I feel the need to rant.
I'll never understand why it's okay to make fun of Kirstie Alley's weight but not, say, Queen Latifah's...I also don't really understand why people get so excited when a certain celebrity slims down or so holier-than-thou when that same celebrity gains it back.
Kirstie Alley spent 13 weeks training for Dancing with the Stars (I have to admit here, I have never seen an episode...) and expressed a personal goal of dropping 30 pounds during the course of the show. Looks like she must have come pretty close to that.
"I walked in old and fat," she has said, "and now I'm old and hot."
In 2006, Kirstie wrapped up her gig as a Jenny Craig spokesperson and appeared on Oprah in a bikini with a very strategically placed sarong. Then, in 2009, she was back on Oprah crying about gaining back the 75 pounds she had lost, plus an extra 10.
I don't read tabloids, but I do buy a lot of groceries and I'm fairly aware of just how often Kirstie Alley's weight is featured in magazines. Not to mention online celebrity news and nasty blogs.
People eat it up. They love her. They hate her. Sometimes they love her when she loses the weight. Sometimes they love her when she gets big again. Overall, subjecting someone to this sort of speculation is not an act of love, though, is it?
So why do we care?
More importantly, why does Kirstie Alley care? I know why she cares about her weight and I can definitely appreciate caring about her fitness level. But why does she feel responsible to us, the public, in her ability to maintain a certain size?
Why does she keep vowing to us that she'll get smaller, skinnier, fitter? And why do we get so wrapped up in it?
It is a sad state of affairs, in my opinion, when a female public figure feels her worth to us depends on how thin she is.
Just imagine a similar comedic actor, but this time a male, appearing on magazine cover after magazine cover, as well as the world's most popular talk show simply to discuss the fact that he had let us all down by gaining some weight.
Let's get some perspective here, people.
Funny... happens to be overweight... has never appeared in public to apologize for size.
Also funny... also overweight... has never appeared in public to apologize for size.
Well, you get the idea.
Just sayin'...
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