If you’re a millennial, that means you grew up in the ’80s or ’90s, when we were all just bombarded with constant content about weight loss and fad diets and which size-4 celebrity was heinously fat and therefore, unloveable. It was a brutal time to grow up, and I know most of us have struggled with our body image since that time, and no wonder! It was everywhere. It was absolutely pervasive. And now, in a viral TikTok, creator Hayley Madigan has rounded up just a small handful of examples.
This video comes with a big trigger warning: If you still struggle with this and aren’t up for seeing women criticized for having perfectly normal bodies, don’t watch this video. Enjoy your inner peace and carry on with your day.
@thefemalelead @hayleymadiganfitness: “@hayleymadiganfitness: “POV: You grew up in the 90’s and now realise why your relationship with your body was so bad… Whether it was in magazines, on talk shows or on reality TV… we continuously watched women get criticised. We’ve still not got to where we want to be but I feel somewhat change is happening and we will make sure the generations to come don’t endure the same pressure and issues we faced back then.” Video & caption by @hayleymadiganfitness
The video, set to Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For,” starts with a clip of Britney Spears’ 1999 interview with Dutch TV presenter Ivo Niehe, when he said to her, “Everyone’s talking about it…your breasts.” Britney was 17 at that time.
The next clip shows Howard Stern berating Anna Nicole Smith.
“The way you dress, I don’t think you’re aware that you’re a heavy set woman,” he says.
She shrinks back in her seat as she responds, “I know I’m a big woman. So what?”
Stern then asks her to get on a scale live on his show.
The next clip shows Scott Disick telling Kourtney Kardashian that he didn’t fall in love with her “a couple pounds overweight,” he fell in love with her when she was “super skinny,” so she’s no longer his ideal weight.
The clips just keep coming, one after another. There’s Simon Cowell telling an American Idol hopeful that despite her “nice” voice, she looks like a “shop girl” because of her weight. There’s Jay Leno joking that Bill Clinton was a liar because it was said he would compliment Monica Lewinsky’s figure. It’s like being back in the grocery store checkout line and seeing the tabloids with images of celebrity women who have “let themselves go” splashed on the covers — women who we now know were maybe a size 6? Remember that?
Anyway, take care of yourselves, millennials. Your body is just your body, no matter what it looks like, and it has nothing to do with how wonderful you are. And the opinions of others (especially men) have no bearing on that whatsoever.