“She needs to lose weight” “Is she pregnant?” Singer Jorja Smith, victim of fatphobia on Twitter

After Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande, it was the turn of another famous singer, Jorja Smith, to become a victim of “body shaming” on social networks because of her weight. It all started with a video taken by a fan during a concert in London, where the artist of Jamaican origin appears singing one of his hits. Originally posted on Tiktok in all its goodness on October 6, 2023, this extract was re-shared on X the same day, generating a heap of grossophobic remarks about it.

“What happened to Jorja Smith?” first asked the netizen responsible for the post on the social network, rebroadcasting the video without specifying the subject of his question. To which a group of people, mostly male, took the liberty of reacting by devaluing the physical appearance of the 26-year-old young woman. “She needs to lose weight,” “Is she pregnant,” “She’s gained weight,” “It’s sad to see,” “Impossible. How can anyone get to this point?” “She’s still attractive but she’s gained a lot of weight, did she have a baby?” “She’s not?” “She’s gained weight?” “That’s not real?” “Huh? what is it?” happened to him? Is she okay?” “Wow, I barely recognize her!” we can read in countless messages, some of which are tinged with unabashed misogyny. Comments on the original Tiktok video have since been disabled.

Support and compassion

Fortunately, the translator Be honest can count on the support of his fan community who failed to defend him on X in response to this surge of inappropriate comments. “She’s beautiful and happy, I don’t see what’s the problem”, “Nothing happened, she just lived her life”, “Leave her alone”, “She’s still beautiful and she still sings very well” replies are we Some have even taken the time to call out internet users who dared to make these derogatory judgments. “She’s human, people go through changes,” “I don’t know what happened to her, but putting her down because of the way her body looks probably isn’t the best thing to do if you really want to know Is he good because people? usually put on weight for some sad reason like depression or health issues etc.” “You don’t know what she’s going through or what she’s thinking, think about it before you judge or disrespect,” we reply.

Finally, the day after his tweet was published, its author presented his “apology” on the platform. “It was thoughtless and insensitive. I realize that words can have a powerful effect and I did not mean to offend anyone. I’m sorry for any offense or distress my comment may have caused,” he regretted, but did not delete his tweet, which is still causing so much hate. As for the main stakeholder, he did not speak on this topic.