Devolution, or how Queen Latifah has gone full-circle

16th October 2007

Devolution, or how Queen Latifah has gone full-circle

posted in Diets, Pop Culture |

It appears as if Queen Latifah has finally succumbed to the almighty diet dollar and is now a proud sponsoree of weight-loss mogul Jenny Craig. Yes, it’s always sad when another full-figured celebrity descends down that never-ending rabbit hole. Queen Latifah teams up with Jenny Craig

But from Queen Latifah’s perspective, encouraging fans to go on Jenny Craig will probably keep her plus-size clothing line going strong, as most diet plans like Jenny Craig have been shown to ineffective. Oh wait, after shelling out nearly $1,300 for three months of Jenny Craig, they probably won’t have the money for such luxuries.

Kate Harding pretty much summed up my disgust in a post here, and I have nothing to add really, except to point out a couple lines from Queen Latifah’s 2000 memoir.

In her book Ladies First: Revelations of A Strong Woman, Queen Latifah writes that she is confident and comfortable with her plus-sized figure, explaining that it took time before she grew to accept her body image.

“People look at me now and think, `Wow, there’s a full-sized woman who has it together.’ Puhlease! It took me years to get to the point where I love my body. And I do truly love my body. But I had to go through stages. I hated my breasts. I hated my butt. I even hated the way I walked … I am not the prototypical 36-24-36. Never have been, never will be. And although society tells me I’m too big, what I try to keep in my head are the words from Maya Angelou [in her poem Phenomenal Woman].”

Maybe she ought to put down those Jenny Craig menus and reread Maya Angelou.

Click to Bookmark

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Diets, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

1 On October 16th, 2007, DG said:

Oh, that makes me sad to hear. She always seems to carry her size with such beauty and grace. A total example (to men and women) of someone amazing beautiful and not stick thin. Pooh.

posted on October 16th, 2007 at 5:32 pm

2 On October 17th, 2007, catherine said:

Perhaps she should stress the glycemic index since diabetes and plus size ARE related. She is not being clear in her reasons for Jumpin’ on Jenny. It looks like diet dollars and she needs to stress (esp. for her Afro American sisters) the relation between eating sugarfree and low carb and get Jenny Craig to actually create something that capitalizes on her target demographic’s diabetes link.

posted on October 17th, 2007 at 11:10 am

3 On October 17th, 2007, Rachel said:

I disagree Catherine. Numerous studies now show that one’s likelihood of developing diabetes is largely genetic in nature and any correlation to fat is more the cause of where fat is stored in the body. Again, one’s response to fat metabolism and storage is largely genetically predetermined.

So, unless Jenny Craig gets into recombinant DNA therapy, I doubt their products will have much of an impact whether one develops diabetes or not.

posted on October 17th, 2007 at 12:24 pm

4 On October 17th, 2007, Charlynn said:

Grr. Sad to see her jump on the bandwagon.

posted on October 17th, 2007 at 1:34 pm

5 On October 17th, 2007, Rachel said:

What’s even sadder is that Queen Latifah is putting this diet program out there as a means for her fans to reduce their so-called risk for diabetes, but she admits she doesn’t use the program herself.

Does anyone else think that this is highly unethical?

I have no clue as to Jenny Craig’s effectiveness, it costs an arm and a leg, and may send you spiraling into a cycle of yo-yo dieting, but hey, why don’t you try it anyway? Because, you know, it works for less than 5 percent of the people who use it. Go on, try it!

posted on October 17th, 2007 at 2:10 pm

6 On October 18th, 2007, Charlynn said:

Yes, I do think it’s unethical for celebs to endorse a product they don’t use. I remember thinking as a young teenager, “Michael Jordan doesn’t really eat Big Macs, does he? Hm, well, if he wears the Nike shoes, he probably does eat Big Macs.” Who knows if he really does, but I guess that what I’m getting at is the stream of thought that comes with seeing a familiar face/name promoting a product. Advertisers aren’t stupid – they know we’ll think good things about a product if they attach it to somebody or something we like. We don’t always think critically about it, but the association is there. And no, I don’t think it’s right that they do this with someone who’s just endorsing the product for the money!

At least when Kirstie Alley did the Jenny Craig commercials, she really did use the program. I guess that’s a good thing. Uh, or not.