By Deirdre Spilman
Opinion Assignment Editor
If you type “Lady Gaga” into the Google search engine the first suggestion that appears is “Lady Gaga fat.” Now that’s despicable.
If Gaga is considered fat, everybody above a size two should be considered morbidly obese. She looks as if she would rank evenly with a toddler on the body mass index scale.
Since Gaga emerged onto the pop scene, she has remained in the public eye. Usually it’s for her hit songs, her unique sense of style or her philanthropy, but recently she has been scrutinized by the Hollywood gossip mongrels for something that is frankly nobody’s business but her own.
Gaga has admitted to gaining about 25 lbs in a Sept. 26 Huffington Post article and she looks healthier and happier than she did before.
So what’s the big deal?
This constant criticism of celebrities’ physical appearances is just unhealthy. Some people strive be as thin as their sickly-looking role models (think Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton) and set virtually unattainable goals for themselves.
Lady Gaga is sick of all this nonsense, and her ‘Little Monsters’ are behind her all the way.
This past Tuesday Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation launched a new project called “Body Revolution 2013.”
People upload pictures on Twitter to @ABodyRevolution of what some judgmental folks would consider to be flaws, but what they think makes them original. As always, Gaga was the first to board the unique express by tweeting a series of pictures of her skinny self with the captions, “bulimia and anorexia since I was 15” and “today I join the Body Revolution.”
Within a day the Twitter account had thousands of uploads from people brave enough to share what makes them different. Lady Gaga is an absolute genius for doing this.
Instead of uploading pictures from a night at the club or plugging her latest fragrance, Gaga is spreading positivity to her nearly 30 million Twitter followers.
This is exactly what people need right now, a place to share their vulnerabilities without judgment. Every uploaded picture has been received with positive comments that praise the person for his or her bravery, not critiquing what doesn’t meet normal standards.
In an age of cyberbullying it is inspiring to see people going against the norm and embracing who they really are. When people compare themselves to others it creates a competitive and toxic environment that nobody in their right mind would want to be a part of.
We should all take a page out of Gaga’s book and be confident enough to say we were “born this way.”
