The Pop Corporation

People are idiots and say idiotic things all the time. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with being an idiot, but tropes get tired fast and it’s exhausting listening to people think they’re saying something for the first time. Add to that, something so wildly off the mark and pointless, it just makes you want to windmill your arms into the nearest crowd.

It’s 2023, and for some reason, we’re still talking about someone’s weight rather than the music they’re making. Now, we’d add that if someone’s weight equates to any value judgement to you, then you’re looking for the wrong things in people. We digress, because this is regrettably topical.

First off, we have the situation with Jorja Smith who just dropped a mega fun remix of ‘Little Things’ we co-conspirator Nia. Bouncy drum ‘n’ bass party music, DIY video – there’s everything to love about it. Of course, many think of Jorja’s music as demure and cooly aloof, but let’s not forget the garage bangers she’s got in her arsenal too.

With things like this, you can be tempted to overcompensate in the other direction and start yelling ‘BUT SHE LOOKS GREAT!’, which is kinda beside the point. Fact is, we’re here for the output, and someone should be able to be creative with ZERO comments about whether they’re hot or not. Of course, an artist can take great consideration in their image and look – but people are seldom talking about style, but focusing on whether someone is fuckable or not.

Being sexy is not the same as sex. It’s not a difficult thing to grasp. An artist can even talk about sexual relationships and trials with love or whatever, without it being an invitation to talk about your own genital’s needs. Right? That shouldn’t need saying, but it clearly does. The flip side of this is feigned concern. Stop it. It’s literally nothing to do with absolutely anything, especially when you’ve been invited to listen to a song.

This video wasn’t the start of this chat regarding Jorja Smith. People began muttering out loud after she performed in front of 40,000 people in Paris with Burna Boy. From the tedious “Wait a minute is my girl jorja expecting???” to the ghastly “Nah she just fat”, the comments on Instagram rolled out predictably.

It seems, celebrity, artist or not, there’s still swathes of people who think complete strangers ‘owe’ them skinny.

And Jorja isn’t the only one. Bebe Rexha has been getting stick. In a video dancing to one of her songs, she signed off with with a smile and a middle finger, signing the caption with: “I know I’ve gained weight. Humans go through fluctuations. Not gonna lie it does suck and bother me when I read some comments but it comes with the territory.”

“I’ve been learning not to judge myself and accept myself while also trying to make healthier decisions in my life. What I have learned though is numbers don’t define you, your heart does.”

Bebe has previously stated that she struggles with polycystic ovarian syndrome, which can cause weight gain. That’s a relevant point, but again, it’s wrong conversation. We’re here to listen to Bebe sing and watch her perform – the size of her waist has literally nothing to do with anything. It’s nice that people are jumping to an artist’s defence (which they are), but why it’s even a conversation in either direction is baffling.

It’s right that we talk about Western beauty standards and the rampant sexism of this, but it’s more widespread than that. Let’s look at Lewis Capaldi who effectively, has had to send himself up in a bid to get the first punch in on the ‘joke’. He tweeted: “Some lovely replies here, yes i do struggle with my weight with my mental health and this has made me feel better so thank you.”

He’s joked about it, referring to the Fat Bastard character in Austin Powers: “I used to go: ‘Look at my sexy body‘. Also it’s strange that in real life, I became a fat bastard. I mean, if you look at Fat Bastard and then you look at me, doesn’t look too dissimilar.” He’s got merch that says ‘big fat sexy’ on it, and sure, he’s allowed to find it funny and make a joke out of it, but it’s clear that it’s at least in part, a self defence mechanism because we’ve seen it a million times before down the pub, at school, at work.

It goes all ways too. Ariana Grande felt compelled to speak about her weight after everyone piled on her to tell her she was too thin. She said: “I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies no matter what. There are ways to compliment someone or to ignore something that you see that you don’t like, that I think we should help each other work towards. We should aim toward being safer and keeping each other safer.”

Lady Gaga spoke out too: “I heard my body is a topic of conversation so I wanted to say, I’m proud of my body and you should be proud of yours too. No matter who you are or what you do. I could give you a million reasons why you don’t need to cater to anyone or anything to succeed. Be you, and be relentlessly you. That’s the stuff of champions.”

Look at the discourse around Sam Smith – it’s appalling stuff. Don’t like his style or music? Fine. Go do something else. However, the fact that he weighs differently and chosen to celebrate himself, apparently, it’s a moral panic in waiting. Howard Stern – obviously not a man known for consistent tact – said in support of Smith: “Do you know what I love about that guy? He’s an ugly motherfucker. He’s fat. And I love it!” A reminder – that’s words of support.

It’s a societal problem, and we see it right across the board. Rather than calling Donald Trump out for his awful views, apparently his weight is a bigger stick to beat him with. Jason Momoa has had it, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Emma Stone, athletes, influencers… you name it, it’s a thing that people are just absolutely alright with talking about the way someone else looks.

It’s the asbestos of human thinking.

Even while praising an artist, compliments can be cack-handed. You’ll hear ‘we loved Janis Joplin, and that wasn’t for her looks!‘ or ‘well Ed Sheeran’s hardly a looker is he? And he’s huge!‘ What has someone’s talent got to do with their physical appearance. It’s boring. It’s hurtful. An artist may be able to sidestep such comments, but your pal who is worried about their appearance gets hit square in the chest.

Lizzo, often promoted for body positivity just as much as her performances, is tired. She tweeted: “Y’all don’t know how close I be to giving up on everyone and quitting and enjoying my money and my man on a F— FARM”

In classical music, tenor Limmie Pulliam literally quit singing because of comments about his appearance, before rebuilding his career and taking the stage at Carnegie Hall. He said: “There was a lot of pressure on artists in terms of appearance. The industry cared about things that really had nothing to do with the voice, but with physicality, and that made it difficult for singers of size. It made it easy for me to walk away. I made myself a promise that if it ever stopped being fun, I would do something else. And so I did.”

“People within the industry were able to make comments regarding someone’s physical look with impunity. In other industries, that would not be accepted, but it was almost widely accepted within the classical music world. It felt like it was OK to make fun of people of size and that we weren’t worthy of careers. It was a very difficult time, and it’s still a very difficult time.”

“I’ve had general directors send me email messages complimenting me on my voice and then saying, ‘Well, when you lose 50 pounds, get in touch with me again, and I’ll give you a live audition.’”

The list of artists that have fallen foul of this thinking is endless and regardless of which direction it swings, it so predictable and depressing. What the answer to this is, is anyone’s guess, but honestly, we need a rewiring to take place because this is woeful behaviour, there’s no wit or verve in it and everyone’s tired.