Good Morning America’s beloved co-anchor Robin Roberts recently launched Season 2 of her podcast Everybody’s Got Something, and kicked things off with an intimate interview with Gabby Sidibe, “Gabourey Sidibe – M.Y.O.B. (Mind Your Own Body).”
Promoting her memoir, This Is Just My Face: Try Not To Stare, the Oscar-nominated actress talked about evolving from Lee Daniels’ Precious (which was her first starring role) and the array of fat-shaming she faces as her stardom rises.
One particular instance she cited was when she was set to grace the cover of Vogue, and she overheard a conversation in which someone wondered why her “fat black ass” was on the cover.
She mused about the dichotomy between feeling bad about that and the excitement of the Vogue opportunity. Yes, they were insulting her, “but they were talking about my Vogue cover,” said the actress.
With her recent weight loss, Sidibe is of course gaining more attention in Hollywood and mainstream media.
This time, it’s overwhelming positive attention, and Sidibe can’t help but notice that a lot of it is also misogynistic.
“Isn’t it weird to call a man ‘plus-size,'” Sidibe noted after using the term, and having to pause.
Sidibe did acknowledge that the praise comes from a good place, but said, “You don’t need to congratulate me on [my weight loss]. You don’t congratulate me every time I blow my nose, I needed to … It’s in my body.”
To Sidibe expressed her frustration that due to social stigma, people of a certain weight are sometimes not even treated like people.
“There’s all these think pieces on me. I did a sex scene on Empire which is part of my job. What it spawned is actually kind of insane. There were think pieces, there were memes, there was a hashtag because I guess they don’t think that fat people love or get love or deserve love,” said Sidibe.
Sidibe's conclusion? Just mind your own body. Try it sometime.