What Zendaya’s Defense of Her Curves on Instagram Adds to the Body-Shaming Conversation

Zendaya is the latest celebrity to speak out in defense of a woman’s real body. Last night, the 19-year-old Disney star took to Instagram to express her shock at a heavily Photoshopped image of her published in a recent magazine editorial. “These are the things that make women self-conscious, that create the unrealistic ideals of beauty that we have,” wrote the singer, who posted the retouched photograph directly alongside the unedited version in her feed. “Anyone who knows who I am knows I stand for honest and pure self-love. So I took it upon myself to release the real pic and I love it.” (For the record, we think she looks better in the unretouched photo as well.)

This isn’t the first time Zendaya has had to defend her looks on Instagram. After Giuliana Rancic criticized her for wearing dreadlocks to the Oscars, saying, “I feel like she smells like patchouli oil,”  Zendaya wrote a response to Rancic’s disrespectful comments. “My wearing my hair in locs on an Oscar red carpet was to showcase them in a positive light, to remind people of color that our hair is good enough,” she wrote. “To me locs are a symbol of strength and beauty.” You could say the same thing about Zendaya, who has become an increasingly powerful voice on the importance of self-confidence. Her model behavior even inspired Mattel to issue a collectible Barbie doll modeled after her much-discussed Oscar look.

Zendaya’s defense of her natural curves arrives on the heels of Gigi Hadid’s impassioned Instagram post against online body-shamers, who claimed Hadid wasn’t high-fashion material. “Yes, I have boobs, I have abs, I have a butt, I have thighs,” she wrote. “If I didn’t have the body I do, I wouldn’t have the career I do. I love that I can be sexy. I’m proud of it.” Both of their comments are part of a larger movement embracing authenticity and body realness that’s quickly gathering steam in fashion, Hollywood, and sports.

This summer, Serena Williams shrugged off criticism from a New York Times writer that she lacked a feminine physique by wearing figure-flattering dresses off the court and posting images of herself in a bikini on Twitter. During a panel at this year’s Comic-Con, Jennifer Lawrence revealed she constantly ignored pleas to lose weight back when she was starting off in her career. Even Lorde has felt compelled to address a retouched image of her face while onstage. “Remember flaws are ok,” the singer tweeted at her millions of followers, along with an un-Photoshopped image of herself while performing.

And just this past Paris Fashion Week, Alexander Wang cast his final Balenciaga show with a handful of non-model friends, including Zoë Kravitz, Bella Heathcote, Nicola Peltz, and Riley Keough. While these actresses, of course, have enviable figures, their bodies are noticeably different from those that are usually seen on the catwalk. Here’s hoping that Wang’s embrace of a more diverse body type becomes as universal as his trend-setting designs.

 

André Leon Talley talks to Zendaya and Fausto Puglisi on the Met Gala red carpet:

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