The public court of opinion takes no prisoners when it comes to things like weight and physique.
But there are some celebrities who've refused to take the abuse lying down.
Keep watching to discover which stars have called out their body-shamers.
Lady Gaga's 2017 Super Bowl halftime show was hailed as one of the best ever, and with
good reason.
It began on the roof of Houston's NRG Stadium, where the New England Patriots were facing
off against the Atlanta Falcons.
After jumping from the roof and descending to the stage as drones behind her formed the
image of the American flag, Gaga performed a medley of hits and patriotic singalongs,
leaving everyone satisfied.
Well, not quite everyone.
While the performance itself was praised across the board, there were some who took issue
with the singer's body.
One person tweeted,
"Lady Gaga is a little fat in her stomach."
While another declared,
"Lady Gaga coming in with the beer gut."
When Gaga caught wind that her body had become a topic of conversation online and in the
press, she hit back with an inspiring Instagram post in which she said,
"I'm proud of my body and you should be proud of yours too.
No matter who you are or what you do, I could give you a million reasons why you don't need
to cater to anyone or anything to succeed.
Be you, and be relentlessly you.
That's the stuff of champions."
Gigi Hadid got plenty of love from fans after she posted a vacation selfie on Instagram
in August 2016.
But there were also some people of the opinion that she looked way too skinny.
As the comments section began to fill up with theories about her weight loss, the model
decided to enter the debate herself, hitting the haters with a basic biology lesson.
As she put it,
"It's called growing up.
Bodies change as girls become women, just as my mom's body changed at the same age.
Having my body judged over the span of the 4 teen-to-woman years has really shown me
the human tendency to label and make uneducated judgement."
Hadid was named international model of the year at London's Fashion Awards a few months
after calling out her body-shamers, and she would continue picking up accolades in the
years to come.
In 2017, she was presented with the Supernova award at Glamour's Women of the Year Awards,
and she was named Choice Model at the 2018 Teen Choice Awards.
Her success hasn't deterred the trolls, though, as they've continued to comment on her size.
Hadid later revealed that she had lived with undiagnosed Hashimoto's disease in her teens,
which was the real reason behind her weight loss.
When Kelly Clarkson took to Twitter to thank people in service for their sacrifices on
Independence Day in 2017, one person decided to randomly comment on her weight.
Even though she was simply passing on her well wishes, the stranger called her fat for
no apparent reason.
But the singer unequivocally won the internet with her blunt reply by snapping back:
"...and still f---ing awesome."
Her admirable attitude toward her haters has been honed from years of practice, as this
was far from the first time she's had to deal with body-shamers.
In fact, she found that it was worse for her before she gained some weight.
As she told Glamour in 2020,
"I felt more pressure from people actually when I was thin, when I was really thin and
not super healthy because I just was worn out, just working so hard and not keeping
healthy habits."
She also revealed that she was shown magazine spreads of other women as motivation to stay
skinny, to which she responded,
"I can't compete with that.
That's not even my image.
That's not who I am.
That's who they are."
Most celebs have had at least one ugly encounter with a troll during their time in the limelight,
but Chrissy Teigen seems to be dealing with them on a weekly basis.
When she shared a harmless clip of herself in a swimsuit with her Twitter followers in
April 2020, the body-shamers came out of the woodwork in full force.
Not one to let such things slide, the model fired back at the people being mean about
her supposedly "square" frame, as she tweeted,
"Everyone used to...surgically enhanced curves.
I've been a square my whole life and let me tell you, it's paid off nicely in many ways!"
Teigen went on to claim that if she did go ahead and get surgery to look more like the
women the trolls were comparing her to, she would just get more hate.
As she puts it,
"Imagine if one day I showed up with hips and an ass.
Ooooo you guys would be pissed then too!"
"When you're fixing yourself so much, it's so unfair."
Lena Dunham walked her first ever runway at London Fashion Week in 2020, and, in her own
words, she doesn't give, quote, "even the tiniest of s----" about what you think of
her body.
Her size has been a topic of fascination for the tabloids ever since she shot to fame with
her hit HBO series Girls, so when Refinery29 published an article in 2017 calling for that
conversation to end, Dunham decided to add her own two cents.
In an impassioned Instagram post, she made it clear that she's at peace with her appearance.
As she put it,
"I've accepted that my body is an ever changing organism, not a fixed entity — what goes
up must come down and vice versa.
I smile just as wide no matter my current size because I'm proud of what this body has
seen and done and represented."
At the time of Dunham's post, she had recently lost some weight, though that was purely for
medical reasons.
She has endometriosis, and in an attempt to control it she started dieting and exercising.
As she explained,
"My weight loss isn't a triumph and it also isn't some sign I've finally given in to the
voices of trolls."
Amy Schumer didn't take too kindly to people labeling her racy 2016 Pirelli calendar photo
shoot as "brave," but that was nothing compared to comments made by swimwear designer Dana
Duggan the following year.
When Schumer posed in a white Ralph Lauren swimsuit for the May cover of InStyle, Duggan
decided to get involved in the discussion by body-shaming the actress in the comments
section of the magazine's Instagram post.
