Latest news with #fatphobia
Daily Mail
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Pregnant Bake Off star Laura Adlington shares 'NOT a before' snap as she poses in underwear for candid body positivity post
Pregnant Laura Adlington stripped down to her underwear on Wednesday as she shared a candid body positivity message on Instagram. The Great British Bake Off star, 36, who announced her pregnancy in April, is an avid advocate for self-love and often encourages her followers to embrace their figures. Taking to her social media page, Laura posed in black underwear in a mirror selfie with 'Not a "before" photo...' penned on top. Opening up with her followers, she wrote: 'Lately, my feed has been full of 'before and after' photos – most of them starting with a body that looks like mine. Or smaller. 'And I get it – people are allowed to change. To feel proud of themselves. 'But I wish more people would think about how they speak about their 'old' selves. The Great British Bake Off star, 36, who announced her pregnancy in April, is an avid advocate for self-love and often encourages her followers to embrace their figures 'Because a lot of us still live in those bodies. Still *are* that body. And it hurts to be reminded, over and over, that your version of a nightmare body is ours. 'The body positivity movement was supposed to make space for people in marginalised bodies, the bodies the world ignores or mocks. 'But it feels like that space is shrinking again – and the loudest voices belong to the people who were never excluded to begin with. 'I'm getting really tired of the fatphobia disguised as wellness. 'Of the casual cruelty in 'progress' captions. Of feeling like simply existing in my body is something I have to defend. 'So no, this isn't a transformation photo… It's a reminder that this body, as it is right now, is enough. And so is yours.' It comes after Laura left her followers in tears as she penned an emotional letter to her unborn baby last month. The star reflected on reaching the halfway stage of her pregnancy after a nine-year fertility battle. Laura confirmed the sex of her first child with her husband Matt in June, after sharing the news they were expecting a baby after quietly 'giving IVF a try.' In the picture, Laura cradled her blossoming bump in a pretty white and blue summer dress, while sharing her letter to her baby in the caption of her post. She began her post: 'Dear baby, We're over halfway. Can you believe it? 'Some days it still doesn't feel quite real, and if I'm honest I still feel like I'm living in a dream. Like I don't deserve this. 'Ever since the day I found out about you, I've been waking up at around 4am. I lie there in the dark, imagining what it will feel like to finally hold you. 'I wonder what kind of person you'll grow into, what your laugh will sound like, what little quirks will make you, you. 'It's been a really long journey to get here, one filled with a lot of heartache. And although I'd be lying if I said we weren't both still waiting for the rug to be pulled from under our feet, we are finally letting ourselves dream a little louder. 'I've been busy making lists of all the things you might need. I can't wait to get your pram and start putting your nursery together – tiny steps towards the day you come home. She finished emotionally: 'But more than anything, I just can't wait to meet you. To hold you. To look into your eyes and finally whisper, 'You're here. We did it.' Meanwhile a storm of fans flooded the TV baker with supportive comments. It comes after Laura reveal the couple are expecting a boy, while sharing a sweet story about how their much-wanted baby was always 'meant to be'. She confirmed her pregnancy in April after 'quietly deciding to give IVF a try' over a year ago. The television baker previously gave up her hopes of having a baby after she was told by doctors that her only chance to get pregnant was to try IVF and she would have to lose a substantial amount of weight first to qualify. Posing with an adorable teddy bear outfit, Laura revealed she and Police Community Support Officer Matt eagerly bought the dungarees not long after she'd come off the contraceptive pill in the hope that their journey to parenthood would be swift. Although Laura was initially 'excited at the thought of finally becoming a mum', she 'had no idea how long or how hard the journey ahead would be'. Alongside the sweet photograph, she wrote: 'True story: About nine years ago, not long after I'd come off the pill, we popped into Tesco to grab a few bits for a family picnic. 'Excited at the thought of finally becoming a mum, I made a beeline for the baby section and picked up this little outfit. I held it up to Matt and said, "Shall we get it?". He laughed and reluctantly agreed. And into the trolley it went. 