After recent public appearances, social media posts, a magazine cover and a swimwear launch actress, comedian, and writer Mindy Kaling has become the latest celebrity to spark rumors that she’s on the trendy drug Ozempic.
Just about any post or article related to anything Mindy is up to is hijacked by comments suggesting she is using the injectable GLP-1 receptor agonist.
Ozempic is designed to help individuals with type 2 diabetes manage their blood sugar levels while also decreasing appetite, and improving glucose metabolism — often resulting in significant weight loss.
I’m not one to talk about people’s bodies anymore.
After body fluctuations of my own from — being overweight in my teens to playing rugby and bodybuilding in my 20s to being a 30-year-old who values working out and also loves trying new restaurants (#BestLife #SoftLife) — I know what it’s like to have your self-esteem yanked around by unsolicited commentary about your body.
I am one to talk about people who talk about people’s bodies.
The change is obvious; it’s drastic and anyone with eyes can see. But “see something, say something” does not apply to people’s bodies.
The comments under Mindy’s posts have been so volatile, it seems people have forgotten a few things…
She does not belong to you.
(To those who are upset about her losing weight)
We take for granted celebrities whose physique doesn’t seem to change over the years.
These celebrities are exceptions to the rule, not the standard. Our bodies, as living organisms, change as time passes. It’s normal.
Research suggests that most adults may gain 1–3 pounds (0.5–1.4 KG) per year during adulthood which is associated with a significantly increased risk of major chronic diseases and mortality.
What is so wrong with someone actively fighting against this progression?
Remember that one time Lizzo did a juice cleanse and people got big mad that what she chose to do with her body was “at odds with the body-positive singer’s image”?
At the age of 43, I imagine Mindy has spent plenty of time trying to “let love win” and embrace the body she had and the changes she likely experienced upon birthing two children.
Dammed if you do and damned if you don’t, so silence the damners and do you.
Inhabit the body you are happiest and most comfortable in. It’s hard to tease apart the strains of happiness that are innate from those engrained by societal conditioning.
The war between your physical being and your mental health is one I wish no person to be enlisted in.
There comes a time you just want peace, whatever that might look like.
She does not owe you the details.
(To those who claim it’s not about the weight loss, it’s about the truth.)
She owes herself her truth.
Sure, it sucks when people promote unrealistic beauty standards that others slave away trying to obtain.
When training for my first (and only) bodybuilding competition, I was shocked to learn how many people were on steroids, morphing into a physique I eventually snapped my ankle running on a treadmill chasing (and never grasped). I expected the pros to be juicing, but not amateur women.
When I vented about this to my coach, he told me I was focusing on the wrong thing. I was meant to be focusing on myself.
No one has a moral obligation to serve you with attainable beauty standards. It would be nice but don’t live a life expecting — demanding — honesty from complete strangers.
So why lie about it?
When asked what they told others when they notice the results of their weight loss medication, Redditors on GLP-1 drugs who choose not to speak openly about their prescription say they do so because:
- “I don’t want to feel judged.”
- “I don’t want to be berated with questions.”
- “I don’t want to be lectured about potential side effects.”
Ultimately, values are subjective. Some value transparency and honesty while others value privacy and peace.
She is not your hero.
(To those disappointed she is no longer a plus-sized woman in Hollywood)
Find your own super(wo)man.
Hint: you’re better off idolizing a higher power because one thing humans will do is disappoint you.
Being a role model and a poster child for anything in today’s society requires energy and consistency against all odds to a degree that is nearly unrealistic to avoid getting “canceled”.
After the movie Precious (2009), Gabourey Sidibe gained significant popularity and broke barriers gracing magazine covers with her full body and deep rich skin tone.
In her memoir, she reveals that even at that peak in her career, negativity around her body that she was all too familiar with managed to sneak its way up to the top to meet her.
“I was listening in on the phone call where André Leon Talley was saying that he was going to get my fat black ass on the cover of the magazine, and Lee Daniels was excited about it.
It hurt my feelings, but it also was a lesson in this is what they think and this is what they will always think, and there’s no way of being too talented or too pretty or too confident around it.
…Hollywood in general is not on my body’s side, you know. And he’s a part of that. Everyone I work with is a part of that.”
It is rarely easy to be “different” especially when your difference is considered inferior and brings with it disadvantages.
Mindy spoke about this in her 2015 memoir Why Not Me?
“I’m a confident person, but there are moments when I’m at a shoot, and the stylist will say, ‘Mindy, wear these heels,’ and I’ll feel like a kid playing dress-up in my mom’s closet. It’s intimidating because I’m not a size zero, and sometimes it feels like you need to be in order to fit in.”
The journey to self-acceptance (especially in a place like Hollywood) is not easy. Forgive those who are not cut out to be brave, resilient, or even interested in enduring an external (and internal) battle around their “otherness”.
Some days you might have every intention to tough it out, and other days, you hope someone else has it in them to be a martyr.
No celebrity ever asked to be your hero.
They only asked to share their raw passion and talent in the form of art. Everything else we’ve bestowed on them is a projection of our own desires.
The Ozempic disdain is one rooted in unfairness.
When you read between the lines of angry comments about Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs used for weight loss, the main issue seems to be unfairness:
- It’s unfair that some get access to this drug while your insurance might not cover it. — Refocus your outrage toward the healthcare system. It’s easier to be mad at an individual rather than the institution. In doing so, the institution continues to get away with it.
- It’s unfair that some are not even diabetic and getting diabetes medication for weight loss when diabetics can’t get a hold of it. — Again, refocus your outrage toward the healthcare system + we don’t have anyone’s medical record to know if they are diabetic.
- It’s unfair that they get help with losing weight and it feels like they are “cheating”. — It’s a personal journey, not a collective competition. There’s no “winning”. Refocus on you.
Stop being preoccupied with other people losing weight, gaining weight, getting work done, aging gracefully, aging poorly, or any bodily changes.
Matter of fact, challenge yourself to mind your own business this year.
“I think the more we try not to be fat, the more we’re obsessed with it. We’re taught to be ashamed of our bodies, to not love ourselves if we don’t fit into a certain size. But really, who cares if your jeans are a size 4 or 14? If you’re happy and healthy, that’s what matters.” — Mindy Kaling, Why Not Me? (2015)
I hope Mindy is happy and healthy — physically and mentally!
*Her alleged photoshopping and sexual assault is a separate conversation
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: iStockPhoto.com
