Adele is clearly living her best life this holiday season following a divorce and a lengthy social media drought, but comments in the media regarding her recent weight loss are sparking a body image debate amongst fans.
The revered “Hello” singer, 31, showed off festive photos from her recent Christmas party on Monday — posing with none other than Santa Claus and even The Grinch himself.
The Instagram post was Adele’s first in over two months. This past September, she filed for divorce from husband Simon Konecki, the CEO of a charity that provides safe drinking water to developing countries. They share a son together, Angelo, born in 2012.
Adele had recently broken her Twitter silence last month for the first time in a year to encourage followers to vote in the general election.
The party photos, which evoked an immediate response from fans on Instagram and Twitter, show Adele in an old-Hollywood style, low-cut black satin dress.
“We both tried to ruin Christmas but then both our hearts grew!” She wrote in the Instagram caption. “Thank you for coming to my party and making us feel like kids, Grinch.”
But it wasn’t The Grinch that was getting the attention in the comments section with respect to the singer’s body image. Following Halloween, Adele was spotted in a leopard print Captain Hook costume in photos that media outlets took notice of, mainly due to an apparent weight loss. These more recent Christmas photos are, unfortunately, no different.
Immediately following the Instagram post, outlets such as Daily Star and Mirror, among others — jumped to focus their coverage of Adele’s social media activity specifically on her appearance, stating that the photos “flaunted” her recent weight loss and noting that the singer looked “unrecognizable” and/or “incredible.” They also reported that she had lost upwards of forty pounds, or “three stone.”
Fans, journalists and celebrities alike who are outspoken about body positivity quickly took to Twitter to express their disappointment in the media.
“PSA: Adele isn’t ‘flaunting her weight loss’, she’s just going to a party, k thanks” Rachel McGrath tweeted.
The praise for Adele’s figure came at the same time that singer, Lizzo, was subject to criticism and accusations regarding her popularity being due to America’s obesity problem.
“Waking up to new tweets critiquing how “unhealthy” Lizzo is and praising Adele’s “gorgeous” new figure – just say you hate fat women and move on!!” one fan tweeted.
Perhaps the most resonant response came from The Good Place actress Jameela Jamill, who came to Adele’s defense, conveying that she has always been beautiful regardless of size, and adding that the media response to the photos were not saying much for how our views, as a society, on women’s value are progressing into the new year.
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“Adele was beautiful before. Is beautiful now. Will be beautiful WHATEVERTHEFUCK weight she will be in the future. The weight of a global icon trending is a sign there is still work to do in how we value women in 2020. Being thinner doesn’t add to her value. She was born
