Raven-Symoné Weight A Constant Battle: ABC ‘Skinny-Shamed’ Actress, Made Her Wear A Fat Suit For Sitcom

The female body, what it looks like and how much it weighs, is constantly under attack in the entertainment industry and most actresses have been affected in one way or the other, but a conversation on The View Monday has left the nation talking about body image. Raven-Symoné a co-host on The View and revealed that after years of being fat shamed when she lost the weight, show business criticism took another turn – this time it was skinny shaming the actresses.

A conversation that originally was focusing on the immense and ridiculous pressures women feel to lose weight after having a baby opened up the door for Raven to get a little personal. E! recapped the tale of when Raven-Symoné recounted the constant bombardments she got about her weight. The star mentioned that at her heaviest – 185 pounds- people kept asking if she was pregnant and she had to respond that no she was just fat.

“This goes through all of our industry, just fat-shaming in general. Not accepting the female’s body for the different and many beautiful shapes it has. It’s funny because I feel when I lost my weight, like big-girl season came. It was like so many big girls that are now famous and I was over here, starving.”

Never one to take the shy road one of the long time hosts of The View, Whoopi Goldberg called her out on being famous and fat. Goldberg reminded her that she was one of those women before, one of the big girls that was famous. Raven countered and threw in a few industry struggles that revolved around her weight. It’s something she’s been dealing with since she was a teen.

“You don’t even know what I went through… I wouldn’t get my show unless I looked a certain way, things of that nature.”

However, the veteran did know what the 26-year-old had gone through. Whoopi knew exactly the struggles Raven-Symoné faced in that and shared a memory of how after she had also lost some weight about 6 or 7 years ago and lost out on a role because of it. When she turned up to audition for the part producers were astonished.

“I showed up and the guy went, ‘Where’d you go?'”

Whoopi’s obvious answer that she lost some weight did not go over well. She revealed then that she was “skinny shamed” and told they needed her the size she was before. The kinship was immediate as Raven-Symoné fairly burst as she chimed in that that had happened to her too. Only the producers did not turn her away because of the weight loss, instead they pulled a stunt that shocked viewers when Raven blurted it out.

“On State of Georgia they had me wear a fat suit, because they said I wasn’t the size they wanted me to be.”

Audiences and hosts alike were shocked to learn that the body image issues had gone that far. State of Georgia was a series that aired for 1 season on ABC Family back in 2011 that was pulled from the line up because of poor ratings.

Huffington Post wrote a piece that reminded readers that it was the same type of body image pressures that had forced Raven-Symoné into losing weight to begin with. In an interview with Oprah she had revealed that it was producers who made her lose her “thick and fabulous” image. The same thoughts Raven spoke about on The View about her weight plagued her then as she noticed a surge of big women in the industry. She immediately wondered if they were receiving the same treatment that had made her so body image conscious. She always wondered if they were getting the same backlash for being thick.

Raven’s fat suit comment has gone unchallenged by ABC executives and to the time of publishing no word had been received in the way of comments.

What do you think of the actresses body image issues and claims of the fat suit?

[Photo Courtesy Of Dimitrios Kambouris/ Getty Images]