Health

Actress Perfectly Shuts Down Body-Shaming Haters For Calling Her Too Skinny

May 26th 2017

Celebrities are constantly subject to critique by fans and, sometimes, this can lead to some pretty unfortunate situations.

Sarah Hyland is very aware of this as she was recently the target of intense body shaming after posting a photo of herself.

The "Modern Family" actress posted a photo on Instagram wearing a shirt that her boyfriend — actor Dom Sherwood — released to benefit the Anti-Bullying Alliance.

Hyland mentioned in the caption that the shirt looked good on her and that it was all for a good cause.

Ironically, comments on the photo quickly turned from the anti-bullying cause to policing her body.

People began writing comments that were critiquing her body or calling her skinny, sick, and needing to eat.

Negative comments on Sarah Hyland's Instagram post.@therealsarahhyland - instagram.com

On Twitter, people wrote comments on her weight, saying she was “too skinny.”

Hyland took the mean comments in stride, setting the record straight about her body on Twitter.

In two tweets, Hyland blocked out the haters by explaining her situation. “I’ve basically been on bed rest for the past few months,” she said. “My circumstances have put me in a place where I’m not in control of what my body looks like.”

“I’ve been accused of promoting anorexia in, ironically enough, an anti bullying post,” she continued. “I want young girls to know that’s NOT my intention.”

Hyland’s experience highlights how society pressures women to fit into specific body types.

As the actress noted in the conclusion of her statement, young women are always under pressure to look a certain way.

“I will always be too fat,” she wrote. “I will always be too skinny. I will never have enough curves to be called a woman. And I will always be a slut for wearing a push up bra.”

Hyland's thoughts capture what the majority of women feel: 98 percent of girls feel an external pressure to look a certain way. Unsurprisingly, this leads to 66 percent of girls being dissatisfied or ambivalent about their body.

Bullying someone because of their body or size is incredibly harmful to someone’s mental and physical health.

Hyland may be a celebrity but these situations happen constantly, in and out of the public eye.

The pressure to be physically perfect pushes women into dangerous territory: due to body dissatisfaction, women often turn to detrimental coping mechanisms like smoking, alcohol, and eating disorders to be happy. In fact, 65 percent of persons with an eating disorder note that comments about their body contributed to their condition.

If there’s any silver lining to Hyland’s situation, it’s a reminder that a person’s body is no one else’s business.

Many of Hyland’s fans were dismayed by the rude comments and took to social media to voice support — and echo how they’ve been policed, too.

Situations like this particular one illustrate that no one ever feels perfect. But, in seeing different body types, we help solve the problem as 56 percent of women note that body diversity in media makes them feel better about themselves.

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