While infidelity, backbiting and jealousy are ingrained in “Love Island,” extreme weight loss has not typically been part of the reality series’ narrative until now.
After video footage of Season Eight contestant Melanie Moreno surfaced of her as a plus-size model in a 2023 Miami Swim Week fashion show, some critics went into overdrive, suggesting that she used Ozempic or other weight loss drugs. A relative of Moreno’s reportedly denied that claim. While celebrities’ bodies are a constant point of fascination and scrutiny, the current debate about Moreno’s physique raises broader societal questions, according to a few authorities.
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Representatives at Wilhelmina, the agency that Moreno signed with, did not respond to requests for comment. In addition to modeling, the 24-year-old Los Angeles resident works in a bikini store.
After images of a heavier Moreno modeling a pink one-piece swimsuit with cut-outs for PrettyLittleThing circulated on social media, one of her cousins posted, “She worked hard to get her current body!!! She wasn’t insecure when she was plus size, and she’s not insecure now.”
While bikinis, weight loss and insecurity are relatable to many “Love Island” viewers, the show’s format seems ripe for the current social media chatter that is buzzing about Moreno’s body. Peacock’s American dating show features “Islanders,” who reside under constant surveillance in a villa, where the objective to couple up with another Islander — for love, friendship, or survival to take home the cash prize. Moreno’s alliance with Sincere Rhea is one of the reality program’s central storylines that millions are now watching play-by-play.
Within a few days of debuting, the streaming series’ eighth season had totaled 824 million minutes viewed — a 74 percent increase compared to the previous season.
Having worked as a model and run a modeling agency, Bethann Hardison said that when some plus-size models choose to slim down, that can raise questions about whether they represent who they were. She said, “It’s as though you are no longer happy with that identity, but you became famous with that identity. Then some feel you’re no longer representing the plus-size girls.”
But Hardison also understands that some people have always longed to be thin, and when they have the opportunity to do that, they do. “I say, ‘Let God. Let be.’ It’s more psychological and emotional than just wanting to be skinny. They see the difference: when you’re a slimmer person, you don’t get all that grief. You don’t hear all the digs about people not being attracted to you,” she said. “Maybe somebody called them names when they were younger.”
Moreno’s career illustrates the complicated dynamics around size and success, according to “Fashioning Fat: Inside Plus-Size Modeling” author Amanda M. Czerniawski. While plus-size models challenge conventional beauty standards and help expand ideas about who “could be considered fashionable and worthy of attention,” broader cultural pressures complicate personal choices and professional opportunities, as well as audience reactions, she said.
There’s actually a phenomenon — “Celebrity Wasting Syndrome” in which heavy celebrities gain popularity, only to lose weight as their careers advance, Czerniawski said. They often become important “symbols of representation for fat audiences, particularly women who rarely see themselves reflected positively in popular culture,” she said.
Noting that Celebrity Wasting Syndrome pre-dates the Ozempic era, Czerniawski came across it while researching “Fashioning Fat” in 2015. Many of the plus-size models she had interviewed discussed the musician Jennifer Hudson’s weight loss and expressed concern about what it meant for size representation, she explained.
Having spent years photographing models across a wide range of sizes, Lydia Hudgens doesn’t believe body size is a reliable indicator of confidence, self-worth, or relationship behavior. “What I find striking is how quickly the conversation has shifted from what viewers are seeing on screen to assumptions about Melanie’s psychology, motivations, and character, based on the fact that she previously modeled as plus-size,” she said.
Hudgens, the author of “Plus: Expanding the Frame,” said the reaction highlights a broader contradiction. “Audiences often call for greater body diversity in media and reality television, yet when someone with a history of living in a larger body enters the spotlight, that history can become the focus of intense scrutiny,” she said. “If a contestant who is not currently plus-size is receiving this level of commentary because she once was, it raises important questions about how a visibly plus-size contestant would be treated.”
Making the point that we need to remember that reality TV contestants are real people, she said, “There is a difference between discussing what happens on a show and using someone’s body history as a basis for assumptions about their confidence, mental state, or worth. Those conversations can have a real impact once contestants return to the public sphere and are confronted with the discourse surrounding them.”
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