Disney Channel is being blasted for alleged body-shaming Raven-Symoné.
According to reports, in the book “Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire” by Ashley Spencer, the network was worried about the actress’ weight while on the show, “That’s So Raven”. The executives allegedly went to great lengths to “fix the problem.”
In a season 2 episode, Raven’s character was replaced by a thinner model for a fashion show, in which she went diet and began a crazy workout. She would eventually stop once she realized that she was perfect the way she was.
The book discusses how the “network bosses instructed the show’s visual effects team to manipulate footage to make Raven appear thinner in the show’s final scenes.” Producer Michael Feldman said that the incident was “shameful” and that the executive messed up the episode’s message.
“I don’t know how they could look at themselves and do that,” he said. “The very thing that she wanted to do a story about was literally done to her. It’s still a shocking thing to me that they were that tone-deaf.”
The former head of Disney Channel, Adam Bonnett, also spoke on the incident and said, this is “not something I would have asked for.” He also noted that the visual effect trick may have been used in other episodes. For another episode, he said, “There was some stuff done to make Raven’s attire look more flattering in certain scenes.”
Spencer also wrote how Dave Savel, the co-producer and writer of the series said, “Disney Channel was going crazy about it, and they handled it in really bad ways. But it was never to her face.”
Raven-Symoné has been open about “having conversations” about her looking thinner for the show. She also discussed what it was like growing up in front of a camera. What are your thoughts on this?