Why we should stop shaming Rebel Wilson for her weight loss

The actress recently lost 18 kilograms and has since been the victim of unwarranted media scrutiny 

Australian actress Rebel Wilson recently posted the results of her ‘year of health’, a dramatic drop of 18 kilograms and the world’s response has been split in two: some condoning her achievement and some criticising her for losing weight at all.

The latter has slammed the actress for surrendering to the pressures of ‘the perfect Hollywood image’ and has called her weight loss ‘toxic’. 

However, is it really fair of us to judge people’s bodies at all?

Rebel’s journey

Rebel made her comedic cinema debut when she featured in the hit films Bridesmaids and Pitch Perfect. 

Since then she’s gone on to do similar roles, making audiences roar with laughter in movies like How to be Single, The Hustle and Isn’t it Romantic.

Unfortunately, while her fame skyrocketed, the actress found herself continuously typecast as the ‘fat, funny girl’. 

In fact, Rebel revealed that producers were paying her big money to stay at a certain weight and she felt pressured to remain the size they wanted her to be.

“I had a job where I was paid a lot of money to be bigger at times,” she told The Sun, “which kind of can mess with your head a bit.”

As a result of these pressures, the actress said she had been “overeating” and been wanting to live a healthier lifestyle for quite some time.

A year of health

This year, Rebel was turning 40 and decided that her New Year’s resolution was going to be a ‘year of health’.

“Weirdly this year was always going to be the year of health,” she told The Sun. “I’ve been naming my years now, and, that’s kind of having these resolutions but for the whole year.

“I always thought that I may be psychic and I always felt this year I wasn’t really going to work much.

“I turned 40 as well in March and so I thought, this is gonna be it. This is going to be the year for me to just concentrate on the health benefits.”

And that’s exactly what she did back in January. Rebel started eating a healthy and nutritious diet and exercising regularly.

And now, over eight months later, she has lost a whopping 18 kilograms. And while she has a weight goal in mind, the actress said her focus hasn’t been on losing weight specifically but to live a healthier lifestyle. 

“It’s not like I want to lose weight and get to around a certain number,” the actress said. “It’s more than that, it’s about dealing mentally with with why I was overeating […]. 

“So now I’m just trying to work on the mental side and the physical job and doing a lot of personal training and, and on the nutrition side.”

Body positivity and self-confidence

In an interview with InStyle, Rebel said one of the ways she found self-confidence when she was young was through the creative arts.

But as her acting career progressed, she felt she had lost this self-assurance as she found herself pigeonholed and unable to take control of her own health.

Now, she is taking back this control and choosing the best path for herself and her health right now and that is fully commendable, weight loss aside.

And the fact that tabloids think they have the right to judge her for her decision is incredibly misguided. She has the right to choose what is best for her, free of judgement.

Contrary to popular opinion, famous people’s bodies are not public domain and we wish Rebel all the best with her health journey.

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