The buxom beauty, who is a United States size 14, is now working on America’s Next Top Model after shooting to fame for being the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue’s first plus size beauty to grace its cover.
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She then went on to copy and paste some of the comments off of her Instagram page.
While I was on set filming America’s Next Top Model, my hairstylist snapped a picture of me in a white knit skirt, matching crop top, and an incredible Balmain leather jacket that I absolutely loved. But now, Graham has gone a step further, writing a powerful essay for Lena Dunham’s Lenny newsletter called “Shamed If I Do, Shamed If I Don’t.” (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!) The reality is I haven’t lost a pound this year.
“Yes, I am a curvy woman”, she wrote.
But Ashley insists that she can’t win whatever her size, especially as some Instagram users can’t decipher between a “good angle” or genuine size change.
“To some I’m too curvy”, Graham wrote. To others I’m too tall, too busty, too loud, and, now, too small – too much, but at the same time not enough. Not because of how good I looked wearing a high-end designer that doesn’t usually market to women my size, but because of people’s misguided views on women’s bodies and who owns the rights to them. Graham argued that whether it is ersatz health advocates shaming her for “promoting obesity” or members of her own “BeautyBeyondSize” community shaming her for posting photographs of herself from what she considers “good angles”, the end result is invariably the same – “women keep tearing one another down over physical appearance”. Some fans are angry as they idolised the model for loving her plus size image, and felt betrayed by what looked like a huge weight lose.
However, Graham is careful to note that body shaming also comes in all different sizes.
‘You used to be a role model and I looked up to you’. “I look damn good!'” Graham recalled. Body shaming isn’t just telling the big girl to cover up.
‘I am so disappointed in you’. So I’ll find another plus size lovely woman bcuz yo’re full of s***! It’s a unsafe cycle of criticizing women at *any* size that needs to stop, she explained. Sorry but I can say whatever the f*** I want!
In some ways, Graham is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Another wrote: “Why are you changing yourself?”
“You don’t make plus-size dollars anymore, you make backstabbing dollars”. “You are clearly losing tons of weight”.
Women are, she contended, “more than [our] measurements”, and need to “own our own bodies” before “spewing negativity” at other women for happily inhabiting theirs.
As a result, she’s cultivated 2.2 million followers on Instagram alone, where she often proudly posts photos of her curves.
BONUS: See some of Ashley’s hottest moments from SI Swimsuit 2016!
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Here are some of the comments she received about how she looked.
