Women Are Fighting Back Against Stretch Mark Shaming
Stretch mark shaming is apparently a thing now. Great. (Facebook/RobinLawleyPlusSizeModel)
Stretch marks! Many of us have them, and now everyone’s sharing theirs on Facebook, in videos and selfies.
Recently, plus-sized, Australian model Robyn Lawley captured her “tiger stripes” in a Facebook post; she’s also part of an ATTN:-produced video that attempts to fight “stretch mark shaming,” writing “…to anyone who feels bad about your body especially after a baby, you are a warrior, you created a life inside of you, that’s no easy feat.’
(Facebook/RobinLawleyPlusSizeModel)
ATTN:’s “The Truth About Stretch Marks” video curates great selfies of famous people and their stripes. There’s the Facebook picture of Lawley covering her breasts and capturing her “bad ass” stretch marks, which she says she “earned,” presumably when carrying and giving birth to her daughter, Ripley.
The video also presents model Chrissy Teigen and a digital triptych of her thigh stretch marks and YouTube confessionals by regular women showing and discussing their red-fade-to-white stripes.
If you don’t have stretch marks, they’re narrow, discolored streaks that develop when the connective tissue in the middle layer of skin (dermis) stretches and tears during sudden growth or contraction, like when you’re pregnant, quickly gain weight or enter puberty. Stretch marks most commonly develop on the tummy, thighs and butt, but they can appear on breasts, upper arms and lower backs, too.
Stretch mark shaming went viral last year when an Alberta, Canada, mother-of-five was mocked when she wore a bikini that revealed her stretch marks. In response to the young men who laughed and pretended to kick her, Tanis Jex-Blake wrote on Facebook, “I’m sorry that my stomach isn’t flat and tight. I’m sorry that my belly is covered in stretch marks. I’m NOT sorry that my body has housed, grown, protected, birthed and nurtured FIVE fabulous, healthy, intelligent and wonderful human beings.”
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