They Promoted Body Positivity. Then They Lost Weight.
Do plus-size influencers owe their followers an explanation when their bodies change?
www.nytimes.com
They Promoted Body Positivity. Then They Lost Weight.
Do plus-size influencers owe their followers an explanation when their bodies change?
Feb. 26, 2024
A woman in striped overalls and several necklaces, one with a large gold emblem, sits in dappled sunlight in front of leafy fencing.
“I’m scared of being judged or yelled at or letting people down,” said Dronme Davis, a formerly plus-size model who lost weight. “Which is ironic, because I think my silence is letting people down more than me talking about it.”Amandla Baraka for The New York Times
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Tianna James used to love looking at the photographs Dronme Davis posted of herself on Instagram. Ms. Davis, a plus-size model, included pictures from her modeling campaigns alongside selfies of her stretch-marked stomach with captions like “fat belly saggy t*ts Sunday.”
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For Ms. James, 22, Ms. Davis’s feed was a revelation. “I wanted to feel comfortable in my body, and she was like me in so many ways, so it made it easier to be myself,” Ms. James said. “If I could find this person so beautiful, and she was bigger, I could find myself beautiful, too.”
Ms. Davis gained a following through posts that criticized diet culture as she built a career as a curve model — she wore up to a size 16 or XXL — most prominently for Dôen, a California fashion brand known for floral prairie dresses typically worn by more willowy women. Her feed was a running commentary on the unrealistic expectation to conform to a thin ideal: “A flat stomach won’t change your life” and “It’s so exhausting being afraid and ashamed of parts of ur body.”
Then, over just a few months, Ms. Davis shrank.
She still posted the artsy selfies Ms. James loved, but photos of soft belly rolls were replaced by sharp cheekbones and clavicles. She continued to write in her confessional style, sharing her feelings about everything from constipation to career insecurities. But Ms. Davis stopped posting her habitual rants against fatphobia, and she didn’t explain why or how she had lost so much weight.
To Ms. James, Ms. Davis’s silence felt like a betrayal.
“It made me feel like she was being dishonest with her community,” Ms. James said. “I don’t want to say it was owed to us, but it was such a drastic change.”
The body positive movement has recently faltered in a cultural moment where thin is back in (though some argue it never really left), thanks in part to the rise of new drugs like Ozempic that are being used for weight loss. Celebrities, models and influencers like Ms. Davis who once celebrated their curves are grappling with how to discuss their smaller bodies, while their followers feel as if they’ve abandoned the causes they used to champion: encouraging people to challenge weight stigma and to accept themselves as they are.
‘She Won’t Cop to It’
Ms. Davis said that she had long agonized over how to publicly address her weight loss. Despite what some of her followers suspected, she wasn’t on Ozempic. The truth — that she had relapsed into the disordered eating practices that she had struggled with throughout her life — was hard for her to admit, even to herself. How had she succumbed to the same pressures she had warned her nearly 100,000 followers about?
“The only thing people are going to be OK with is a very detailed explanation, which is not something I can write in a caption,” the 24-year-old said by Zoom from her bedroom in the woods in Mendocino, Calif., where she lives with her mother.
She didn’t want to beat herself up for relapsing, but she also empathized with followers like Ms. James.
“I gathered all these women to follow me because I was going to be inspiring and make them feel empowered,” Ms. Davis said. “How can I still expect their attention and support?”
Ms. Davis grew up in a small town in Northern California. She put herself on a diet by the time she was 10, after she began to develop breasts. Her weight fluctuated, but when she was thinner, she said, she could fit into the Abercrombie miniskirts that her friends wore, and teachers took her more seriously.
She was discovered through her Instagram shortly after she graduated from high school, and soon landed a job as Dôen’s first curve model. She has since modeled for much bigger brands, including Levi’s, Sephora and The North Face, but she became a familiar fixture on Dôen’s website: The designers have called her their “longtime muse” and named a pair of jeans that came in extended sizes after her.
As Ms. Davis grew up online, it felt natural to post about all the facets of her life — not just her modeling, but her racial justice activism, her artwork and her evolving relationship to her body. Looking back, she said, in her passion to share her own learning process, she unintentionally positioned herself as an expert on body acceptance when that was not the case. It was a humbling experience and part of the reason she has not yet broached her weight loss publicly.
“I’m scared of being judged or yelled at or letting people down,” she said. “Which is ironic, because I think my silence is letting people down more than me talking about it.”
Some of the people who left comments on Ms. Davis’s Instagram about her body were kind: “Worried about u … hope you are ok.” Some chastised her: “This sort of rapid and continued weight loss is concerning.” And others were cruel, calling her “sickly skinny.” When Ms. Davis started deleting comments, followers decamped to other online forums to speculate further.
“I figure it must be Ozempic like everyone else and she doesn’t want to talk about it, which is a little off brand because she’s so open about everything else,” a user wrote on Reddit.
That commenter told The New York Times that she loved Ms. Davis regardless of her size, but still expected answers. “She talks about everything,” she said. “Every pimple she has on her face, every rash she gets on her arm. So why hasn’t she mentioned this?”
“She completely altered her body, and she won’t cop to it,” said another Instagram follower in an interview. She purchased Dôen items because Ms. Davis modeled them, including her namesake jeans. “If you’re going to be out there using your body to make a living, and position yourself as a brand, and then you walk away from your brand, I think you can’t expect the community around you to not react,” she said.
‘Life Is Too Hard in This Body’
Right now, body-positive influencers who have decided to be open about losing weight have also had to navigate a community that is often disappointed and angry.
The plus-size influencer Rosey Blair, who is taking Mounjaro, seemed defiant when she posted: “Full transparency: I have zero remorse or shame for being public about my weight loss. Two years ago, I couldn’t wipe my own ass!” Critics called her ableist and self-hating.
“I left the body positive community because I wanted to be defined by my interests outside of my body,” she posted in response.