This one might get ugly, or maybe I’m overestimating how much people care. First, some background: Raven-Symone is famous for many things – the 23-year-old has been working pretty much non-stop from the age of four, when she began work on The Cosby Show. Her popularity grew from there into her teenage years and into young adulthood with roles in the Disney Channel’s mega-hits, The Cheetah Girls and That’s So Raven. That’s So Raven is still Disney’s highest rated and longest running show. She also produces some of her television project. And in addition to her acting and producing career, she’s has a solid music career.
Unfortunately, Raven-Symone is also famous for being the target of quite a bit criticism from bloggers and the mainstream media for her larger body. She’s even spoken out about the criticism she’s faced, calling her critics “haters” and her body “thick and fabulous.” In an interview this past January, Raven said: “People come up to me and have certain words for me, but you know what I do? I say, ‘I’m healthy, I exercise, I believe in myself, and I think I’m beautiful.’ You just have to learn how to transform the pressures into something that doesn’t soak into you on a personal level. You see it, you breathe past it, you don’t let it sink into your self-esteem.”
So will Raven defend herself against Debbie Allen’s recent comments? When Debbie was being interviewed about So You Think You Can Dance, Debbie expressed surprise that so many young people know who she is. Debbie pointed out that she’s been introduced to kids because she co-stars on That’s So Raven. When kids come up to Debbie, recognizing her and asking about Raven, Debbie says, “’Of course, I know that little heifer! I love that girl.”
Raven-Symone — who has received her share of criticism from online “haters” for her body — has found a new critic: Her Disney costar.
At a So You Think You Can Dance elimination taping Thursday in Los Angeles, Usmagazine.com caught up with That’s So Raven star Debbie Allen and asked her about the upcoming Fame movie, out Sept. 25. (Allen played Lydia Grant in the 1980s series.)
“It’s going to energize a whole new generation of young people who were not engaged in Fame the first time around,” Allen told Us. “It’s so funny we were talking about things coming full circle.”
She then told Us she is surprised that kids these days even know who she is. Then, she said, it dawns on her that she stars with tween sensation Symone in That’s So Raven.
Said Allen, “I was wondering how they knew me and then they say, ‘Do you know Raven?’ I’m like, ‘Of course, I know that little heifer! I love that girl.'”
In March Symone, 23, spoke with Seventeen at a self esteem workshop. She said she was “thick” ever since she was 9 years old. She said she would have benefited from workshops to cope with “that negative language” and understand that her life is “about me, not about what [people] want me to be.”
[From US Weekly]
I honestly don’t think Debbie meant anything mean-spirited. I think she was trying to relate a story, and she probably forgot that she might be stepping into a landmine of women’s body image issues. For all we know, that’s how Debbie and Raven talk to each other, like they have little nicknames for each other. Debbie’s nickname for Raven is “heifer” and Raven’s nickname for Debbie is “bitch who doesn’t know when not to refer to someone as a heifer.” Amongst close friends (and even family), I have participated in these kinds of nicknames – years ago, my roommate and I just referred to each other as “Slut” and “Whitey” (I was “Slut”). That being said, given the criticism Raven has already faced for her body, I think everyone should hold off on the heifer talk, even if it’s just a little inside joke.
Raven-Symone is shown on 10/28/08 (purple dress, credit: Fame Pictures), 2/9/09 (no paparazzi t-shirt, credit: Fame Pictures) and 4/17/09 (Toyota race, credit: WENN.com). She looks like she’s lost weight recently. Debbie Allen ais shown on 6/4/09 and 11/2/08. Credit: PRPhotos
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