On Monday, the actress Melissa McCarthy posted a photograph to Instagram wherein she was carrying a tiered, sea-foam-green robe at a gala she had attended alongside the director Adam Shankman. Although the picture itself didn’t trigger a lot of a stir, one remark — which occurred to be from the entertainer Barbra Streisand — did. It learn, partially, “Did you are taking Ozempic?”
Screenshots of the remark started circulating quickly after, with many viewers criticizing Ms. Streisand for inquiring publicly whether or not one other celeb was taking a weight-loss treatment. (Others puzzled if Ms. Streisand realized the remark had been posted the place others may see it.) The remark has since been deleted.
On Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Streisand addressed the pushback. She had gone on Instagram to see pictures of flowers she had obtained for her birthday, she wrote in a publish on her Instagram and X accounts. “Under them was a photograph of my good friend Melissa McCarthy who I sang with on my Encore album,” Ms. Streisand wrote. “She seemed implausible! I simply wished to pay her a praise. I forgot the world is studying!”
Ozempic is a part of a comparatively new class of medicines, utilized in treating diabetes and weight problems, which have surged in recognition in recent times. Whereas it’s permitted by the Meals and Drug Administration just for diabetes, folks have more and more been utilizing Ozempic off-label to drop some weight. Researchers are investigating whether or not these medicines can deal with a variety of different circumstances, together with sleep apnea, alcohol use dysfunction and power kidney illness.
Because the medication have grown in recognition, so has the stress round social etiquette and whether or not it’s correct to ask your thinner-seeming associates if they’re utilizing them. For celebrities, the questions are much more fraught. Some stars have made an occasion out of showing they take treatment — maybe none extra notably than Oprah Winfrey, who introduced in Folks journal that she was taking a weight reduction drug and “completed with the shaming.” She later hosted a prime-time particular dedicated to weight stigma and the brand new medicines. Elon Musk was one of many earliest proponents, writing on Twitter in 2022 after being requested how he had grow to be so “match, ripped & wholesome” that he was taking one other drug, Wegovy.
Some consultants fear that fixating on who’s and isn’t taking the medication can transmit a dangerous message about our bodies and weight. “It shouldn’t be one thing that individuals essentially have to cover,” mentioned Dr. Melanie Jay, director of the N.Y.U. Langone Complete Program on Weight problems. “Nevertheless it’s additionally none of anybody’s enterprise.”
The trade might have taken off as a result of it “breaks still-evolving etiquette about Ozempic, weight reduction and weight loss program,” mentioned Dr. Adrienne Bitar, a lecturer in American research at Cornell College and the creator of the ebook “Food plan and the Illness of Civilization.” Publicly questioning whether or not an individual takes Ozempic may learn like a form of insult, she added, given the stigma that surrounds taking treatment to drop some weight.
Ms. Streisand’s remark was almost definitely innocuous, mentioned Kate Manne, an affiliate professor of philosophy at Cornell College and the creator of the ebook “Unshrinking: The way to Face Fatphobia.” Besides, it alerts a form of “surveillance” of Ms. McCarthy’s physique, she mentioned.
“Most likely she didn’t imply something by it,” Dr. Manne mentioned. “However that doesn’t imply it’s not dangerous.”
Ms. McCarthy, for her half, doesn’t appear troubled. Requested by TMZ on Tuesday whether or not the remark had crossed a line, Ms. McCarthy replied, “I feel Barbra is a treasure, and I like her,” earlier than waving the reporter away.
