Adele tried to support Beyoncé and all people could talk about was her weight

Well, humankind has finally discovered the one topic that can take precedence over Beyoncé.

Unfortunately, it happens to be intense speculation about another woman’s body and weight.

Sigh.

Fellow singer Adele discovered this the hard way when she uploaded a post to Instagram on Friday, praising Beyoncé’s latest visual album, Black is King.

Alongside a picture that showed the Grammy-winner posing in front of a TV (and a marbled mantlepiece), wearing an outfit seemingly identical to the one Queen B was sporting in a still shown on a TV screen, Adele wrote:

Thank you Queen for always making us all feel so loved through your art.

The Tottenham-born musician is a longtime documented fan of Beyoncé, even thanking her in a 2017 Grammy speech for winning Album of the Year, where she called her “the artist of my life and of my soul” and said she was unable to accept the award as it should have gone to Beyoncé’s nominated release, Lemonade.

But sadly, people and media were far more focused on Adele’s appearance than her words.

As has been exhaustingly documented, the singer has visibly lost weight over the last few years.

And boy, was everyone reminded of that fact by headlines describing her as “slimmed-down” and “flaunting” her “incredible weight loss”.

So of course people began calling it out.

And talking about the massive aesthetic pressures Adele is under as a woman in the public eye.

Basically she can never win.

Some spoke about how the fatphobic reaction to Adele’s weight loss negatively impacted them.

Others were shocked at how quickly Adele’s professional achievements were pushed into the background.

There were also comparisons to the focus on fellow musician Lana del Rey’s weight.

Basically: it’s none of our business.

The constant discussion of Adele’s weight is part of our culture of obsessive fatphobia; the need to shout about her losing a few pounds and how “amazing” that is simply implies that her “old” look was not fit for purpose.

The sooner we unlearn the knee-jerk reaction to judge someone on their weight, the better.

It’s her body, her choice, no need for commentary.

So why not start practising today?