Shonda Rhimes is speaking out about how differently she was treated before and after losing 150 pounds.
via Page Six:
“Women I barely knew gushed. And I mean GUSHED. Like I was holding-a-new-baby-gushed,” the “Grey’s Anatomy” creator wrote in her latest “Shondaland” newsletter. “Only there was no new baby. It was just me. In a dress. With makeup on and my hair all did, yes. But … still the same me.
“Women gushed anyway. And men? They spoke to me. THEY SPOKE TO ME. Like stood still and had long conversations with me about things,” the 47-year-old continued. “It was disconcerting. But even more disconcerting was that all these people suddenly felt completely comfortable talking to me about my body. Telling me I looked ‘pretty’ or that they were ‘proud of me’ or that ‘wow, you are so hot now’ or ‘you look amazing!’”
Rhimes wrote about her experience in reference to author Roxane Gay’s newly released memoir, “Hunger,” which focuses on body image, food and weight.
The award-winning producer was also puzzled because “after I lost weight, I discovered that people found me valuable. Worthy of a conversation. A person one could look at. A person one could compliment. A person one could admire.”
Rhimes questioned how people viewed her prior to losing weight.
“You heard me. I discovered that NOW people saw me as a PERSON,” she penned. “What the hell did they see me as before? … What words did they use to describe me? What value did they put on my presence at a party, a lunch, a discussion? When I was fat, I wasn’t a PERSON to these people. Like I had been the Invisible Woman who suddenly materialized in front of them. Poof! There I am. Thin and ready for a chat.”
As Rhimes pointed out, “being thinner doesn’t make you a different person. It just makes you thinner.”
We feel you, Shonda. You do look good though!