'Back then, I had no idea how long or how hard the journey ahead would be. Months passed. Then years. Negative test after negative test. So many tears. So much heartache.' Laura admitted she found it difficult seeing her friends and family get pregnant while it wasn't happening for her and Matt - and said she came close to giving away the baby outfit on many occasions. She continued: 'One of the hardest things was watching all our friends and family get pregnant, while we kept waiting with empty arms, wondering "When is it going to be our turn?". 'Over the years, there were times we were caught short needing a baby gift, and I was tempted to give this little outfit away (I didn't really know what else to do with it) until a friend gently asked how I'd feel seeing someone's else's baby in it, and suggested I hang onto it. 'And so I did. Three house moves and nearly a decade later, this tiny outfit has quietly stayed with us, tucked in a bottom drawer, or in the corner of a room that never got touched. 'Unless on very rare occasions I'd find it while spring cleaning and would hold it close to my chest, praying one day our baby might wear it. Well, earlier this year, as many of you know, our prayers were finally answered.' Confirming the gender of the couple's baby and her feelings about expecting a boy, Laura told her followers: 'And recently we found out we're having a little boy. I'll be honest: part of me had hoped for a girl. 'But looking back, we never bought a girl's outfit – just this one. So maybe that's the universe's way of saying this was always meant to be. 'Now, this little outfit isn't just a symbol of hope. It's waiting, just like we are, for the little boy who was always meant to fill it.'
Daily Mail
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Plus-size model's perfect response after being fat-shamed by trolls for wearing a bikini
A popular plus-size model has hit back at her haters after being brutally trolled online for her voluptuous bikini body. Erin Marley Klay went viral on X (formerly Twitter) over the weekend after posting a series of photos of herself wearing a skimpy swimsuit on the beach. The post racked up over 73 million views in a matter of days and sparked a fierce online debate about beauty standards. The 24-year-old was inundated with cruel comments from trolls about her weight, with countless men online attacking her appearance. 'You could be hot. But you're too fat. Calorie deficit is all you need. Maybe some walks around the neighborhood after work,' wrote one. Another wrote, 'Would women be supportive if she was a model 10? 'No, they don't see her as a threat they pity her and virtue signal that they're kind in the replies.' Another commented, 'Being overweight is a serious health issue, please seek treatment with diet, exercise and medication if needed, one can develop diabetes, heart issues and other illness from it.' Firing back at her 'fatphobic' haters, Klay delivered the perfect response. 'A lot of these men don't even know I'm a signed model with several campaigns under my belt so seeing them try to call me ugly is just really funny to me. 'My profession speaks for itself!' she posted on X. In another X post, she wrote, 'I love when I post pictures that bring out the fatphobics because it means I literally look so hot it's confusing them.' She also shared more swimsuit photos of herself, along with a spicy caption. '"Body fat percentage" this "lose weight" that. Have you considered I don't care and I'm really hot?' she wrote. To further stick it to her critics, the stunner also revealed that 80 per cent of her online following are men. Firing back at her 'fatphobic' haters, Klay delivered the perfect response in a series of posts After speaking out, Klay was met with a slew of positive comments from supporters online. 'The only generation where men will complain about a gorgeous woman in a bikini,' commented one. 'Men in these comments make me laugh cause yall are so mad over someone who would never breathe on you irl,' wrote a second. 'How are you giving Megan Fox, Sophie Turner, and Sabrina Carpenter all at the same time!' gushed a third. Another fan commented, 'It really is always the chuds with no profile picture spewing their bile at beautiful women. 'The bottom of the barrel of humanity thinking their opinion means anything except to other losers like themselves.' Klay then thanked her followers for the outpouring of support and offered some encouraging words for other women, writing, 'Please don't let society's preconceived notions of what is beautiful and what's not stop you from living your life. 'What someone says about your appearance reflects on them alone, not you,' she continued. 'You have to realize someone with so much hate in their heart is far more miserable than you could ever be wearing a bikini at the beach. Get out there.' Klay boasts over a half a million followers on social media and has worked with brands like Fashion Nova Curve and Selkie. She also has a YouTube channel where she shares modeling and fashion tips for curvy women.
