Jessica Simpson Weight Gain Pictures

Actress and singer Jessica Simpson has said that when she is really happy, things like her weight don't really matter to her. After rocky relationships with Nick Lachey and John Mayer, Jessica Simpson is finally in a happy relationship with Dallas Cowboys football player Tony Romo, and she recently showed off her fuller, curvy figure on January 25, 2009, when she performed at the 99.9 KISS Country's Chili Cook-Off in Pembroke Pines, Florida.

Jessica Simpson's more womanly shape immediately set off a firestorm of controversy. The internet picked up the story and photos, and one media outlet dubbed her "Jumbo Jessica." Soon Jessica Simpson's size became the subject of speculation and cruel remarks. In my opinion, this is just one more example of our country's insane obsession with weight and body image.

With obesity continuing to be a national problem, somehow we Americans hold our celebrities to unreasonable standards with regard to their size and shape. Female stars in particular are expected to be underweight, slipping into ridiculously small designer sizes. Whenever a celebrity falls out of line and gains a few pounds, the attacks on them are often swift and quite degrading.

For example, in late 2007 Ghost Whisperer actress Jennifer Love Hewitt was photographed in a bikini, and she was vilified for her body shape. Headlines screamed that Jennifer Love Hewitt was fat and the actress was publicly embarrassed. Hewitt countered that she (and her fiancé at the time) loved her shape and was comfortable in her own skin. However, sometime later celebrity magazines were touting Jennifer Love Hewitt's miracle weight loss regimen and her new svelte body.

Perhaps Jennifer Love Hewitt couldn't take the public degradation over her size and caved in to the pressure to become smaller. Jessica Simpson has a great opportunity to stand her ground and embrace her current body type. Simpson has said that weight is not an issue for her when she's in a happy relationship, and that Tony Romo loves her body, just as she is. It would be a terrible unfairness if the size of Jessica Simpson's body in some way negatively impacted her career.

That's a reflection of our cultural fixation with super thin celebrities. When I hear the cruel jokes about Jessica Simpson's weight, I think of the damage that might do to her fans, who will believe that it's not okay to be a full figured woman. Jessica Simpson isn't overweight, but normal (after all, the average size of the American woman is about a 12 or 14!)

I hope that Simpson stands her ground and doesn't try to whittle her body down just to please an often unrealistic and uncompromising media and public. I'm rooting for Jessica Simpson to weather the storm and keep her head held high, and carve out her own place in show business on her own terms, just like other more fuller figured celebs America Ferrara, Beyonce Knowles and Queen Latifah.