Plus-size influencer gets fat-shamed after partnering with Nike

Inclusivity is still an issue in a number of industries — including beauty and fashion. But while the representation of different faces and bodies has increased on the runway and even more recently in beauty campaigns, there’s a still a vacuum when it comes to curvy women in the fitness and wellness realms.

Nike Women is working to improve body diversity by including plus-size influencers in their brand partnerships.

In a string of recent Instagram posts, U.K. blogger Callie Thorpe announced that she would be working with the athletic brand to promote its plus-size collection. She wrote that she was excited to share her “journey with finding enjoyment in movement and exercise,” and hoped that it would encourage other plus-size women to embrace wellness as well.

After her announcement, Thorpe received many negative comments from people questioning her association with the fitness brand. Many crossed the boundary of fat-shaming, and it reached the point where Thorpe felt she needed to speak out.

Alongside a strong photo of herself standing between two boxing bags and sporting her Nike gear, Thorpe posted a statement that included some of the nasty words people shared with her, and an explanation of the hypocrisy of their comments.

“We truly are damned if we do and damned if you don’t,” Thorpe wrote in response to those who express “faux concern” toward people who are overweight, and then mock them for exercising. “We have to suffer the lectures and comments about our weight whilst also not being afforded the access to fitness or health. And I’m just done with it.”

From the lack of comfortable clothes that support and perform for plus-size people to the exclusive nature of institutions for wellness and exercise, Thorpe points fingers at the many reasons why people shamed for being overweight are not given the opportunity to move their bodies in ways that feels good to them.

Going into the ways that people have continued to mock and mistreat her because of her weight, Thorpe also shares with Yahoo Lifestyle a tweet that she found just following her post that illustrates what plus-size women go through at the gym.

“The secret photos, the meme — it’s constant and unacceptable,” Thorpe says. “I’ve been on the receiving end of street abuse when actually walking to the gym with my husband. I’ve had personal trainers arrive late to my personal training sessions, and just seem to have significantly less interest in me than others in the gym.”

Now that Thorpe is putting herself out there in her efforts with Nike, the influencer is encouraging her supportive followers to not let the haters get in the way.

“To those following me here, don’t let anyone exclude you or make you feel like you don’t belong because you don’t fit into these small-minded stereotypes,” her Instagram caption concludes. “You do what’s best for your body and your life. And to that commenter and anyone else with that attitude, do me a favour, keep your opinions to yourself and take your prejudices and go, some of us have got work to do.”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

• Meet the first-ever curvy model to star in an unretouched self-tanner campaign

• ‘I don’t dress furniture’: Some designers refuse to dress women over size 12

• Plus-size models recreated the Kardashian Calvin Klein ad proving all bodies are beautiful

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