ABC News
30-05-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Fat liberation vs body positivity: How brands and influencers are reshaping the movement
Tess Royale Clancy has made it their mission to "centre fat joy". The activist and advocate aims to reject the stigma associated with living in a fat body and encourage support, confidence and community for "fat babes" via advocacy work and social events. But changing the conversation starts with changing the words used to describe bigger bodies. For example, the word "fat", which has long been used as an insult, has been reclaimed by Clancy and other activists, who use it with pride. "It's a descriptor; it shouldn't have anything negative [projected] onto it," Clancy says. But for Clancy and others, it's a very different story when it comes to the much-touted phrase "body positivity". Widely circulated on social media, by celebrities and in the news, the concept is meant to encompass self-love and acceptance. But experts and advocates say it has been co-opted by brands and influencers who want to appear inclusive but fail to follow through. So, how did body positivity go from a radical movement to a marketing tactic? While body positivity is often thought of as a social media phenomenon, its history goes back half a century before the invention of Instagram. The first social and political movements about the rights of fat people began in the US in the 1960s. In 1967, fat activists staged a "fat-in" in New York's Central Park, during which around 500 people protested fatphobia, burning diet books and carrying signs. Two years later, also in New York City, a young engineer named Bill Fabrey grew angry at the fatphobia he saw directed at his wife, Joyce. Together with a journalist who had written about anti-fat bias, he formed the National Association to Aid Fat Americans, now the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. Around the same time, fat activism was gaining traction in Los Angeles. A group of feminists, many of whom were queer and women of colour, formed the Fat Underground and published their Fat Liberation Manifesto in 1973. "We believe that fat people are fully entitled to human respect and recognition … We demand equal rights for fat people in all aspects of life," it read. The manifesto denounced the "reducing industries" associated with dieting. It also aligned the struggle for fat liberation with those of "other oppressed groups against classism, racism, sexism, ageism, financial exploitation, imperialism and the like". By the 1990s, fat activists were protesting on many fronts, from picketing the White House to rallying against fatphobic advertising. Fat liberation movements began to form in other parts of the world, too. With the rise of social media in the 2000s, the concept of body positivity, which drew on the ideals of the fat liberation movement, began to emerge in hashtags, blogs, and magazines. Platforms like Tumblr and LiveJournal offered a safe space for plus-size writers, models, and commentators to share their experiences of fatphobia. Many of these conversations sparked change, from magazine covers featuring fat bodies to viral campaigns urging clothing brands to offer more inclusive sizing. Since then, celebrities like Adele, Lizzo, Mindy Kaling and Jameela Jamil have spoken out about authentically embracing body positivity. Studies have also shown that some exposure to body-positive content on social media can improve body image, especially to counteract idealised or unrealistic bodies depicted online. Yet the body positivity movement looks very different today from its early activist-led origins, explains Tess Royale Clancy. "I think body positivity is a very individualised approach to feeling comfortable in our bodies … [It] doesn't look at the systemic issues that discriminate against fat people," they say. "It kind of just leaves it up to the individual to be OK in their body, but how can you be OK in your body when the world is constantly discriminating against you? "I have experienced quite a lot of fatphobia and anti-fat bias. I may not feel as comfortable in my body as I'd like to be all the time, but I truly do believe that I don't have a hatred for my body, that that has always been put on me by people, by society and their views of what fatness is." A 2021 La Trobe University survey found that weight stigma is pervasive in Australia, with 38 per cent of respondents agreeing that "obese bodies are disgusting" and 29 per cent saying they would give up 10 years of life to be able to effortlessly maintain their ideal weight. Almost half of the people surveyed who identified as fat said they had changed their behaviour to avoid unwanted attention due to their weight. A 2024 ABC investigation into weight stigma found those who had experienced fatphobia, especially in medical settings, felt judged, neglected and victimised. Research has also found that societal stigma about weight leads to negative health outcomes, including high