Adele took to Instagram over the weekend to celebrate Beyoncé’s work on her new visual album Black Is King – but her empowering message has yet again been overshadowed by comments about her weight.
If Instagram ever needed a reason to create a ‘love’ button, it’s Adele’s account. The iconic singer and performer knows how to nail a social media post – whether she’s posing in her Glastonbury dress to watch her set from home or using her platform to raise awareness of social issues, Adele knows how to make a statement.
Her latest Instagram post was, of course, no different. In a post sharing her love for Beyoncé’s new Disney Plus visual album Black Is King, Adele posed in front of a clip of the film wearing a matching outfit to the one Beyoncé is wearing, adding: “Thank you Queen for always making us feel so loved through your art.”
It’s not the first time Adele has shared her love for the star – in 2017 she famously broke her Grammy award for album of the year in two to share the prize with Beyoncé, praising her album Lemonade for being “monumental”. And it’s no secret that Beyoncé is a fan of Adele, too – in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2011, Adele said that when she first met Beyoncé, she told her: “You’re amazing! When I listen to you I feel like I’m listening to God.”
Adele rewore her Glastonbury dress to watch her set from home, and we’re obsessed
Basically, Adele’s tribute is a reminder of the power of women supporting women, and the way in which her and Beyoncé uplift, congratulate and inspire one another is something we should all be celebrating. Unfortunately, however, that wasn’t the ‘big story’ to come out of Adele’s latest post.
Naturally, instead of focusing on the empowering message Adele’s post sends to her fans, tabloids across the country decided to focus on one specific detail: her weight.
Once again, a quick google of the singer’s name brings up countless “weight loss” reports. The photo, according to these headlines, was a chance for Adele to “show off” or “flaunt” her incredible “transformation” – with some even claiming to reveal her long-speculated exercise regime. Then there were those that, once again, called the star “unrecognisable,” as if they hadn’t written about her “unveiling” her “new look” earlier this year.
Of course, this isn’t the first time the tabloids have claimed Adele has been “transformed” – they’ve been writing about her weight loss since December last year, when she shared some photos from her Christmas party which saw her accused of flaunting her “HUGE three stone weight loss”.
Despite being hugely disappointing, these comments were hardly surprising – the value society continues to place on women’s weight makes headlines such as these a common occurrence. But now, on top of the fact that they’re still offensive and unnecessary, they’re also getting really bloody boring.
What’s it going to take to stop people obsessing over how much a celebrity weighs? What’s it going to take to get people to realise that – god forbid – women are so much more than what’s on the scales? That commenting on a woman’s weight time and time again isn’t just damaging, it’s also incredibly dull?
Adele’s decision to post a photo of herself on her Instagram was not an invitation to make judgements about how she looks – no matter what the tabloids might think. Instead, her post was a space for to uplift and celebrate the incredible talent of another woman – and that’s a much more headline-worthy story, don’t you think?
