Celebrities

Adele's holiday photos show her dramatic weight loss and spark debate about body image.

Adele set fire to the internet this week when she took to Instagram to share photos from her Christmas party in which she is posing with a Grinch and a guy in a Santa suit (who may or may not be Santa, who&#39;s to say?!). And it wasn&#39;t the Grinch or Santa that got people in their feelings. It was the 31-year-old singer&#39;s svelte figure.         View this post on Instagram           We both tried to ruin Christmas but then both our hearts grew! Thank you for coming to my party and making us feel like kids Grinch 💚 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone x A post shared by  Adele (@adele) on Dec 23, 2019 at 11:32am PSTMany commenters are calling Adele &quot;unrecognizable&quot; in the photos, alluding to her significant weight loss. The media, and many of her fans, are praising the singer&#39;s &quot;transformation.&quot;https://twitter.com/IndiaWilloughby/status/1209394290436268032Adele looks unrecognisable and oozes glamour in festive snap after weight losshttps://t.co/mlRPcDmiFV pic.twitter.com/ChIIFDAGzt&mdash; Mirror Celeb (@MirrorCeleb) December 23, 2019 But others are suggesting that it&#39;s not OK to comment on someone&#39;s weight, even if the comments are celebratory.https://twitter.com/isa_is_nice/status/1209449160426086401Jameela Jamil, pioneer of the body positive movement, pointed out that praising Adele&#39;s weight loss is part of a greater problem with the way society ascribes value to thinness and obsesses over women&#39;s physical appearances.https://twitter.com/jameelajamil/status/1209385462005026816Losing weight? As long as you’re being healthy, you’re beautiful.Gaining weight? As long as you’re being healthy, you’re beautiful.And if you’re not being healthy, you’re still beautiful, you just need to take care of yourself ❤️&mdash; Sugar Plum Fai-Ray 🎄| #IStandWithMelissa (@coldflashwavebb) December 24, 2019 Twitter user Audra Williams shared a thread, which has gone viral, explaining why celebrating Adele&#39;s weight loss is a &quot;garbage thing to do.&quot;Celebrating Adele&#39;s weight loss is a garbage thing to do for a million reasons. Here are two:1. It tells your fat friends you think their bodies are a problem to be solved. 2. The weight loss could be the result of physical or mental health struggles. Weird to cheer about!&mdash; Audra Williams (@audrawilliams) December 24, 2019 She writes: Celebrating Adele&#39;s weight loss is a garbage thing to do for a million reasons. Here are two: 1. It tells your fat friends you think their bodies are a problem to be solved. 2. The weight loss could be the result of physical or mental health struggles. Weird to cheer about! Williams shared her own story about how a nervous breakdown left her &quot;unable to eat,&quot; and that her extreme weight loss at the time was neither healthy nor an &quot;achievement.&quot;  Twitter  Twitter  TwitterShe explains that we have &quot;no idea how/why Adele lost weight,&quot; and that by celebrating her physical transformation, we could unknowingly be applauding an illness or an eating disorder.   TwitterShe points out that you can&#39;t assess someone&#39;s health by looking at them.  TwitterShe continues that she&#39;s not criticizing Adele&#39;s size or Adele in general; she&#39;s criticizing the people commenting on and celebrating the visual changes in her body.  Twitter  TwitterThe subject of weight loss and body positivity, as it so often does, has ignited an emotional controversy. Many people are insisting that thinner = healthier, and sharing their own weight loss stories.My wife and I just had a baby girl and my primary care provider advised me to make healthier choices or else I might not live long. Out of love for my family and life I did. I lost 60 lbs. I feel great and healthier... and I love compliments&mdash; Sal Fatano (@LoveTruth55555) December 24, 2019 Not everything is about you, Audra.I’m going to continue losing weight and encouraging those around me to get healthy as well.Adele looks fantastic, happy, and confident and I’m so happy for her. ☺️&mdash; Freckled Liberty 🔥 (@FreckledLiberty) December 24, 2019 But people can celebrate it if they want too. And your journey &amp; her journey maybe different. It is like saying we can&#39;t celebrate weddings cos it may upset your divorced friends 🙄🙈 Adele looks amazing now &amp; did before. I personally fluctuate in weight all the time so what.&mdash; Kurtis-Lee Lewis (@KurtisLeeSinger) December 25, 2019 Being overweight is a problem that can be solved.&mdash; David Vainqueur (@True_Canuck1) December 24, 2019 https://twitter.com/thefredelement/status/1209477980642271235People are shaming Williams for shaming people for fat-shaming.https://twitter.com/ericcaruso77/status/1209487383755972609But Williams continues to point out the problem with assuming that Adele was unhealthy before and is healthier now.You know exactly nothing about Adele&#39;s health or thought process or desires for her own body. And losing weight only boosts confidence because our world denigrates fat bodies.&mdash; Audra Williams (@audrawilliams) December 24, 2019 Celebrating weight loss is not celebrating health.&mdash; Audra Williams (@audrawilliams) December 24, 2019 A few people have pointed to this earlier Instagram from Adele in which she seems to suggest that she&#39;s been working out, writing &quot;I used to cry but now I sweat.&quot;         View this post on Instagram           I used to cry but now I sweat 😂 #gingermckenna Happy birthday to one of the kindest and funniest people I’ve met @champagnepapi 🌹 A post shared by  Adele (@adele) on Oct 24, 2019 at 12:58pm PDTReally good thread, but in this case I think she&#39;s made it clear that she has lost weight from working out more (unless sweating means something else idk). It still is weird to me that it is &quot;newsworthy&quot; that a gorgeous talented woman lost weight thoughhttps://t.co/EOLLGwJE4j&mdash; Sinnie🌙 (@Sinnie_Moon) December 24, 2019 She literally commented on her insta that she&#39;s been &quot;sweating it out&quot;, e.g. working out.&mdash; Nay (@nay_sue1) December 24, 2019 Adele said she did circuit training, cardio, and Pilates. You can hardly unintentionally do pilates.It&#39;s been reported she goes to Ayda Field&#39;s class.Then in an instagram post she put &quot;I used to cry but now I sweat&quot;Clearly, it is HER intention. Let her have her autonomy.&mdash; Just Zane (I&#39;m a business and this is an ad) (@ifeastonglue) December 25, 2019 But Williams responded that exercise doesn&#39;t necessarily equate with weight loss.Thank you for this thoughtful response! I guess I know so many fat people who also exercise that I don&#39;t equate someone talking about working out as being about weight loss.&mdash; Audra Williams (@audrawilliams) December 24, 2019 Like so many controversial subjects, this debate seems to center around people projecting based on their own experiences.https://twitter.com/Nat__Cat/status/1209454211886469120https://twitter.com/nailsfromthesky/status/1209465201092939776This is a tricky issue&mdash;as someone who has overcome an eating disorder, I recognize the important of Williams&#39; point and am inclined to agree with her. But I also recognize that for many people, losing weight is associated with increased health and happiness, and in those cases it is something to be celebrated.But I think we can all agree on one thing: we just want Adele to be happy. But not so happy that she stops producing devastating breakup songs to help us get over all of our exes.

Adele set fire to the internet this week when she took to Instagram to share photos from her Christmas party in which she is posing with a Grinch and a guy in a Santa suit (who may or may not be Santa, who&#39;s to say?!). And it...