Another day, another body shaming story (unfortunately). In an essay for the Sunday Times, Marie Claire South Africa editor-in-chief Aspasia Karras got real about the super jolly time she logged on to Facebook to see her butt tagged in someone’s picture of her bending over at an event. One commenter asked, “Whose big bottom is that?” Lovely.
Karras tried to brush it off like it was NBD, but the comment really haunted her. She said, “It preyed on me. I got introspective, or rather retrospective. I did a lot of bum gazing per mirror trying to establish just how big this bottom situation was/is.” Understandable.
“That big bottom is mine because I am heartily sick of women having to deal with other people’s ideas of what their bodies should look like.”
But instead of just letting the Facebook dweeb get away with drawing attention to her “big bottom,” Karras decided to comment back. Her message possesses so much fire it likely made this body shamer call his mom crying. Here’s the message:
Dear (insert name of Facebook commentator here), that is my big bottom, thanks for asking. I’ll admit that when I first saw it displayed at such a dramatic angle in this post, I felt slightly alarmed and thought I should ask the photographer to edit her post. Obviously not my best angle! But then I read your charming question. Whose big bottom indeed? That big bottom is mine because I am heartily sick of women having to deal with other people’s ideas of what their bodies should look like. It is my big bottom because mean-spirited fat-shaming sucks. It is my big bottom and I like to display it in hot leather pants. It is my big bottom and I am proud of it because it works hard to support my strong legs when I run marathons. It is my big bottom and I own it. So thanks for that question. I have indeed taken it to heart. The very bottom of my heart.
Boom. We don’t need to go into the long list of reasons why this message is giving us life like orange juice during a hangover right now. So, let’s all take a drink in Karras’ honor instead.
How’s that for some #MondayMotivation?
Related Links:
Disgusting Body Shamers Aren’t Going Anywhere, But We Should Call Them Out Anyway
Let’s Not Automatically Assume Rita Ora Was ‘Fat Shaming’ Adele on Snapchat
