Stephanie from The Loudmouth shared this Adele quote with me on Twitter because of my interest in body image issues. I’m not sure if she realized I am also a rabid Adele fan and get chills every time I hear her sing. Rolling in the Deep gets cranked whenever it pipes up on my car radio. I love Adele’s outspoken response here to those who might wonder how she feels about her body. The fact that a singer is forced to address questions about her body should be puzzling anyway, no? And I think her response addresses that fact neatly.
I can’t help feeling a little sad when anyone says they hate exercise, yet I do see the way many people use fitness as a vanity endeavour. I only use the pool at the gym, and seeing the way people dress and regard each other during my short walk to the change rooms would suggest they are exercising mainly for esthetic benefits and possibly even to meet a partner. But that’s really not what exercise is for and fitness is getting a bad reputation, which is too bad because it’s essential to overall well-being.
I read an article today about boys giving up sports because the culture in the locker room is so demeaning to males lacking the desired body type. Apparently, it’s like the wild west in there with no chaperones so kids are wearing their gym clothes all day to avoid changing or finding excuses to miss gym class because they feel bullied. My response is “Get a teacher in there!” Nobody should be excluded from fitness because they look a certain way. Fit bodies come in all shapes and sizes and fitness is for everybody: it’s not a club.
Somewhere along the line the fun went out of fitness and it became something punishing and a “have-to” rather than simply a part of life. So often when I hear women talk about “going to the gym” it’s to lose weight and that’s a very discouraging motivation. I’d love to see the myth of the “fit body” eradicated so that everyone can enjoy fitness and stop seeing it as something only thin people do.
The positive aspect of what Adele is getting across to readers in terms of self-acceptance and focussing on your strengths far overshadows any negative views about fitness. However, I do hope Adele isn’t discouraged from engaging in fitness activities because she thinks it’s only for certain people.
What do you think of Adele’s comment?
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Honestly, I think her comment sounds like someone lacking confidence. I think people who are vehemently against something like exercise don’t understand how it could be incorporated into one’s life in a healthy way. Simply making changes like walking to work instead of driving or picking a cereal without high fructose corn syrup can be an act of health. I think her comments make her sound like she’s not concerned with her health, which really has nothing to do with being overweight or not.
And she should be concerned about her health, as should everyone. Because skinny or fat, if you’re not healthy, you’re not going to live a long life.
The comment does sound a little indignant but that’s kind of what I like about it haha! Ashe mentioned that it might have been edited/cut as well. But I agree that fitness comes in many forms and needs to be part of life.
I think is shows a strong woman to do what she desires and no one is going to tell her she can’t just because she is curvy. This is not lacking confidence at all, she’s telling people “this is who I am”; which is nothing but confidence. She should not have to worry about what she looks like; people listen to her not look at her. She is a singer not a dancer, and she performs her music differently than pop singers such as brittany spears or beyonce. She just sings and it’s beautiful, you don’t have to be pretty and skinny to sing. The whole health thing revolves around the fact that she is NOT SKINNY and that is why they asked her questions ABOUT APPEARANCE; not that healthy means ‘not being overweight’.
That she is strong and proud and inspiring is exactly what I thought before I looked at her comments here and elsewhere… Now it all seems sort of accidental.. Like maybe the real hero is her agent or something. She does sing well.. And I probably appreciate her body more than she does, not that I don’t like thin bodies too… It’s a let down though. It would have been so much cooler if she was who she who was on purpose. The cigarette is also very disappointing to me. I hope she’ll realize what she is capable of being to the world in the coming years. She is not just a singer, she is a whole person and a public figure. She could be so inspiring if she would embrace that and the responsibility that comes with it.
That’s an interesting perspective. Nobody’s perfect and we have to be careful about putting public figures on pedestals.
Really, even if someone is not famous, it is much more admirable if they seek to live their life as an example to others. This person is one of the richest singers and yet complains about taxes because they cost her and yet don’t benefit her so much. Strikes me as shallow especially in this present era of giant gaps between the rich and poor. Then there’s that cigarette, and the excuses that she doesn’t care about health etc. Like I said, one can hope that her thinking will mature, but so far, well I am just really unimpressed. Maybe her advisers should stop her from making dumb comments to media.
It would be admirable if she said every body type is beautiful including her own, or that beauty should not be so narrowly defined. And that she does care about health. Right now, I’m not sure if she has any discernible moral values that aren’t purely self serving.
You know I agree with you completely! Plus I also think that celebs must take some sort of responsibility for what they are saying because they have fans. And more often then not fans are teenagers who can be so easily influenced by wrong ideas! Alright Adele is indeed attractive, but it would do her good to take care of what she eats and doing a bit of exercise just to keep her healthy. Also as a nutritionist I’ve learnt that most people who say that they love food are simply trying to justify their size or inability to control portion sizes or eating healthily. And for goodness sake – making a pic of yourself with a cigarette?! No wonder so many young girls think smoking is cool. Her quote actually made me quite sad. x
I didn’t even think about the cigarette! Thanks for pointing that out.
Oddly, Garren read me this quote this morning. On one hand, I love that she’s not bowing to the pressures of a high profile life– there are so many beautiful women who lose unnecessary weight because they believe it’s the only way to get more film roles, get more press, etc. And I think that’s unfair against a woman’s natural body (one example that comes to mind is Sara Rue).
