[I wrote this for another place, but thought you might all enjoy.]
It’s annoying when celebrities (especially women celebrities, if we’re being specific) play the whole "Oh I never work out, I eat fries and pizza all the time, fuck Hollywood!" crap and they’re thin. (Looking at you, Jennifer Lawrence).
She’s always calling herself fat and “obese,” and she’s clearly not. She’s like “I’m not going to diet or train, teehee” yet you can bet she’s not going over her calories and she’s training 2.5 hours a day at the gym 6 times a week (her trainer actually confirmed this).
This does two things.
1) Perpetuates the stereotype that skinny/fit people are that way because “they were born that way” and not because they work hard for that body and/or eat within their caloric needs. This can also further discourage people who want to get healthy into thinking that they just "aren't made to be fit," which is problematic for obvious reasons.
2) Encourages people to eat crap and not work out because their idol does it and stays healthy, so it’s okay.
I’m not saying JLaw doesn’t eat pizza and fries and everything she says she does. But she’s not gorging on these foods, she’s eating small amounts, and/or she’s running or working it all off. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be that thin. It’s just impossible, unless she’s breaking the laws of thermodynamics, in which case, she should be in a lab somewhere being studied by top scientists, and not acting.
I get where she’s coming from. She wants to encourage girls to not have disordered eating habits or go to extreme lengths to lose weight. I get it and I support that message. But I think that by outright lying does more harm than good. Why can’t she just say, “You know, I eat my fruits and vegetables and I also go to the gym to stay healthy”? Is that seriously such a horrible thing to admit?
Don’t let celebrities make you think they’re fit by accident. This is no accident. Jlaw knows exactly what she’s doing, pandering to most Americans as “the girl next door who eats everything and never gains weight and never works out!”
Yeah, that's a lie.