Marília Mendonça: fatphobia haunts us in life and death

If in life, the singer Marília Mendonça faced a lot of criticism and comments fatphobic and after his death, on Friday the 5th, it was no different. The fixation on the female body was present in the content of comments and articles that were not limited to its career🇧🇷

After the plane crash that killed the singer and four other people, an obituary, written by a historian, and published in Folha de São Paulo, mixed facts about Marília’s career and comments about her body and appearance. Among the facts of her career, the writer commented on Marília’s body and appearance.

“She was never a great singer. Her appearance was also not the most attractive for the country music market. Marília was chubby and struggled with the scales. More recently, during quarantine, she had been following a radical diet that had taken many by surprise. She also became beautiful for the market ”, said the text, which was heavily criticized on social networks.

The comments about the singer’s weight did not stop there, on Sunday, Luciano Huck referred to her appearance and that of the duo Maiara and Maraisa: “I was remembering now. It’s been three weeks since I was with the three of them on stage. Three weeks. In fact, only half of the three on stage came, because the three were skinny”.

The next day, when commenting on the singer’s death, Ana Maria Braga also spoke about her physical appearance. “She did so much to get to this point. shape beautiful is not it? She lost weight, creating a path for her, which made sense, with that loud voice. And, suddenly, irony of fate, he would die in four, five days, ”she said.

“It is very sad to realize how fatphobia is present even in the most delicate and painful moments. As in the case of Marília Mendonça, an incredible artist, with many qualities, with a prominent place, and yet her body and appearance were the focus of criticism”, says Thais Carla, dancer and fat activist, in an interview with CLAUDIA.

Psychologist and professor at PUC-SP, Ana Laura Schliemann, points out that comments of this type are still common and frequent because society still believes that being thin is synonymous with success. Therefore, the fact that Marília is fat would “prevent” her career from taking off, which is why people focus on her body.

For Thais, these actions show how this prejudice is rooted in society, as well as the aesthetic pressure on women’s bodies. “The naturalness with which people reproduce fatphobic speeches over news about a terrible tragedy, shows how fatphobia is rooted in our society”, she says.

“I believe that the cultural and advertising industries contribute a lot to make this happen, we can see how there is no space for fat people with prominent roles on television, films or advertising, and this does not happen due to the lack of fat people to occupy these spaces. spaces. How are we going to normalize fat bodies for them to be accepted, if we don’t see these bodies in the media and in the cultural industry?”, asks Thais.

In recent months, Marília decided to lose weight, by choice, assuring that she would do it for health reasons. The singer reported on her Instagram that she was getting sick often and, with a very intense concert routine, her health weakened. She always emphasized that her career was not and would not be based on her body.

🇧🇷 He asked me if deep down I didn’t want to lose weight and I told him that I wouldn’t allow it until I showed my work to Brazil and made them understand that it wasn’t about that, “wrote the singer on her Twitter at the time.

“Marília Mendonça got there without surrendering to the voices that said it was impossible… With those clothes, with those shoes, with that weight. What I live today is exclusively my choice, nobody else’s, and what I built is not based on that”, continued Marília.

“Dealing with the different is something that people don’t realize. She had been making changes to her body, but people still have a hard time dealing with her and continue to make these fat-phobic remarks”, explains Ana Laura.

The unfortunate comments about her body were not the focus of mobilization on the networks, which emphasized Marília’s talent and personality. Still, she was treated like a showcase, where all that matters is her appearance. “It imposes and constantly demands an unrealistic standard of beauty from us, and this is very cruel to people”, explains Thais.

The debate on the subject is essential to remove the stigmatization of the fat body, according to Ana Laura. People who suffer from prejudice can develop image disorders and eating disorders, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, among other problems, explains the psychologist.

“Fatphobia is present in our society and shows how much we are still human beings who do not respect others, who limit and stigmatize people to a condition. Having this debate is important for people to be who they are, to be able to access places and be accepted as they are”, says the specialist.

“The debate can make people reflect on the impacts of fatphobia by showing how it is not necessary to offend or diminish a person just because they are fat. In addition to being constructive for fat people to realize how they can no longer accept fatphobic comments and attitudes, encouraging self-acceptance and self-love for fat people”, complements Thais Carla.