On the other hand, I do believe that people should care about their health. It’s HARD to fit working out, real working out, in to a busy life. I know that I have a hard time without sacrificing other things in my life…
When I looked her up earlier, she’s actually 5’9 and a UK 14-16…which is a US 12-14, I believe? It astounds me how much people make a big deal of her size, which is the size of the average US woman, but significantly taller…
Given that it’s a quote though, I wonder how much it has been edited or altered by the writer? I get the impression that she’s probably actually NOT unhealthy and isn’t against being healthy, but is making a statement saying she won’t change herself for goals that aren’t hers.
Did Sara Rue lose a bunch of weight? Whenever that happens I always think “another one bites the dust” because I hate seeing actresses kowtow to the thin ideal. I think the trick with fitness is to find something you enjoy doing and then you’ll want to fit it in rather than it being a chore. It could be dancing or swimming or a sport or anything that makes your body move and raises your heart rate. To me, the gym is so centred around exercise for exercise’s sake rather than pleasure or enjoyment. And good point about editing in the quote. And I didn’t even notice her size until I saw this quote. Honestly I only noticed that she was beautiful and has a wicked voice.
Oh yeah, she lost a TON. She even had a reality show about losing the weight for her wedding or something? It’s really weird to see pictures of her when she was on Popular or Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane, and to see images of her now. She looks strikingly different, and it is sad. Because in reality, she was probably a normal sized girl who was beautiful, and now she just looks… like another thin generic actress.
Like you, I only noticed Adele’s weight because people make SUCH a fuss about it! She’s gorgeous, has an amazing voice, put herself on like, Match.com to find a dude. She’s just…kind of normal.
I definitely agree about finding natural ways to fit in exercise (it’s why we’re buying bikes!), as opposed to going to the gym. The gym never bothers me much (as I like weight training a lot), but the partner HATES it…
The locker room problem isn’t only a boy thing, of course. I’m sure many of us women remember being made fun of when changing for Grade 7 gym (the girls made fun of my underwear…no chest, no bra. Didn’t wear one until the end of Grade 8)! As for not liking exercise, guess what? I don’t either, at least not running (I was significantly slower than everyone else which wasn’t good for my self esteem. One reason why I’m not a fan of running programs whose purpose is self esteem) or team sports (and it was bad NOT to like team sports at my high school. The “ideal” student had to be well-rounded, involved in the arts as well as sports…especially sports. No sports, pretty much no chance of being elected or appointed prefect). In university, I discovered pilates. I’ve been doing it on and off since then and combined with yoga (again, on and off), tennis, weight training and a bit of cardio, I’ve got my regular routine.
Glad you found a fitness routine that works for you!
I get where she’s coming from. Sounds like something I would say (except for the whole I’m a talented singer in the spotlight thing). You can know that fitness is good for you, want to fit more in, and still have an utter disdain for the need to exercise. I need to workout more, but I’m not sure I’ll ever learn to love it. We can hope though!
Hahaha that’s funny
Exercise doesn’t need to be “working out”. I think that’s what turns people off, actually, when you do fitness for its own sake. See if you can find something you enjoy doing that just happens to raise your heart rate.
I’m a huge Adele fan myself and I get where she’s coming from with that quote. I’m not the biggest fan of the excercise per se but I do know that is’ important for me to stay healthy. I think that should be the focus when people go to work out as opposed to trying to “look good” in the shortest amount of time possible.
I love the quote, too, and I think it’s positive for a celeb to be honest about their feelings like that. It’s true when your main aim in exercise is to improve your appearance you’re never going to stick with it. The reward needs to be increased energy and good feelings.
My computer went crazy when I attempted to leave a comment so I don’t know if it went through. Basically, I said that liking your body should not mean you have to eschew fitness. Fitness should not equate to weight, but to health. Too often weight and health are lumped together, and they should really be separate, because the goal should be to be healthy, if that means skinny, normal or a bit overweight.
People were having trouble commenting here in the recent past and I hope that problem has been resolved as I’d hate to miss out on any opinions! Too bad the fitness mags and gyms insist on perpetuating the myth of the fit body as being only one way. In fact, the body they are portraying is unhealthy in most cases. You can’t eat properly and be ripped like that.
I like that Adele is not going to succumb to the pressure to be thin. Way to go! I don’t like that she seems to think exercise is something people do for the sole reason of becoming thin. What happened to engaging in activities because they’re FUN? Hiking, biking, swimming, walks with friends….
And I do not like that she is sporting a cigarette. What the…? I thought that was almost as taboo as racial slurs!
I guess she is trying to send a message that her talent as a singer is more important than her looks. And her health, for that matter.
I agree. Good for her for focussing on what matters: her voice.
Part of the problem is that we’ve made “exercise” something that only happens in a gym or with special equipment. Exercise needs to be built into the everyday activities of our lives instead of being put into a special category.
Absolutely! Exercise for exercise sake is no fun at all (to me anyway).
The word exercise certainly does have a bad rep. People tend to think VAIN GYM RAT when someone says they enjoy working out. It doesn’t make any sense that a genuine effort to remain healthy gets mistaken as an “impure” intention.
True. I’m not ashamed to say I love fitness. Love love love and can’t wait to go play tennis tonight
This chickiepoo may well be the sexiest hot mama I’ve ever seen.
This is the funniest comment ever. Thank you
Damned right I’d do her. This woman is freakin hot! She’s got more curves than a Mexican road race!
Awfully rude, but flippin’ hilarious!