yes, there is a level of responsibility when it comes to what you share with your audience, especially if they are young and impressionable, however, idols are not going to be hyperonline like most of us, and are not going to know the ins and outs of what might be acceptable +
+ especially in regards to something as nuanced and varied from place to place as diet culture. no, i don’t think talking about going on a diet as an idol is inherently bad. they are sharing their life with us.
as it stands, their jobs revolve around being open with us, and if it provides some comfort to them to be able to share things like this, then i don’t think it should necessarily be shamed as hard as it was this morning.
i saw a tweet saying to pick up a book on fat politics to see why this whole debacle is just unbridled fatphobia from the artist.
no idol that i know of has ever purported to be apart of any kind of body posi/fat liberation movement.
they are not required to be apart of any kind of movement like that. they can tell us to love ourselves, to care about ourselves, to eat and sleep and stay healthy, but nowhere in that is any statement of any kind of body posi/fat liberation specifically.
should anyone feeling triggered by talk of dieting from an idol be shamed for feeling triggered? absolutely not, and it’s disgusting that any of that is happening. however, i think you can state that you are feeling triggered and remove yourself from the situation +
+ to keep yourself and you mental health safe. if you don’t want to see idols talking about dieting, cancel your bbl sub, mute words, hell, even block if you need to. what we shouldn’t do is blame the idol for being what triggered you, which to be fair, i don’t think ive seen.
to reiterate, what we SHOULDN’T do is dogpile people expressing that they have been triggered by weight/diet talk. that is a horrible way to go about things and is not in any way productive.
and also, what we SHOULDN’T do is dehumanize idols by saying that talking about things that bother them with their fans is just pushing their “parasocial relationship agenda” or some shit equivalent, or by saying they’re only here to sing and dance for you.
there’s a level of dehumanization and objectification inherent to being someone in an entertainment industry, but you don’t need to push that idea to an extreme to make a point on fucking twitter.
please, can all of you remember there are PEOPLE behind every screen you decide to compose a tweet or message on, famous or not, hyperonline or not. think for 5 seconds before hitting send on something that could hurt someone else. basic principles, everybody.
