Tess Holliday: 'My Body Is My Own Form Of Resistance'

Model and body positivity icon Tess Holliday shared her thoughts on fatphobia and the importance of respecting all people no matter their size

Model Tess Holliday regularly shares her brilliant thoughts on body image and the right of every person to be happy no matter their size. She took to Instagram recently to share a series of her own Tweets that point out serious truths about how society treats people who don’t conform to its rigid beauty standards. As usual, she absolutely nails it.

“So many typos, but whatever… gonna go drink whiskey & cheers myself to still being here, despite it all. My body is my own form of resistance, & that’s true power,” she captioned the post that contains images of her own Tweets.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDvPGE_pfwv/

“I am exhausted & emotionally drained,” she says. “10 years of constantly having to defend my right to happiness as a plus size woman on the internet is something else. It would be cool to have just one day where hundreds of people don’t tell me how much they hate me or how disgusting I am.”

The fact that Holliday continues to put herself and her wisdom, encouragement, and self-love message out there for the masses despite the onslaught of trolls lobbing abuse at her is admirable. She could hide and stop posting these gems to avoid the cruelty, but instead, she keeps up her mission to spread the word that ALL bodies are good bodies; worthy of love, nice clothes, respect, and above all, happiness.

“Hating fat people is celebrated, especially in America,” she writes. “Diet culture is so deeply ingrained in our society, & thinness equates happiness, success, & beauty.” Ain’t that the truth. How many times do you see posts in your social feeds from friends saying how they’ll reward themselves once they get to their goal weight or buy themselves new clothes once they hit a certain size. It’s all garbage diet culture feeding us that harmful message — that we’re only worthy of good things once we’re thin.

Holliday speaks to how only recently has society started to be more inclusive when it comes to “fat bodies in sex scenes where we aren’t being mocked, made fun of, or fetishized.”

She talks about the toxic things people say to her, questioning her confidence, her love for herself, and mentioning that she’s “so pretty for a big girl.” As though “big girls” are inherently not pretty. These “friends” even wonder how Holliday attracts men.

“I’ve never had a moment of peace (expect for my own inner peace) in 20 years where someone wasn’t commenting on my size,” she says. “My successes have been diminished because of my size. My happiness has been stolen from me so many times by others because of my size.”

She ends her thoughts by reminding us that “we should treat everyone with respect & compassion, regardless of their size.” A thing that shouldn’t need to be said, and yet. “… if you can’t be nice to a fat person, you’re the pig, not us.”

Mic. Drop.