Oscar-winning actress and stand-up comedian Mo’Nique once declared that “Skinny bitches must be destroyed!” But her days of hosting beauty pageants for women she called Fabulous And Thick seem to be over. Mo’Nique is now churning out a constant stream of fitspiration tweets with pics of her pumping iron and doing burpees.
“Sisters please believe your life is worth saving. Regardless of your size if you just start today to save your life, it pays off.”
“If you keep putting one foot in front of the other, you will reach your goals.. When you give up your body gives out.”
After this workout, I don’t think she’s going to be diving into a platter of fried chicken as she did with the contestants of her “Mo’Nique’s Fat Chance” beauty pageant. Back then, she had the Fabulous And Thick divas put on a bit of a show in a gym before assembling them all for a nosh. Not a single drop of sweat was shed but their outfits did look fabulous. I cannot find a video but I remember the winner came out on stage and expressed her philosophy of life. It was something along the lines of “I think all you thin people should have a cheeseburger. You’ll feel better.”
Mo’Nique herself used to urge women to “Take up space without having to demand it.” She is now reportedly taking up less space herself, down from around 300 lbs to 218 and she says she’s determined to keep dropping the weight.
Mo’Nique is doing what Star Jones did. When they were larger, each insisted they were perfectly happy with their size and even specifically flaunted it. Then they had a change of heart. For Star Jones, it was literally. After having weight loss surgery and open-heart surgery, Star admitted that back when she was claiming she thought she was beautiful and felt healthy at 300 lbs, she was lying. Then she lied about having weight loss surgery and for awhile claimed her weight loss was due to diet and Pilates. She has said she lied because she wanted to keep things private and personal at that time and it’s understandable. Being a public figure can’t be easy when you’re dealing with matters that the media would want to sensationalize.
But Mo’Nique is possibly in a tougher position than Star Jones. While Star responded to criticism and media scrutiny by insisting she was happy and felt healthy, Mo’Nique actively promoted and glamorized being large, even extremely overweight. Now she’s posting tweets like “Running to the truth will save your life. RUN TO IT!!” with a pic of her running.
So what IS Mo’Nique’s “truth”? It used to be “take up space.” Be “Fabulous And Thick.” Now it’s “start today to save your life.”
There have been no reports that Mo’Nique experienced a health scare. She’s simply said that she’s losing weight “…for my husband and my children and to get out of my own way.” But it might also have something to do with the fact that after her Oscar-winning performance in 2009’s “Precious,” a role that leveraged her weight to enhance the vicious and hateful nature of her character, Mo’Nique has had no other roles. Nothing. Zero. Oscar winner, ignored. Now, five years later, she’s appearing in “Blackbird,” a low-budget independent film that I would estimate is unlikely to go into general release.
Will anyone challenge Mo’Nique to answer for her past? For “Mo’Nique’s FAT Chance”? For calling for “skinny bitches” to be destroyed? Will she claim that she was always happy and felt healthy during the years she insisted that being thick was fabulous? Given what she’s tweeting these days, she’s going to be hard-pressed to come up with convincing answers.
