10 Celebrities Who Fought Back Against Body Shaming Bullies

This summer, STELLAR’s all about #StopTheShame. We want you to feel like it’s okay to share your #selfies, beach pics and party snaps and not feel the fear that can come when some mean wagon leaves a nasty comment underneath.

The thing is, that’s always going to happen, but we can’t allow the barbs of the few to outweigh the compliments of the many. Harriet Parsons, the services co-ordinator and a psychotherapist with Bodywhys, The Eating Disorders Association of Ireland, tells us in our extended piece in STELLAR’s July issue, that the key to coping is to develop our confidence and self-esteem in other areas.

“Recognise that body image, while important, is just one aspect and that self esteem is about many things,” advises Harriet. “It’s about who you are, how you behave, what you think and how you are to others. That’s where family and friends can all impact in a positive way for a person,” she stresses.

We’re also taking #inspo from some savvy stars who’ve turned around their body shaming experiences and made their bullies look small. Bravo to these brave ladies.

DOWNLOAD: Get our #StopTheShame badge to show your support of the campaign. It can be used on blogs, websites and overlaid on #selfies and IG pics – use it however you’d like!

Kelly Clarkson

Katie Hopkins, of all people, took singer and American Idol winner Kelly to task for her weight, tweeting, “Jesus, what happened to Kelly Clarkson? Did she eat all of her backing singers? Happily I have wide-screen,” and, “Look chubsters, Kelly Clarkson had a baby a year ago. That is no longer baby weight. That is carrot cake weight. Get over yourselves.”

Kelly took Katie’s barbed words in her stride, telling Ellen Degeneres that she was more than used to people commenting on her weight. “I love how people think that’s new. Like, welcome to the past 13 years! People are like, ‘I’m so sorry that lady in London was so mean to you.’ And I’m like, ‘Are you serious?’ Like, get in line!”

She was equally dismissive of Katie’s mean message, too. “She’s tweeted something nasty about me? That’s because she doesn’t know me. I’m awesome! It doesn’t bother me. It’s a free world. Say what you will. I’ve just never cared what people think. It’s more if I’m happy and I’m confident and feeling good, that’s always been my thing.”

Pippa O’Connor

Following Pippa’s win at the VIP Style Awards this year for Most Stylish Woman, needless to say, the internet felt it had to weigh in on her size. “Oh my God, way too thin,” or “eat a burger,” were some of the comments Pippa had to put up with following media coverage of her win, and the images that were shared of her part-backless lace dress.

“I just thought to myself, ‘that’s the height of ignorance. You wouldn’t say to someone, ‘you’re a few stone overweight, so lay off the burgers’,” she pointed out afterwards. “To me, it’s as insulting,” she explained. “You’ve no idea what someone does or doesn’t do. That could just be the way someone is and that’s the way I am.”

Giuliana Rancic

The host of E!’s Fashion Police is no stranger to skinny-shaming, and has regularly been under attack for her super-slim frame, especially since her much-publicised cancer battle in 2011. In April she came under fire for being “disgustingly skinny,” to which she had an excellent response.

“I’m sorry that some people think I’m disgustingly skinny, as they put it, but there’s nothing I can do. I’m lucky that I even have the type of cancer that reacts to the medicine.” And even though the comments are relentless, Juliana refuses to be cowed by them, saying, “I have so many beautiful things in my life.”

Amy Huberman

Posting a selfie taken on a trip to Dubai with husband Brian, Amy Huberman could hardly have predicted the storm of negativity that followed. Commenters felt the star looked “too slim” too soon after the birth of second child Billy, but Amy handled it in her signature self-deprecating way. “”I’m a bit of a newbie to Insta,” she wrote afterwards, “but I deleted a pic because it was all getting a bit ‘post baby body’ commenty. Which is a bit boring and silly really isn’t it? There’s more important things to life. Like towels with eyes.” We hear ya.

Chrissy Teigen

With a healthy social media presence and a super-fun life to boot, model Chrissy Teigen doesn’t seem to take things too seriously, but she does want to make a positive difference. Following an Instagram upload where she was slammed for looking ‘fat’ (which she in no way did), Chrissy responded strongly.

“Honestly fuck you all,” she tweeted. “Why do I even open anything up to you? In what other real life situation would you walk up to someone and tell them they’re fat or gained weight? Seriously you are POS [pieces of shit]. I don’t know why I am always surprised when you let me down. I gotta get used to this shit. It’s amazing to me that I am told to get over the a–holes but the a–holes are never told to stop being pieces of shit.”

Ranting she may have been, but in April, Chrissy once more took to Insta, to share her bruised, stretchmarked legs. Her point? That everyone has flaws, yup, even supermodels. So heck, we better get used to it, and learn to love them.

Gabourey Sidibe

The American Horror Story: Coven and Precious star had her fair share of cruel comments on her dress and general appearance following a red carpet appearance at the 2014 Golden Globes. Did it bother Gabourey?

In private it may have hurt like hell, but she did the dignified thing and never let her detractors see that their barbs had hit home, tweeting this succinct, funny and pretty much perfect response: “To people making mean comments about my GG pics, I mos def cried about it on that private jet on my way to my dream job last night. #JK.” Go, girl.

Alyssa Milano

Following the birth of her baby, comedian Jay Mohr had a pop at actress Alyssa, saying, “it seems like she had a baby and said, ‘I don’t really give a shit’ … I read it on her gut. Somebody sat in the director’s chair and was not wearing Spanx and I was like, ‘Jesus Christ.’”

Quite apart from the fact that Alyssa had just given birth to another human being, the comment was downright mean and rude, so she politely tweeted him to say, “So sorry you felt the need to publicly fat-shame me. Be well and God Bless. Please send my love to your beautiful wife.”

He apologised, but soon after in an interview, the subject came up again, with Alyssa commenting, “I think it’s an interesting statement about where we are socially that people feel that they can sort of rip a woman’s body apart after having a baby.”

Pink

Sharing a picture of herself en route to a cancer benefit, singer Pink was unprepared for the slew of fat-shaming comments that followed. But she had a nicely-worded response prepared:

Well, that told them, didn’t it?

Rebel Wilson

As a size 20, the Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2 star is unfortunately no stranger to fat-shaming bullies and concern trolls who ‘worry’ about her health in order to humilate her online. Rebel’s response?

“I don’t really care what I look like that much, and I think women out there should just be happy with the way they look. They shouldn’t really try to conform to any kind of stereotype. Just be happy and hopefully healthy.”

Tyra Banks

She’s had well-documented battles with her weight and the tabloids haven’t been shy to weigh in on them either, with one US title calling her Thigh-ra Banks. And what did Tyra have to say to that? She told them to “kiss my fat ass.” We love it!

Tags:

• body confidence
• Body Shaming
• inthemag
• selfie
• StopTheShame
• summer