Lisa Presley: “I’m not fat, I’m pregnant!”

7th March 2008

Lisa Presley: “I’m not fat, I’m pregnant!”

I usually leave the pop stuff to other more pop-culture savvy bloggers, but I was struck by the inherent hilarity in why Lisa Marie Presley felt she had to “show [her] cards and announce under the gun and under vicious personal attack” that she is, in fact, pregnant – AP story on it here.

Lisa Marie Presley - pregnant Presley and her husband, music producer Michael Lockwood, are expecting a baby next fall. The announcement came after Presley said she was “seething” over tabloid speculation on her weight gain.

The announcement comes several days after photos of Presley — daughter of Elvis Presley and actress Priscilla — eating lunch in Los Angeles made the media rounds, with the London newspaper The Daily Mail asking: “Like father like daughter? Bloated Lisa Marie is now the double of dad Elvis.”

“I mean, if you read some of the stories it’s like, ‘she’s gonna die like her father,’ ‘her and her mom are in a fight because of her weight’ — that’s not true at all. It’s just awful stuff,” said spokeswoman Cindy Guagent.

“You KNOW if you were pregnant and you felt you were expanding uncontrollably by the moment as a result, and the worldwide media started badgering and harassing you for it, plastering you everywhere in an unflattering light, you would be mortified as well,” the 40-year-old singer wrote on her MySpace page.

I’m sure it is horrible and awful for your body to change so rapidly and even worse, to be denigrated by international media with ridiculous, slanderous and unsubstantiated assumptions as to why those changes occur. But what I think is even more sad are the negative perceptions that both the media and we as individuals associate with fatness. With a stigma like this, is it any wonder why the majority of five-year-olds say they’d rather lose an arm than be fat?

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Fat Bias, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On March 8th, 2008, Zmama said:

I get the negative family comments as personal attacks. But it also sounds like just simply being called fat is horrifying to her by itself. I’m mixed on this one – I’d want the press to get off my back as well but announcing a pregnancy publically before you’re ready just to “prove” you’re not fat seems a tad extreme.

I think a Seinfeld tag would have been nice “I’m pregnant, not fat – not that there’s anything wrong with that!”. Where’s Jerry and George when you need them?

posted on March 8th, 2008 at 1:19 pm

2 On March 8th, 2008, Quiwi said:

Actually, last summer I saw a few women wearing t-shirts that said just that (“I’m not fat, just pregnant!”) I guess it’s another uncute way of saying “No seriously, this baby’s making me ‘huge, I’m so not a fattie in real life, honest!!” The funny thing is, that every woman I saw with that shirt had otherwise thin builds, to the point that they looked like an uppercase letter P (long skinny legs leading up to a rounded belly). As thin as they were, it would take a lot to see them as “fat”, even while expecting. That made me wonder why they felt it necessary to use their pregnancy as another humorless fat joke?
I guess it’s a start ‘em early fat hatred campaign. Even in the womb, a child can be a participant in the “hateration” of big folks.

posted on March 8th, 2008 at 3:52 pm

3 On March 8th, 2008, fat stylist said:

My mom felt it necessary to apologize for my being fat one time. She said she didn’t want the family thinking I was pregnant. Ugh! I’m so over the comparisons. It doesn’t even look the same!

posted on March 8th, 2008 at 4:20 pm

4 On March 8th, 2008, Anna said:

I love my previous employer, but I have to admit – listening to her say “I’m so glad that I’m now big enough that people can tell I’m pregnant and not just fat” was a bit harsh.

posted on March 8th, 2008 at 9:11 pm

5 On March 9th, 2008, Juliet said:

Being an amputee is apparently better than being fat… I’ve read that before and it’s horrifying. What are we doing to our poor kids? This is the sort of thought process that is driving them to WLS at the ages of ten and eleven. Ugh.

posted on March 9th, 2008 at 12:48 am

6 On March 9th, 2008, Jackie said:

I guess this is in response to the, “Being fat is nasty, but being pregnant and showing off your belly is beautiful!” hypocritical trend. Oh but wait, I thought women weren’t supposed to gain weight being pregnant, it might make their baby fat. :O Yeah, now even gaining weight with pregnancy is unnatural, I guess the baby’s just going to have to learn to gestate outside the womb.

posted on March 9th, 2008 at 1:14 am

7 On March 9th, 2008, Rachel said:

I get the negative family comments as personal attacks. But it also sounds like just simply being called fat is horrifying to her by itself.

Yeah, apparently “vicious personal attack” equals being called fat.

posted on March 9th, 2008 at 11:35 am

8 On March 21st, 2008, Carolynp said:

Unbelievable! I like to think of this along Jennifer Love Hewitt’s statement of faith that being a size six is not fat (duh). This is why Hollywood doesn’t call the shots for pop culture anymore.

posted on March 21st, 2008 at 12:31 am

9 On January 13th, 2009, John Frusciante The Empyrean said:

Am i wrong or did she really get a child with Michael Jackson? If i am right then she has to be suffering from a “I need more publicity” illness. I can’t imagine that anyone in their right minds would go to bed with MJ for any other reason than publicity.

posted on January 13th, 2009 at 8:18 am