blood pressure, inflammation and increased levels of cortisol. For advocates like Clancy, this is all the more reason to highlight systemic fatphobia and return to the concept of fat liberation. They say that unlike conversations about body positivity, the Fat Liberation Manifesto sends a clearer and more vital message "that fat people are entitled to human respect and recognition". "That's something that we don't often have," they say. Jane Williams, a public health researcher at the University of Sydney, says body positivity puts the onus on individuals to monitor "the way you talk to yourself about your body", which is still ultimately spending time and energy worrying about weight. It's also more likely to drive people to unhealthy weight loss tactics, she says. "We all know that it is very difficult to change the shape and size of your body," Dr Williams says. "Encouraging people to make lifestyle changes without really supporting them … or understanding why that might not be possible or desirable — [that] becomes harmful." April Hélène-Horton, an advocate, model and 2025 ambassador for the Butterfly Foundation, says today's understanding of body positivity serves the beauty and fashion industries more than individuals. "Body positivity as most people know it is something that's being given to us as an antidote to feeling bad about yourself," Hélène-Horton tells ABC Radio National's God Forbid. "The phrase has been co-opted and misconstrued as the idea that we accept ourselves without any kind of nuance or inward [reflection]. "The body positivity movement was originally started by queer Black activists and not established for the purpose of making everybody feel better about the flaws that the beauty industry has told us that we have." One of the first high-profile branding campaigns to incorporate body positivity was Dove's Real Beauty campaign in 2004, which featured a photoshoot of six ordinary women (all slim) in their underwear. The campaign was hugely successful and inspired other brands to follow suit. Many of these campaigns have been criticised as inauthentic, especially as some of the brands using diverse bodies in their advertising did not make products designed for bigger bodies. At the same time, body positivity was embraced on social media — but not necessarily by fat people. Clancy says the movement has been overtaken by "thin white women" who want to "normalise that their stomachs aren't always flat all the time". "I see a lot of that on social media. We talk about body positivity a lot, but it's more about that individual view, rather than, 'Hey, what's happening in the world that makes people not like their bodies?'" While they encourage self-love in all bodies, they say that this shift alienates the people the body positivity movement was originally designed to help. Other advocates have spoken out about this too: singer Lizzo said in 2021 that body positivity had been "co-opted by all bodies" and had become about celebrating "medium and small girls". In a 2023 essay, UK writer, content creator, and body image advocate Stephanie Yeboah wrote "the mid-size movement has killed body positivity". Actress and body-positive influencer Georgia Sky told Dazed Magazine she felt "kicked out" of the movement and victimised by "TikTok's body shamers". Research has found that Instagram content labelled as "body positive" overwhelmingly features "lean, white, cis-gendered individuals" with a "remarkable absence" of people who are fat, queer, racially diverse or disabled. For Tess Royale Clancy, body positivity in its current state doesn't go far enough to support marginalised people. "I've gone away from body positivity and into fat liberation because it doesn't actually address any systematic oppression," they say. "Fat liberation is more of a community-mindset approach … It is more political; it is about changing the systems that oppress us and recognising that our liberation is linked to other liberations." April Hélène-Horton says the fat liberation movement represents "what body positivity was meant to be". "A fat body becomes political the minute that it stops apologising for itself and experiences joy," she says. "That is what I try to do: to allow people to see that I experience joy and that I have success and that my fatness isn't something that holds me back. I think that's resistance and I think that's political." Clancy also embraces fat joy, both in the communities they have established and in their personal life. "I get to float in the ocean. I'm so good at floating because I'm so buoyant — that's fat joy for me; being able to wear the clothes I like and have a style that I like is fat joy; my community is fat joy," they say. "I have a group of fat friends … and when we get together, we have amazing laughs and our bellies jiggle. It's so beautiful to have people in your life that have the same experience as you. "I really do see a lot of goodness in fatness, which I think in this world is quite radical."
