Ashley Graham responds to social media body shamers: 'Don't put your insecurities onto other people'
Ashley Graham is once again laying down the body-positive law.
On Sunday, the Sports Illustrated supermodel took to Instagram stories to ask people not to talk about health on her page. “Don’t make comments on my page about health, especially if it’s not your own body,” she said. “Your health is your business. Don’t put your insecurities onto other people. Beauty comes in all shape and sizes. Media should be showing a more diverse group of women and their different skin tones, bodies, and ages altogether.”
Graham’s new ruling comes after she shared a slideshow of 10 women wearing Swimsuits for All bikinis and one-pieces from her own collection. The women are all posed and smiling on various beaches, which somehow inspired Instagram commenters to write in diagnosing them with various health issues.
??Swipe to see some babes rocking their #ashleygraham swimwear for @swimsuitsforall!
A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@theashleygraham) on Aug 6, 2017 at 2:09pm PDT
According to the armchair doctors on Instagram, these smiling women are suffering with everything from diabetes to heart disease. “Next Type2 diabetes would be a thing of ‘fashion’ for big girls,” wrote in one commenter. “It’s important to lose weight,” added another. (Important for who?)
Instagram user celinethevegan took the time to explain why she didn’t like the photo: “I’m not liking ’cause I don’t support people being overweight ’cause I don’t want people to get heart disease.” A nurse even wrote in to say, “I’m sorry, I love these bathing suits, I love the confidence… but I cannot and absolutely never will promote obesity as something good.”
This isn’t the first time that Graham has directed harsh words at the comments section. She recently threw shade at all the fans and media outlets that call her “brave” for the simple act of wearing a swimsuit. While the word may be intended as a compliment, it still singles out her body in a way we don’t do when sample-size models strip down.
A post shared by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@theashleygraham) on Jun 3, 2017 at 5:56pm PDT
After appearing in Vogue, Graham announced the photo shoot in the same breath that she denounced the trolls who told her she could never get there. “To all the people who called me fat, ugly and treated me like trash because of my weight growing up … Catch me on Vogue with your WCW,” she wrote.
She even penned an essay titled “Shamed If I Do, Shamed If I Don’t” for Lenny Letter about the constant criticism she gets from both fat shamers and fans who think she’s not curvy enough. “As a model in the public eye, I’m conditioned to accept criticism,” she wrote. “What type of example are we setting for young girls and their self-esteem if grown adults are on Instagram calling other women ‘cowards’ for losing weight, or ‘ugly’ for being overweight?”
Whether the commenters are with her or against her, Graham has made it clear that she isn’t going to stop advocating on behalf of herself — and for a broader definition of body standards. Now that’s brave.
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