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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at USF chapter.

As many of us know, living as women in Western society comes with seemingly never-ending scrutiny over our appearances, from the pieces we choose to express ourselves with to the shape of our bodies themselves. Chest size, facial features, and body types have trend cycles mirroring that of clothing. As if we can remove and relocate fat from our bodies as easily as we can take off a top and buy a new one. While movements like body positivity and body neutrality have grown in popularity over the past decade as more women have subscribed to those ideologies, the level of comfort people feel regarding commenting on other’s bodies remains high. Well intentioned concern can often read as criticism, and praise can unknowingly enable unhealthy behaviors relating to body image. 

Recently, Ariana Grande took to TikTok to address the overwhelming discourse surrounding her body and weight loss, mainly her looking “too skinny” and unhealthy. Grande began the video by expressing her discomfort with having to address the issue, going on to say, “I just wanted to…talk a little bit about what it means to be a person with a body and to be seen and to be paid such close attention to.” Just these few words speak to such a common experience among women: concern over other’s perceptions of us and how we are able to shape those perceptions. Oftentimes, people in the spotlight are reduced to being just a body, their complexity negated by the shape of their figure. Before you are a person, you are the shell of a woman; you are first and foremost a body to be criticized or envied.  Adele expressed a similar sentiment surrounding her weight loss in 2021, revealing how unsurprised she felt when met with objectification of her body.

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Caroline Hernandez via Unsplash

In her video, Grande urges us to “be gentle with each other and with [ourselves]” because “you never know what someone is going through.” While people online fear Grande is at an unhealthy weight currently, she has voiced that the “healthy” version of her body that is being used as a comparison is, in reality, the unhealthiest she had ever been, explaining that she was taking antidepressants, drinking, and engaging in unhealthy eating habits at the time. 

It is easy to see celebrities as untouchable beings manufactured for our own entertainment, but it is imperative to reflect on the way we treat them, and how that translates to the way we treat those in our personal lives. When we refer to Grande’s body today as sickly, we aren’t speaking exclusively about her body, but anyone with a similar body type to her. When we call Adele unhealthy at her heaviest, we are speaking to everyone who looks that way. Even when we criticize ourselves, we are inadvertently critiquing those who look like us. There is no better way to address and correct this behavior than to be intentional with our words and, as Grande said, be gentle to each other.

Karla Evangelista is a member of the writing team and Editor in Chief for Her Campus at USF Chapter. She writes mainly for the culture column, taking specific interest in the consequences of the digital age on Gen Z and cultural critique. Beyond Her Campus, Karla maintains a publication on Substack where she mainly writes prose poetry. She is currently a second year Psychology major at the University of South Florida. When she isn't writing, Karla enjoys reading, playing with her cat, Roman, and listening to an ever-changing rotation of musicians. She lives and breathes by the phrase, "There is strength in being soft. Strength in being raw and open and affected."