Model Ashley Graham just can’t win. Typically fitting into a size 16, she is already what the fashion industry brands as ‘plus-size’ and critics call ‘too ‘curvy’.
But recently the pendulum swung the other way as the twenty-eight year old was critisised by her own fans for ‘trying to look slimmer’.
An Instagram post of hers was behind the body-shaming controversy. In it Graham is seen on the set of America’s Next Top Model wearing a white crop top and skirt.
While seemingly harmless, some of the comments the post generated included, “You don’t love the skin you’re in, you want to conform to Hollywood, you believe being skinnier is prettier,” and, “You don’t make plus-size dollars anymore, you make backstabbing dollars”.
In an essay for Lenny, Graham revealed she is actually the heaviest she has been in three years.
“According to the comments, some people were upset because I appeared to be slimmer. (Knowing my angles is one thing, but I must be a magician to make people think I went from a size 14 to a size 6 in a week!),” she wrote.
“Having been a model for sixteen years, I know my angles, just like we all know our favourite filters and lighting and our good sides. I pick the photos I like best.”
Graham also called out the pattern of women judging other women based on how they look and said it was only human-nature for everyone to put their best foot forward online.
“No matter how many empowerment conferences, TED talks, and blog posts are out there, women keep tearing one another down over physical appearance. Body shaming isn’t just telling the big girl to cover up. It’s trying to shame me for working out.
“It’s giving ‘skinny’ a negative connotation. It’s wanting me to be plus size, or assuming I’m pregnant because of some belly bulge.”
The model is best known for being the first ‘plus-size’ woman to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine’s swimsuit edition.
You can read her entire essay here.