Vogue
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
Yes, People Over 200 Pounds Belong in Pilates (and Literally Any Other Form of Exercise We Want)
I don't really stay on top of SkinnyTok (I value myself too much as a fat person to constantly subject myself to that noise, and also, all the girlies on that particular corner of TikTok have a level of vocal fry that feels like it's going to make my ears bleed), but a recent video from user Monica Cruz—a.k.a. Succulent Addict—railing against the presence of fat people in Pilates classes managed to break through my protective peace barrier recently, and even though I know I shouldn't be letting some influencer's random deploying of garden-variety fatphobia as a grab for attention get to me…reader, I fear it kind of has. 'This might be a hot take for some people, but if you're 200 pounds, you shouldn't be in a Pilates class,' Cruz said in a post-Pilates car rant, adding: 'There's no reason why they should allow 200-pound people in a level 2 class. Or, you shouldn't be allowed to be a Pilates instructor if you have a gut and you're fat. What the fuck is going on? Is this even real? Is this America? Standards are so fucking low.' First of all: girl, I don't know what America you're living in, but in the actual one that I inhabit, over 40 percent of the population has obesity. Second of all, if you're upset about fat people allegedly ruining your Pilates class but not illegal deportations or the government's use of pregnant women as fetal incubators, you need to open a fucking newspaper (or get one on your little phone! A lot of them are free!) Third of all: as a weekly attendee of my local Pilates studio's mat class who currently tips the scales at just under 300 pounds, I feel uniquely qualified to tell you just how wrong you are. When I showed up to my first Pilates class at my now-regular studio in L.A. just over a year ago, I did so with all the terror of a girl who was trash at organized sports and basically all forms of athletic activity even as a thin child. Once I gained the weight I'd long feared in my mid-twenties, exercise weirdly got easier (maybe because I started swimming, practicing yoga, going for long walks, and doing other things that actually made my body feel good instead of spending money I didn't have on boutique spin and barre classes designed to underwrite as much caloric consumption as possible), but I was still gun shy about going back to group classes; I felt both intimidated and comically enormous at barre while surrounded by flocks of what had to be honest-to-God models taking a 'reset day' in between marathon runs when I was deep in the grips of anorexia, and even after all the work I'd put in to heal my eating disorder and appreciate my body's strength at any size, I didn't trust myself not to compare myself to my fellow Pilates-goers. When I attended group fitness classes as a thin woman, I was obsessed with getting the moves as 'perfect' as I could and trying to hide my humiliation when I inevitably flopped, which is almost funny to me now; these days, I regularly do only about half of the moves my Pilates instructor walks our class through, modifying the rest and occasionally taking a solo break to lie on my mat in child's pose when the physical exertion gets to be too much. Ten years ago, I could never have imagined that I'd a) be fat, b) go to Pilates, c) be semi-bad at Pilates and not care or d) actually enjoy the experience, but these days, I look at it this way: a little bit of effort is better than none, and I don't need to get an 'A' in a Sunday-morning mat class or be the most Instagram-ready participant in the room, I just need to show up (ideally in clean leggings) and try.
Daily Mail
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Kelly Osbourne on the 'horrible' agony of 'being fat' while famous
says she's gotten more grief over 'being fat' than anything else she's said or done in her showbiz career. 'We live in a fat-phobic world,' she stated at the Beacher Vitality Happy & Healthy Summit in Los Angeles, California. 'I have been a drug addict, an alcoholic... I've been a complete mess, disrespectful to people, horrible - but I got more s*** for being fat than I did for anything else. It's insane.' SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Kelly added: You'll never read an article about me that hasn't got a comment about my weight.' It wasn't until 2020 when Kelly revealed she shed 85lb after undergoing gastric bypass surgery, but she still 'doesn't work out' and 'lives off chocolate and cookies' some days. 'People [would] say, "You're so pretty. Why don't you just lose a little bit of weight, and then you'll be the total package,"' she recalled while talking onstage at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. '[Once] I got my mind where I needed it to be, and everything started to fall into place.' Big reveal: She said she's had more grief over 'being fat' than anything else during her career She said she 'changed her brain' with help from therapy in order to 'find peace and acceptance' about where she was in her life. Kelly's shrinking 5ft2in frame will soon be expanding as she told TooFab in March that she wants 'tons more' children 'as long as I can s*** them out.' The star and her babydaddy Sid Wilson are mostly bringing up their two-year-old son Sidney at their farm in his native Iowa.
