Tess Holliday responds to 'trash' criticism of her beach body: 'I'm hot AF'

In a sad turn of events, it seems that lists of the “worst beach bodies” in Hollywood are still very much around.

So revealed model Tess Holliday, who shared a cover of The National Enquirer’s “50 best and worst beach bodies” spread to Instagram. Holliday earned the not-so-kind title of “worst beach body,” and took to social media to explain her frustration over these kinds of rankings — even if they’re not exactly harming her self-esteem.

“LOL I WAS VOTED THE WORST BEACH BODY THIS YEAR & IT MAKES ME MAD BC ITS 2021 AND WE ARE STILL PUBLISHING TRASH LIKE THIS?!!!” Holliday exclaimed in the caption. “CORNY LOL BUT ALSO MAKES ME LAUGH BC IM HOT AF LOLLLLL.”

While she made sure to include some allegedly “not hot” photos of herself in a string bikini to provide the magazine with the most “updated content,” the model made it clear that these kinds of articles are not OK.

“The media always acts shocked when ‘celebs’ suffer mental health breakdowns but they continue to perpetuate unrealistic body standards & push toxic diet culture on us all,” she explained. “Thank you @alexlight_ldn for bringing this to my attention, & if you are seeing this & you’re fat as hell or just have a body that isn’t chiseled & traditionally ‘hot’ & wanna go to the MF beach or put on a swimsuit: DO IT.”

Anti-diet culture influencer Alex Light shared the article on her own Instagram, writing in the caption, “I cried when I read this feature. Hot, angry tears. Not for myself, but for the millions of women - and men - who are going to see this and make judgements about their own body accordingly. ‘What would they say about mine?’, is a common thought after reading this, I imagine.”

Light also commented on Holliday’s Instagram post about that cover, “I adore you - sorry they printed this absolute S***.”

In recent years, celebrities have railed against the media criticizing their bodies.

Jessica Simpson — who, in 2009, was relentlessly mocked for her weight in the media after a photo of her in “mom jeans” went viral — wrote in a personal essay for Amazon Original Stories in April, “I still don't understand why those pictures of me merited exhaustive discussion on CNN and headlines like 'Obama Weighs in on Jessica Simpson's Full Figure.' I was 120 pounds and size 4, something I only wrote in my journal and refused to reveal publicly because I knew exactly how that would be used against women whose numbers were higher."

While body-shaming is certainly more discussed now, it’s clear that we still have a long way to go before people are allowed to simply live while wearing a bathing suit.