Guest Author - Cassandra George Sturges
Jennifer Hudson once bragged about how proud she was of her voluptuous curves and how she “represented” for the big girls i.e.… meaning that she was a role model of beauty, glamour and high self-esteem for plus size women. Jennifer Hudson is now the spokesperson for Weight Watchers and has lost approximately 80 pounds and has gone from a size 16 to a size 6. Jennifer’s message to curvy women who admire her is: The Big is Beautiful Club is for second class women who don’t have what it takes to get into mainstream society’s club for real women who are slim and beautiful.
Comedian and Talk Show host, Mo’Nique , wrote a book titled, “Skinny Women are Evil” where she gives voluptuous women advice on how to love and accept their bodies. She even redefined the word fat to mean Fabulous And Thick. Like Jennifer Hudson, Mo’Nique is also no longer a member of the Big is Beautiful Club. There is absolutely nothing wrong with losing weight to improve the condition of your health, but there is something wrong with pretending to love the voluptuous size of your body and encouraging other women to do the same--- until it is no longer convenient for your career.
In my opinion, Weight Watchers is exploiting women who admire Jennifer Hudson because they are using the talent and success of a young woman to sell their product to millions of women who do not have access to the primary contributing factors that have helped Ms. Hudson to lose eighty pounds. The most significant assets that wealthy celebrities share are flexible time schedules, assistants, chefs, baby-sitters, aides, personal trainers and a slew of people to support and help them to maintain their diet and exercise routine.
The average person who lives from paycheck to paycheck barely have enough time in the day to get 8 hours of sleep before work and/or school the next day. It would be phenomenal if Weight Watchers selected a mother with 4 children, a husband, and a full-time job who earn less than a combined income of $50,000 a year to tell her story of how to exercise and juggle marriage, work and children. It would be interesting to listen to how an everyday, average, middleclass mother teach people how to buy healthy cuts of meat, fruits, and vegetables that are perishable and fairly expensive on a low-income budget.
This would truly help a lot of women and not just line the pockets of Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Slim Fast and other weight loss companies and celebrities who are trying to build a name brand and sell products and services. This type of weight loss promotion would not be exploitation by the weight loss and diet industry--but inspiration to women who are not celebrities.
Women should just be honest with themselves and other women so that they can stop looking for celebrities to be the next president of the Big is Beautiful Club for plus size women… No one truly wants to be a member. No one stopped dieting and exercising to “represent the beauty of voluptuous, curvy women. All of the women in the club are there because they have to be for one reason or another-- not because they want to be. If losing weight in modern mainstream society was easy it wouldn’t be such a big deal and big money maker for corporate weight loss and diet companies. At the end of the day Jennifer Hudson is promoting her next album, movie, talk show appearance… or if she is lucky enough a clothesline or perfume deal that she hopes that her ex-Big is Beautiful plus size women club members will purchase.
