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Anybody starting to feel like they’re back in middle school? There’s been a preponderance of the F-word — “fat” — lately that calls to mind a serious “Mean Girls” resurgence.
But just like in that movie, the picked-on will eventually bite back.
Recently, the Internet and media exploded with snarky remarks about Lady Gaga being photographed onstage in Amsterdam looking a bit curvier than usual after gaining 25 pounds. (Stories featured subtle headlines like “The Fat Lady Gaga Sings.”)
Days after the hurtful comments surfaced, Gaga tweeted pictures of herself in her underwear, with captions that read, “Bulimia and anorexia since I was 15. But today I join the body revolution. To inspire bravery.”
The singer went on to comment, “My boyfriend prefers me when I am curvier. When I eat I am healthy and not so worried about my looks . . . This is who I am. And I am proud at any size.” She also name-checked her dad’s restaurant in New York, saying the food was “so freaking delicious,” she puts on weight every time she goes there.
Meanwhile, Christina Aguilera had to publicly deny comments falsely attributed to her about admitting to being “a fat girl.”
She recently told Lucky magazine that “actually, the challenge I’ve always had is being too thin, so I love that now I have a booty, and obviously I love showing my cleavage.”
And earlier this year, designer Karl Lagerfeld called Grammy-dominating singer Adele “a little too fat.”
The “Someone Like You” singer lashed back, telling People, “I’ve never wanted to look like models on the cover of magazines. I represent the majority of women and I’m very proud of that.”
These singers have come out as proud of the way they look — not running to sign on with Jenny Craig, as stars have done in the past, but proclaiming that they like themselves just the way they are.
“It’s really exciting to see women pushing back against this,” says Samhita Mukhopadhyay, author of “Outdated: Why Dating Is Ruining Your Love Life” and executive editor of feministing.com.
“It’s kind of an ‘enough is enough’ moment. These women are busting their asses to entertain us! And I’m really impressed with Lady Gaga for being like, ‘No, I’m not going to put up with that. I love my body as it is.’ ”
Also, says Dodai Stewart, a contributor to jezebel.com, “Maybe this is happening because these women are on top. Women are dominating the music industry right now. And people always want to knock down whoever’s on top.”
A-list singers aren’t the only ones fighting back; last week, “Mad Men” star Christina Hendricks objected to an Australian reporter’s referring to her as “full-figured” in a question (twice).
“I think calling me full-figured is just rude,” she reportedly remarked off-camera.
And in a less-famous example, local news anchor Jennifer Livingston in La Crosse, Wis., stood up to an e-mail from a viewer who was “concerned” about the “message” she was sending to her audience by being nonskinny and on television. She recorded a response to the e-mail in which she decried the culture of fat-shaming.
“You know nothing about me but what you see on the outside, and I am much more than a number on a scale,” said Livingston.
Sure, attention to weight from the media and the public peanut gallery is nothing new; icons from Elizabeth Taylor to Courtney Love have been scrutinized in the past for their shifting body shapes. But the reaction from the latest targets may be something different.
The question remains: Should these women, who are some of the most popular entertainers in the world, really have to rally so hard for their right to eat food — and look like they do?
Onstage performing especially — and singing, with the kind of substantial chops these women have — requires stamina. Not easy to come by if you’re starving yourself.
And yet, “We’re constantly saying, ‘Your talent is secondary to your looks, and you cannot fully engage in your talent unless you’re adhering to that standard of thinness and beauty that we’ve put out there,’ ” says child/teen development specialist Robyn Silverman, author of “Good Girls Don’t Get Fat: How Weight Obsession Is Messing Up Our Girls and How We Can Help Them Thrive Despite It.”
“It’s a body-bullying culture,” Silverman says. “And it constantly underscores the message that we’re worth more when we weigh less.”
But with these singers reclaiming the message — and putting out the vibe that they’re not going to be bullied — they may end up changing the way we think.
“With Lady Gaga, especially, she sort of embodies what we want our rock stars to be, which is creating their own world, their own rules, not giving a s - - t,” says Stewart, who applauds Gaga’s response to the fat freakout.
“Plus,” she says, “she’s dancing onstage for hours every day! She’s been not eating since she was 15. For God’s sake, if she’s finally eating, let her eat!”
sstewart@nypost.com