'Dear Dani Mathers': Woman Uses Empowering Photo To Slam Locker Room Body Shaming
Woman posts photo and empowering message slamming Dani Mathers for body shaming
Last week, Dani Mathers — a Playboy Playmate of the Year — photographed an unsuspecting naked woman at the gym and posted her image on Snapchat, with the caption, “If I can’t unsee this, then you can’t either.” Mathers has since received a huge backlash — online, professionally, and legally. She’s deactivated her Twitter account and lost at least one job (as a radio personality) because of it. She’s also under investigation by the LAPD, because photographing someone without their consent naked in a private place and posting their image online for the world to see is not legal.
These are all well-deserved repercussions for the actions she took that day. But what about the repercussions that women everywhere — who are already having a hard time getting themselves to the gym and getting comfortable in that space — are feeling? One woman took to Facebook to personally address Mathers with an empowering photo and message. Christine Blackmon posted a very private image to her online community, Delicate Flower, to address the way Mathers violated not just one woman’s sense of privacy — but all of ours.
“About a month ago, I was changing to work out, I slipped my scrubs off without taking my shoes off, and as I stood there in shoes, undies and a headband, I caught my husband taking my picture so I posed playfully due to the obvious absurdity of it all,” Blackmon wrote in her post. “Later, I saw the picture and begged him to delete it, I hated it, all I saw was lumps and bumps. He simply smiled and softly said ‘I think it’s beautiful’. So I let him keep it.”
We can probably all relate to that feeling of hating a photo of ourselves — especially one that shows parts of us that may not normally be exposed to the world. But imagine having someone snap a photo of you while you’re doing something to make your body and self feel better? What right did Mathers have to tear someone down in that position?
“Here’s the deal- you may have been a Playboy model but not all of us work out to be ‘hot’, some of us work out simply to honor the bodies we were given,” Blackmon writes. “That’s all that woman was trying to do and you violated her. Shame on you. I bet I could get 100s of women to post their beautiful bodies and regardless of size, shape or color, they will ALL be more beautiful than the ugliness you showed in that post.”
Amen. We’re not all perfect. But kindness and acceptance is so much more beautiful than what Mathers exhibited that day. No woman should be ashamed or afraid to get undressed in a private space surrounded by other women.
She ends her post, “So, #DaniMathers, I’d like to introduce you to my 5’10”, 194lb lumpy, bumpy glory.
Amen, sister.
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