Of course what contradicts each story’s positive message is the fact that the story exists at all. Gee, might it not be the case that, when one is put in a position of defending why one is loveable, one might already be in trouble?

Well, close on the heels of MeMe Roth’s facist anti-fat fanaticism (is it fanaticism or gross opportunism? I’m still working through that one…), here comes Jordin Sparks’ weight statement in People magazine, the link to which I caught over at Jennifer Weiner’s blog, Snarkspot. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Jordin Sparks loves her curves.

This notion of having “curves” is totally fascinating. It’s often staged as meaning not super-thin, but still “okay” (and there’s that caveat again “but still…”). Curviness, supposedly, makes a space in which one is allowed to be not skinny, because one has been determined as not fat…in the sense that “fat” denotes being unhealthy and undesirable, as opposed to just meaning “not thin.” Curvy = Beyoncé, Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet, and America Ferrera– women who are not even remotely overweight, but who nonetheless have to explain justify not being underweight, á la Kate Hudson or Keira Knightly.

Celebrities are granted meaning by their places in the star system, but because they come into being in that closed system, they can only really sustain meaning in relation to each other. As a way of describing bodies, and thus attributing a relational meaning to those bodies, “curvy” marks an interesting differential.

I am thinking, for instance, of Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé in Dreamgirls, whose plot hinges on all these contrasts between “regular” women (Effie) and symbolic, “exceptional” women (Deena). The contrast hinges on weight, with Hudson gaining weight for her role and Knowles starving herself for hers. As regular women, Effie and Hudson are “real women.” As stars, Deena and Knowles aren’t to be taken seriously.

The real and the cinematic converge on the song “Listen,” which Knowles wrote. “Listen” is Deena and Knowles’ demand that they be, well, listened to–rather than only looked at, and the convergence is a matter of Knowles’ relationship to the Dreamgirls movie and Deena’s plight in the film. Knowles wanted to play Effie, but was told she would be unconvincing as the plain one with an exceptional voice, and Deena sings of being loved as a performer but not recognized as a “real” singer.

Huh! Nordette Adams, by the way, has a nice series of posts on Hudson, Knowles, and all the stuff with them around Dreamgirls, including some pretty interesting clips of Star Jones interviewing Beyoncé. And speaking of weight, PopMatters has a nice post on Jennifer Hudson on the cover of Vogue, as well.

And there are many ways in which this new attention to the curvy might prove to be a good thing. Even though there’s still a bunch of rhetoric to plow through around her being so acceptable (not the least of which is racial), I do think the congratulation Hudson has received is good and real, not the least of which is the now-famous Vogue cover. I mean, all Beyonce got for losing a bunch of weight was a stupid Sports Illustrated cover.

Okay, nevermind. It’s clearly time to come down from the stars…

Earlier this week, FoxNews ran a segment on which Ramin Setoodeh, a Newsweek correspondent, and MeMe Roth, a representative from the National Action Against Obesity (NAAO) debated whether “the full-figured teenage Idol Jordin” is physically fit to be an American Idol. (The video is after the jump.)

I might post more on this fat-fitness bait fest later, but you can catch the conversation over at Fat Feminism. Let’s just say that I expect Jordin’s “weight statement” shortly.

For now, I’ll leave you to contemplate how, rather than take this opportunity to educate, Roth uses as evidence for her claim about/on Jordin’s body the fact that Jordin will drop weight once she wins. I am sure Roth is right, but I am not sure that prognisticating on Jordin’s future as thinspiration counts as responsible advocacy. And even though Roth insists that this comment was directed at “unhealthful Hollywood handlers,” it seems to me that she has fallen too easily into the trap of snarking about a woman’s weight as a matter public discourse.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svxLdNsxPSw]

Oh, and by the way, the fact that Jordin is a person of color, and that one is more at risk for weight-related illness if one is “Latino, African American, Asian or Native American,” which Roth is quick to trot out in her statement on the Fox discussion, just doesn’t trump the problematic core of the TV-ready NAASO spokesperson’s argument.

I am a strong advocate for improving people’s access is to quality food and health education, but I am just unclear on how Roth’s point and manner don’t in fact hurt more than help. She makes her statement, but at whose expense?

Correction: This post has been updated to change NAASO (The Obesity Society), to NAAO (National Action Against Obesity).

CNN.com has this article on Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera, about her feelings on her own body image.

It’s a little bit of a non-story, which is why I find it interesting.

I’m sure Measuring Beauty, Beauty as Power, Celebodies, and Celebrities and Paprazzi might have more context on this, but it seems to me that, as stories on every pound gained and lost by celebrities grow more ridiculously ubiquitous every day, there is also this impulse to publish these little tiny non-stories– let’s call them “weight statements.”

On the one hand, weight statements make opportunities for celebrities to assure us that everything is all right, despite what you might have heard about other girls and women. On the other, something about them also speaks in uncomfortable ways to the intensity of our looking at these women. There’s a weird touch of “Be Yourself and Be Perfect Too” in this–or maybe it is the other way around?

And of course we should ask, what does it mean that Ferrera has to say anything at all?