As she put it,
"Come on now!
You could not find anyone better for this cover?
Not everyone should be in a swimsuit."
As other users began to call her out, Duggan doubled down, apparently enjoying the attention,
as she went on to say that Schumer looked, quote, "like a pig."
The Huffington Post then reached out to her for comment, and she said,
"I'm tired of the media and publications trying to push the FAT agenda.
It's not healthy and it's not pretty.
What is wrong with featuring healthy and fit cover models?"
Schumer responded by posting several bikini pics of herself.
As she said on her Instagram story,
"I feel great.
No haters can f with my baseline."
"They're like, 'No more food for you!'
I'm like, 'Don't you need that to live?'
They were like, 'That is a myth!'
So..."
When photos of Rihanna keeping it super casual in a baggy shirt and jeans hit the internet
in 2017, Barstool Sports published a blog that not only body-shamed her but also inexplicably
blamed her for encouraging other women to gain weight.
The piece predicted,
"A world of ladies shaped like the Hindenburg loaded into one-piece bathing suits may be
on the horizon now that Rihanna is traipsing around out there looking like she's in a sumo
suit."
Unsurprisingly, the backlash was swift.
The blog was labelled "heinous" by Glamour, while former Elle.com Executive Editor Sally
Holmes said that she was, quote, "disgusted."
As she put it,
"The last thing we need is another dude passing judgement over our bodies ― a dude that
doesn't even KNOW US or, for that matter, Rihanna."
The singer had women everywhere behind her, and for her own response, she got a little
creative.
In what appeared to be a direct response to the story, she posted split images of rapper
Gucci Mane on her Instagram before and after his weight loss transformation, along with
the text,
"If you can't handle me at my 2007 Gucci Mane, you don't deserve me at my 2017 Gucci Mane."
Billie Eilish is notably younger than most of the celebs on this list, which makes her
inclusion all the more concerning.
She was just 14 years old when she uploaded her song "Ocean Eyes" to SoundCloud and set
herself on the path to stardom.
When her single "Bad Guy" topped the charts three years later, an obsession with her baggy
clothes and what they may or may not be concealing began in earnest.
It got so bad that she was inspired to make a short film about body-shaming.
Entitled "Not My Responsibility," it features her stripping down to her bra and plunging
into a pool of jet-black water.
"Some people hate what I wear.
Some people praise it."
The film's message apparently didn't come across to everyone, as it didn't take long
for Eilish's body to make headlines again.
It all began when a paparazzi shot of her minding her own business in Los Angeles went
viral.
She was wearing a camisole and a comfy pair of shorts at the time, and when one Twitter
user described her as having a, quote, "mid-30's wine mom body," people rightfully flipped
out.
Eilish kept her cool, though.
Instead of going after the 29-year-old man who body-shamed her, she shared a video on
Instagram about normalizing real bodies.
If you body-shame Cardi B, you better believe she's going to call you out for it.
The New York native is known for being refreshingly open about her body, so when somebody accuses
her of digitally altering her images prior to posting them, fireworks ensue.
In June 2020, she was hit with allegations of Photoshopping, so in response, she stripped
down to a tiny bikini and took her body-shamers to task and then some.
In an expletive-filled video that she posted on Instagram, the rapper proceeded to go after
all the people who put her down with their comments in a way that was impossible to ignore.
As she put it,
"I know you b------ ain't talking when y'all are shaped like seals, and I know you [...] ain't
talking when you got sisters with bison backs and y'all mothers is shaped like walruses."
She also joked about holding in her stomach and having liposuction money.
Suffice it to say, Cardi B addressed her critics like only Cardi B can.
Nobody really knew just how terrible a time Selena Gomez was having with her health until
she was in the clear.
The singer had opened up to Billboard in 2015 about being diagnosed with lupus, which left
her suffering from headaches, fevers, and fatigue, but she kept the extent of her health
crisis hidden.
News of her kidney transplant didn't come out in the press until after the procedure
was completed.
In a September 2017 Instagram post, she confirmed that actor Francia Raisa had donated the new
organ.
As Gomez revealed,
"It was what I needed to do for my overall health [...] She gave me the ultimate gift
and sacrifice by donating her kidney to me.
I am incredibly blessed.
I love you so much sis."
"She's like, 'Are you good?'
I was like, 'Yeah.
We're doing this.’”
You would think that going under the knife for something so serious would give Gomez
a pass when it comes to body-shaming, but alas, that didn't turn out to be the case.
When the first pictures of the scar on her inner thigh came out, so did the haters.
Even after the 2017 post where she discussed her health struggles, numerous people continued
to comment on her weight, with one going as far so saying that she looked pregnant.
Gomez took it all in stride and offered a pitch-perfect response on Instagram:
"The beauty myth- an obsession with physical perfection that traps modern woman in an endless
cycle of hopelessness, self consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society’s
impossible definition of flawless beauty.
I chose to take care of myself because I want to, not to prove anything to anyone."
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Nicki Swift videos about your favorite stars are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.