The Internet can be an amazing and empowering place, but it's no secret that it's also full of trolls, lurking unseen and waiting to unleash hateful commentary on everyone from high-profile celebrities to vigilant Twitter users. It can be disheartening to see what people say from the safety of sitting behind their screens, but the online community is resilient.
It's a feeling now known firsthand by Belgian philosophy student Laura De, who on August 15 posted a Facebook picture of herself that showed her natural, unshaven armpits. The shoot was intended to counter body shaming, as De put in her caption, and sadly, the comments did just that when her post went viral.
The photo was shared to other Facebook groups and received thousands of comments of reactions, an overwhelming number of which were negative. De was referred to as "disgusting" and "a pig" for merely showing her body as it is and choosing not to remove her hair—a personal decision any woman can and should be free to do if she wants.
According to Buzzfeed, the comments got so bad that De reached out to a feminist group for support, which she then received. De shared a followup post detailing the outpouring of encouragement sent to her and how it made her feel.
"I'm a girl who decided to do what she wanted...and the consequences out of standards are the collective humiliation, harassment, insults, threats," De wrote in French. "[People] often say to me that in Belgium and France we no longer have need of feminism, that women have enough rights...No. In Belgium, a country that calls itself free and developed, when a woman wants to say no to waxing she will be punished by all the ways that we need until the moment where she will stand in the standard again."
"Love and tolerance are master word of our struggle, thank you for having so much spread," she added, choosing the bright side of the ordeal. "We change the world, because together, we are invincible."
Hear, hear! And while, sure, she might be talking about Europe, there's no doubt that her message hits home for those of us across the pond. Especially when stories like this and this keep happening. Can we live—hairless or not—please?
Source: http://www.glamour.com/story/armpit-hair-viral-body-shaming
No comments: