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"  I get why it would be a big deal if Gwen Stefani walked up to Miley Cyrus or Rihanna (or really any celebrity, male or female) and called them &amp;quot;chunky.&amp;quot; But since that didn&amp;#039;t happen, all these &amp;quot;Gwen Stefani Guilty of Body Shaming&amp;quot; stories are more than a little sensationalized\u2014and it annoys me. I think the body-shaming police have just taken it too far this time. To backtrack, here&amp;#039;s what did happen: on Sunday, Gwen tweeted a throwback picture of herself, complete with a self-deprecating, but also playful caption:    chunky me 1983. getting @officialsting autograph backstage. cut to... pic.twitter.com/Uj1dmN9GPL \u2014 Gwen Stefani (@gwenstefani) February 2, 2014    Everyone freaked out over her using the word &amp;quot;chunky,&amp;quot; steamrolling the fact that that&amp;#039;s an early &amp;#039;80s picture of Gwen Stefani getting an autograph from Sting.     @YahooShine I&amp;#039;m SO disappointed to hear that she&amp;#039;s another one of &amp;quot;those girls&amp;quot;...you know, the ones who say &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m fat&amp;quot; but is far from. Ugh. \u2014 Jamie Steagall (@jamison311) February 3, 2014    It makes me wonder: Why is everyone so quick to criticize Gwen? I, for one, have certainly said the same sort of offhand comment when an old college photo of me bubbles up; I look like me but... puffier. And if I say something to that effect, it&amp;#039;s neither an indication that I&amp;#039;m ashamed of my earlier self, nor a judgment of anyone else, I guarantee you. It&amp;#039;s just a &amp;quot;huh, that&amp;#039;s different.&amp;quot; Likewise, I think Gwen had a knee-jerk reaction when seeing that old photo of herself, but her comment shouldn&amp;#039;t mandate the amount of attention it&amp;#039;s been getting. Even if, unlike me, she is a public figure and said it on social media, that doesn&amp;#039;t mean we should twist her words and paint her to be some sort of &amp;quot;skinny or bust!&amp;quot; troll. Instead, I think we should go with this woman&amp;#039;s view, and give her the last word:    If Gwen Stefani feels she was chunky as a teen, then that&amp;#039;s her opinion about her body. People get offended so easily. \u2014 Bored_With_Real_Name (@michelle_strait) February 4, 2014    Photos: Courtesy of Getty This post originally appeared on Elle.com. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/mom-kids/news/a16959/gwen-stefani-calls-herself-chunky-elle/>