I thought we agreed to leave body shaming in 2022, but alas, new pictures published of Selena Gomez in a bikini prove that not everyone got the memo.

The singer, 30, has been on vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz, and the friends were enjoying a yacht trip where Selena was snapped by paparazzi  in her swimsuit. Pop-culture Twitter account @PopBase posted two photos alongside the caption: “Selena Gomez looks gorgeous as she poses for paparazzi in Cabo.” So far, so good, right?

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Enter the comments section, where Twitter users casually weighed in with their thoughts on the singer’s body. “She gotta lose some weight she looking tubby,” one wrote, while another read: “Wow, pack on the pounds or what.” Someone even wrote: “OH SHES HUGEE”, and an arguably particularly hurtful comment said: “The pop girlie who’s aging the worst, I fear [sic].” As the post gained steam, people came the star’s defense, cementing about how beautiful she is, but the damage was done. 

It strikes me as so sad that we continue to cling to this collective preoccupation with appearance and, to be more specific, weight. We’re still so deeply obsessed with people’s size – and why? We have all seen enough body-positive quotes on Instagram now to know that our weight should be the least interesting thing about us. Yet it continues to fascinate.

If You Survived the Early 2000s Without Body Issues, Congratulations 

Millennial women seem to have finally opened our eyes to the fact that our generation was caught in the crossfires of a uniquely heinous, fatphobic time in cultural history that’s left us seriously screwed up. And we want to talk about it. 

Maybe this isn’t such a surprise, though: we’ve lived in a society riddled by diet culture obsession for decades. Our parents, our grandparents and even our great-grandparents were taught to fear fatness and glorify thinness. They were conditioned to believe that thinness was the best thing a human could achieve – and this false belief has yet to abate significantly until recent years, when body positivity hit the mainstream. But even still, this deep-rooted belief system cannot be dismantled overnight.

So it makes sense, but it’s still sad. And it doesn’t justify the cruel comments on other people’s bodies. Unfortunately, Selena is no stranger to commentary on her weight, and she’s found herself at the centre of many conversations about her body during her time in the spotlight.


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