Yahoo News This Model Was Accused of Body-Shaming Her BFF
Evidently, when two women stand side by side, it can be hard not to compare them and assume they secretly wish the worst for each other: It's why one commenter accused size-6 model Georgia Gibbs, who recently posed next to her BFF, Kate Wasley, a size-16 model, in a photo she posted on Instagram, of editing the photo to flatter herself:
But not everyone is a mean girl. "It broke my heart because Kate and I are best friends, why would I do that?" Georgia wrote in the caption.
Still, Kate and Georgia were appalled by the implication that friends should give AF about each other's size or their own. So the Australian BFFs decided to team up: Just over a week ago, they launched a joint Instagram account (@any.body_co, featuring photos taken by Chris Mohen, @ChrisMohen) as proof that women of any size can live their best lives without competition.
The duo's response has really turned the conversation around, and it doesn't hurt that their body positivity (and A+ bikini-clad photos taken on beautiful beaches) has helped them rack up nearly 56,000 followers in record time.
After all, things could have spiraled the way they did when Chontel Duncan, the fit trainer who posted a photo of her pregnant belly next to that of her shorter, more pregnant client.
Similarly to Kate and Georgia, Chontel's story went viral for all the wrong reasons. Chontel was bullied terribly for posting the photo in the first place, since people assumed that she only did it to make herself look extra sexy by comparison. Things only got worse when she shared a selfie taken days after giving birth with a post-pregnancy body that most women can only dream of, and people harassed her for failing to support her baby's head. She just couldn't get a break.
It's worth noting that internet trolls aren't always the culprits when it comes to comparison: Consider Khloé Kardashian, who's spoken openly about the struggle of out-sizing her sisters as a child.
Things could have been much easier for Khloé had she looked at herself as an individual without the context of her sisters' sizes. (And that's coming from a fellow "fat sister" raised in a three-daughter family, FWIW - so I feel you, girl.)
The common thread in all these scenarios is the persistent culture of comparison. Inevitably, it leads to body-shaming others or yourself. Whether you're looking at your own before-and-after photos, scrutinizing your features and flaws versus those of celebrities, or zooming in on squad photos to see whose skinny arm is skinniest, it simply has to end. Trust that spending less effort sizing yourself up will help you focus on things that actually matter: Not your bodies, but whether you're smiling ... or duck-facing or fish-gaping, if that's what makes you happy.
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