It sho' is easy for us to sit up here and judge this woman...interesting considering how even folks on THIS board dogged the hellout of her when there was a light test photo circulatng on the net of her, and people ripped her to shreads for what should have been a frame that was never supposed to see broad daylight...all we heard was how ugly, fat and out of shape she was...I can only imagine the scrutiny she faces in the real tabloid media. Even WBLS radio calls her all kinds of "fat ass"es and "Man-teka" on a regular basis during their daily gossip segments.

Ottensen said:

Yep, I remember that.

It doesn't matter where in the world you get your surgery done, your body's reaction to anesthesia is a risk if you haven't had it before and there is no history to know how the body will react.

I don't think if Tameka makes a full recovery, her heart would be the same. Just my opinion.

What photo are you talking about?

Cinnie said:

Yep, that's a fact that I don't think gets stressed enough. I think some expect a chance of complication due to the actual surgery but some people never get that far. You should interview the anesthesiologist just like you would interview a surgeon.

As for Tameka, never understood why she was being so harshly criticized aside from jealous and selfish Usher fans who perhaps thought he should have married them. I remember when he made a personal plea to stop the bashing. Just shows people have an extremely narrow view of attractiveness.

JackieBlue said:

Or maybe Usher fans felt that he should have married Chilli from TLC, I don't know.

I hate those surgeries, when will people learn to accept themselves??

Empress said:

Graycap23 said:

Nucca puhlease!

A lot of the criticism stemmed from jealousy, but a lot of it was also legit. There were plenty of folks in the industry who expressed dismay re Usher hooking up with Tameka on account of her being somewhat unsavory. Usher was cheating on Chili with Tameka and this was when she was still married and had 3 kids already. Usher's mom also took out a restraining order against her. I believe also, that Tameka just gave up custody of her kids to her ex and doesn't see them much. By all accounts, even unbiased ones, the woman does not seem to be that nice. She isn't as bad as Vanessa Bryant, Kobe's wife, but she comes close.

Now, where can I see that pic?

destinyc1 said:

YES!!! My sister had lipo which removes fat cells that would normally just grow and shrink as you lose or gain weight. If you gain that weight back the normal fat cells are gone so other areas plump up instead. She got fat deposits on her back and arms.

scriptgirl said:

I think it was one accompanying a sitting for Essence. In any event, it was what is referred to in fashion photography refer as a "light test". It's those few moments before actual shooting takes place, where the subject stands on set and the photographer and assistant photographer(s) are using light meters to help them adjust the light against the person being photographed with light reflectors, Tungstens, ect. Generally when the subject is called to do this they're usually smack dab in the middle of hair, make-up and fittings with the wardrobe stylist,hair, and make-up artist. They (the subject) in that moment are genrally genrally ramshakle, half dressed , they may or may not have on part of their shooting wardrobe depending on where the frame is going to be cropped, ect.ect. In this case she had on the trench that was being worn for the shot,& her undies (unmatched I think), her pantyhose, and you could see all this because the coat was open. Additionally you could see her 37 year old,done-had 3 babies-gut hanging everywhere, but so what? When a person is being shot for catalog and editorial, they pretty much spend most of the day in varying degrees of undress, it shocks no one on set because that's just what it is. You see hundreds upon hundreds of people half nekkid over the course of a career for 10 hours a day and it's completely normal. But here in Cyberspace you had a bunch of knuckleheads knocking her for her looks, her skin tone, her belly, and then complaining about her coat being open...having zero clue that the very reason why the coat would be undone is SO.IT.WOULD.NOT.BE.WRINKLED. before the belt is adjusted (for correct fit) in the final minutes before the photographer starts shooting. People don't know that once you fuck up the waist of a belted outfit that shit has to be removed from figure and re-steamed...and then you have 12 fuckin'people standing around clicking teeth getting pissed because that extra 5,10,15 minutes might take the whole crew into overtime.

But anyhoo, yeah, that was the photo.

Aside from her poochy stomach-are those stretchmarks?-she looks fine. I wouldn't show off like that if I had 3 kids, unless everything was nice and tight, but that's just me. I also don't care for her smug expression, but that's me. I will say that I do agree that she does look old enough to be Usher's mom.

JackieBlue said:

Okay, ummm, she was wrong for posing like that, in that, under any circumstances. She shoulda known it was gonna come out and she'd be ridiculed for it. For goodness sakes, wasn't she a stylist? She knows better than most how the game is played. That being said, I don't think she needed the lipo but I believe this was before the last two babies. But I totally understand why she'd feel pressured to do it. Sad, really.

scriptgirl said:

Yeah, there's some stretch marks too. It doesn't look like anything she can't tighten up on her own actually. Now maybe two kids later it was a different story or she just didn't want to put in the work and patience. Being that Usher's 30 I don't think she looks quite like his mom yet. If she really was conniving or nasty, maybe this experience will change her.

Wonder what Usher's mom thinks of this? She didn't even go to the wedding. Essence said that pic of Tameka was an outtake.

scriptgirl said:

A perfect example of why she probably had issues.

scriptgirl said:

Yeah, they wouldn't publish a pic like that but it got out and around and became a big deal. Guess Essence had a leak.

She probably had issues before the blogger attacks.

scriptgirl said:

Who knows? But it doesn't help that people won't just let someone be. No one's looks should be criticized but I guess it's easy when people hide behind a computer screen.

I remember that pic was on Essence's website

SCNDLS said:

I know how much you hate it, but honestly, it 's not uncommon for a person to be half dressed during the light test. Also,It's very, very, VERY rare for these throwaways to get out. Unless this was shot on analog and an outsider swiped a test polaroid, I can't see someone on a crew pulling some shit like this. People who work on photo crews have pretty much an unspoken oath of silence with regards to their profession, not to mention the club is sort of exclusive with a mafia mentality. Once you're in, you're in...and you don't fuck up your professional rep, and more dangerously, your agents's rep by doing stuff like this. It leads to industry wide blackballing (amongst clients, photographers, and agency reps) and within 72 hours you will have no career. Guaranteed.

Oh but shoot, all that being said, while we all know she's a grown ass woman,and maybe some might even argue that she should have thicker skin, I can't imagine it being easy with people trashing you all day in print saying how unnatractive you are (AND on the radio!) and not have that affect you somehow. I mean,she is 10 years older than her husband as well. I've never been one to consider plastic surgery, but damn, if every time I opened up a magazine or looked online and thousnds of people were apt to tell me I was someone's old, fat, transsexual wife, I'm pretty sure I'd develop complex too.

Lawd, sometimes I swear the internet is evil and does more harm than good

Ottensen said:

I agree. It gives people balls they wouldn't have face to face.

I don't think there's anything at all wrong with how she looks in that picture. WTF is wrong with people that that would be called ugly or fat? Sure, her belly's soft, but she's had kids. So friggin what? How many females -even without kids -have those hard supermodels stomachs anyways? Damn few.

Vendetta1 said:

Whether its the internet, magazine, or live tv, in your face or behind your back, people are going to voice their opinions or even facts for that matter. You can't stop that. These celebrities know that's the price of fame. Allow me to say this: if she's as scandalous as some people say, and I'm just saying if,then she's reaping what she's sowned and that's called karma as well. Like someone said here, this should help her see things in a better eye.
[Edited 2/14/09 9:16am]

Exactly. This whole thing is karma

What did she do?

Read upthread or a page back. I posted why peeps don't fancy her