Jordin Sparks’ Weight Statement + Dreamgirls!

A few months ago I mentioned America Ferrera, of Ugly Betty fame, making her “weight statement.” In that post, I talk about weight statements as non-stories; they’re just there to give media an opportunity to make “news” out of female celebrities’ weights, casting such stories as positive stories about the women’s self-esteem so that they themselves are not accused of the bad-intentioned looking they initiated in the first place.

Of course what contradicts each story’s positive message is the fact that the story exists at all. Gee, might it not be the case that, when one is put in a position of defending why one is loveable, one might already be in trouble?

Well, close on the heels of MeMe Roth’s facist anti-fat fanaticism (is it fanaticism or gross opportunism? I’m still working through that one…), here comes Jordin Sparks’ weight statement in People magazine, the link to which I caught over at Jennifer Weiner’s blog, Snarkspot. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Jordin Sparks loves her curves.

This notion of having “curves” is totally fascinating. It’s often staged as meaning not super-thin, but still “okay” (and there’s that caveat again “but still…”). Curviness, supposedly, makes a space in which one is allowed to be not skinny, because one has been determined as not fat…in the sense that “fat” denotes being unhealthy and undesirable, as opposed to just meaning “not thin.” Curvy = Beyoncé, Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet, and America Ferrera– women who are not even remotely overweight, but who nonetheless have to explain justify not being underweight, á la Kate Hudson or Keira Knightly.

Celebrities are granted meaning by their places in the star system, but because they come into being in that closed system, they can only really sustain meaning in relation to each other. As a way of describing bodies, and thus attributing a relational meaning to those bodies, “curvy” marks an interesting differential.

I am thinking, for instance, of Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé in Dreamgirls, whose plot hinges on all these contrasts between “regular” women (Effie) and symbolic, “exceptional” women (Deena). The contrast hinges on weight, with Hudson gaining weight for her role and Knowles starving herself for hers. As regular women, Effie and Hudson are “real women.” As stars, Deena and Knowles aren’t to be taken seriously.

The real and the cinematic converge on the song “Listen,” which Knowles wrote. “Listen” is Deena and Knowles’ demand that they be, well, listened to–rather than only looked at, and the convergence is a matter of Knowles’ relationship to the Dreamgirls movie and Deena’s plight in the film. Knowles wanted to play Effie, but was told she would be unconvincing as the plain one with an exceptional voice, and Deena sings of being loved as a performer but not recognized as a “real” singer.

Huh! Nordette Adams, by the way, has a nice series of posts on Hudson, Knowles, and all the stuff with them around Dreamgirls, including some pretty interesting clips of Star Jones interviewing Beyoncé. And speaking of weight, PopMatters has a nice post on Jennifer Hudson on the cover of Vogue, as well.

And there are many ways in which this new attention to the curvy might prove to be a good thing. Even though there’s still a bunch of rhetoric to plow through around her being so acceptable (not the least of which is racial), I do think the congratulation Hudson has received is good and real, not the least of which is the now-famous Vogue cover. I mean, all Beyonce got for losing a bunch of weight was a stupid Sports Illustrated cover.

Okay, nevermind. It’s clearly time to come down from the stars…