empire actress and author called those people out and made it clear that they don’t want to help — they just want to tear you down.
“I never wanted to talk about my weight. I didn’t. And when all the movements started happening, I didn’t want to join the body acceptance movement because I thought I would be a detriment to it,” she said. “Because people would comment like, ‘She’s promoting like a really unhealthy lifestyle. She’s promoting being fat and beautiful and that’s not true and that’s really unhealthy.’ It’s like, I’m promoting a movie! I’m promoting a TV show! I’m not telling you what to eat, what not to eat. Because the honest truth of it is I have had several trainers throughout my life. I have been on every single diet throughout my life. I know what I look like.”
She continued, stating that just as she’s not out here worried about anyone else’s body, we shouldn’t be so worried about hers, or anyone else’s.
“People pretend that they care about my health by calling me a ‘fat disgusting b—h,'” Sidibe said. “You do not care about my health, you are just a giant gaping a–hole. And you think you can have an opinion about me but this is my body. I’m not out here in these streets writing think-pieces about how your d–k is too small.”
Last fall, she spoke about not letting that negativity mess with her spirit.
“How often do people tweet things at you that don’t make you feel great?” she said to Watch What Happens Live host Andy Cohen. “The second you decide to feel great about yourself, you feel great. It’s not the fame. It’s not the money. What little money there is — I’m not rich. It can’t come from some outside source. I got a lot of therapy in my life. I champion for therapy. Therapy is everything. Really sit with yourself, no matter what age you are. You have to figure out what about yourself you love.”
The post Gabourey Sidibe On Those Who Try To Fat Shame People Into Weight Loss: “You Are A Giant, Gaping A–hole” appeared first on MadameNoire.