Fox News Wastes Four And A Half Minutes Criticizing Adele’s Weight [View all]

[octoberlib]

On Monday afternoon, while CNN was covering blizzard damage and MSNBC was speculating on the President’s State of the Union, Fox News spent exactly four minutes and 30 seconds analyzing whether pop singers Adele and Kelly Clarkson needed to drop a few pounds.
Using a random tweet from one viewer of Sunday night’s Grammy Awards as an ostensible reason to bring it up, Fox invited on guest nutritionist Keren Gilbert to scrutinize the two women’s bodies, and to offer her own suggestions as to how the women could lose weight:
CAVUTO: Well, Adele and Kelly Clarkson cleaning up [at the Grammy's]. Now critics are saying they need to slim down and their current weight is nothing to idolize. Is that criticism fair?
GILBERT: We have processed food and we’re always struggling with — and people are saying, looking at Adele and saying, look at what she has accomplished. I could be overweight like her. I don’t need to address these issues in my life. And what I’m saying is Adele is a beautiful woman and so is Kelly Clarkson."

Not only is the whole conversation remarkably sexist — Cavuto and his guest glossed over the fact that Adele just had a baby — it’s also tired. Adele has addressed her critics’ constant barrage of insults about her body on several occasions, pointing out, “I would only lose weight if it affected my health or sex life, which it doesn’t,” and, “I’ve never wanted to look like models on the cover of magazines. I represent the majority of women and I’m very proud of that.”
Clarkson’s weight has similarly been a constant topic of criticism, with gossip rags trying to put a number on the pounds that Clarkson has shed. The former American Idol star has discussed her weight loss, in terms of concerns about her personal health, though it’s actually none of Cavuto’s, or any fan’s, business either way.

http://thinkprogress.org/media/2013/02/11/1573871/adele-kelly-clarkson-fox-weight/