Ariel Winter is talking about body shaming again. Wait! Before you strain your eyes from rolling them, hear me out. Ariel has partnered with Dove on their Self Esteem Project to empower young women when it comes to their interactions online. As we well know, Internet criticism is something Ariel is quite familiar with. After receiving consistent hate from commenters on her numerous risqué Intstagram posts, Ariel opened up about just how long she has been dealing with this kind of negativity. According to her, as soon as figure began to develop, that was when she started dealing with criticism.
Ariel Winter started out in Hollywood at just 11 years old. Naturally, as she got older, her body matured — and that, unfortunately, is where the Internet got ugly. “I was called every name in the book: fat, a slut, trashy, ugly,” she tells Stylish. But she’s not tolerating that talk anymore. She’s fighting back — and educating young girls in the process.
“Right after I started developing, I automatically started getting all this hate. I developed these boobs and a butt, and everything changed,” the Modern Family actress, 18, tells Stylish. “And as I got older, it only seemed to get worse.”
That’s why she decided to partner with Dove on its 12-year-old confidence campaign, the Self Esteem Project, which aims to inspire girls through research, education and understanding of their bodies. “What I think is really amazing about it is that we’re empowering young women to love themselves, to be comfortable with themselves,” she says. “And it’s not just about [liking] what they look like, but loving who they are.”
The Sofia the First star notes that 62 percent of young girls don’t know how to use the Internet to get the information that could help them understand that when it comes to bodies, each one is unique, and there’s no such thing as “right” or “wrong.” “We’re teaching them … so we can change the scape, so they don’t have to grow up the way I did,” Winter explains.
“I read a lot of the stories young women will send me about their body positivity and their body journeys, and that really helps me,” she says. “There are a lot of young women who are going through the same thing that I went through, and I think it’s important that we all empower each other. It makes it easier.”
As you know, I actually quite like Ariel but that doesn’t mean I don’t see her thirst. Thirst just doesn’t get my dander up as much as other things. My biggest issue with her was that she made her body-shaming stance almost solely about her. With the one exception of defending Kim Kardashian, Ariel didn’t stand up for other women who were battling the same attacks. So I am really pleased to see this partnership with Dove. If you don’t know about the campaign and have kids, I highly recommend it. It’s a great starter course for your pre-teen on the Internet and it has tips, articles and links for men and women.
Since I am a known Ariel apologist, it will come as no surprise that I want to defend her here. Without violating my children’s privacy too much, what Ariel is talking about is very important to me as a mother currently. I know we always sound like old farts saying this but honestly, I am just so freaking glad I didn’t have to deal with this kind of bs growing up. When a child is among the first in their peer group to develop they don’t need anyone else telling them they are a freak of nature, they damn well draw that conclusion on their own. When I was growing up, at least my real life friends had my back on the playground. I couldn’t imagine being a pre-teen and having some anonymous person, possibly my parents’ age, laying into me online. Maybe Ariel hasn’t always handled things in the best way but she’s had to deal with so much crap in her young life. Good for her for reaching out to the next generation.
Photo credit: Fame/FlynetPhotos
I use Dove but am totally over their patronizing ads. It started off ok, but now I roll my eyes. In addition, they are under the same company that makes Ax spray.
That’s how corporations work. They push competing ideologies to specific demographic groups so they can maximize profit. Once I realized how many “movements” were just ways to sell you junk, it was quite eye opening. It used to be that advertising was designed to make you feel bad and touted the product as the cure. But that got old so now it’s all about “empowerment” and the like. Still the same old crap just marketed slightly differently and people keep falling for it. I hate patronizing bs and I especially hate it from celebrities…if this person is even considered a celebrity. Maybe they should start pushing respect for others and consideration because the whole “boo hoo pity me I’m a poor victim” line is getting old.
She’s only doing this because the crusade against “body shaming” is the newest and easiest way for annoying parched d listers to get the attention they want in a sea of other parched d listers all taking off their clothes. She’s not fooling me and it’s sad that anyone could fall for her bs.
Celebrity feminism is just annoying me now. It’s too much. Much like everything in the world of celebrity, it has a hint of narcissism. While they are using their attention for a good cause, it’s also heavily opportunistic. When it comes to celebrities, covering their actions with the umbrella of feminism is like a win-win for them.
ETA: I can’t enact identify with feminism/feminists when they only see the movement’s purpose as it relates to themselves.
I’ll leave a quote from Audre Lorde
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
Awesome.
I really like Ariel, but this is a huge NO. She started getting hate when she became desert-level thirsty. I like that she tries to promote body positivity and I genuinely believe that is her intention.
Ariel is constantly slut shamed for being curvy because there is clothing she wears that would look totally different on someone with a different body shape. I’ve been slut shamed for being curvy too and it’s so hurtful–especially when it comes from other women. I was at a bridal shower and the bride-to-be had on a low-cut shirt with some major cleavage going on and this other woman that we both know who was sitting at my table wouldn’t stop calling her “disgusting” and saying how “disgusting” her breasts were. It made me genuinely sad how angry this woman was over what another woman was wearing and how hell bent she seemed to be on wanting to tear her down.
I recently overheard a conversation in NYC between two girls who probably weren’t even 20 yet talking about the amount of work they wanted to get done, and the one girl even noted that her and her mom might be getting mother-daughter nose jobs. That kind of stuff breaks my heart. Don’t get me wrong–live and let live, but what ever happened to just learning to love your flaws? If there are two things in our society that I find a little disturbing, it’s the fact that nothing is made (even in manufacturing) to last, and that this new self-obsessed social media based culture has made people feel like they can’t live with flaws or learn to love them, and that they need to be fixed with surgery. I know every case is different, but I just feel like learning to love your flaws and accept yourself is so, so important… and I say this as someone who grew up cripplingly insecure.
I’m with you on this one. I think that she gets all that negative feedback because she continuously insists on wearing hooker clothes. I really don’t think that any of it has to do with her curves but rather with showing annoying amounts of just too much skin. If you want to be taken serious, wear normal clothes like the rest of us.
This is the only ‘Dove’ advert that might persuade me to buy a Dove product –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Jiwo3u6Vo
Still laughing. 😀
I love that she has a curvy body and isn’t afraid to show it off. You do you Ariel!
Her Me Me Me Curvacious Me attitude is what turned people off not the curves themselves. Of course she has been body shamed and it is horrible but her body positivity image seems self serving.
She joins the ranks of all of the parched celebrities before her.
What Ellebee said.
I started out predisposed to like Ariel: I enjoy Modern Family (and think her character is hilarious), my daughter loves watching Sophia, and I felt terrible for her when I read about all of the drama Ariel endured with her mother.
However, she brings a lot of this grief upon herself by wearing clothing that is — IMO — designed to get reactions out of people.
*Of course* she is free to wear whatever she wants, but a lot of the stuff she wears is OTT and it seems obvious that she is doing it as an attention grab. Fine, but then don’t complain about the attention; not all of it will be positive no matter what she wears.
Not to mention the fact that she posts photos of all of it online, which is basically opening yourself right up to comments and opinions.
1. Shes desert level thirsty.
2. She wears clothes that look horrible on her. Its not slut shaming. Sofia vergara would look amazing in those clothes and shes curvy.
Didn’t the body shaming coincide with the increasing levels of sexy, thirsty photos?
She, like her show Moden a Family, have jumped the shark. Time to move on.
She’s young. I feel for her. However, I’m sick and tired of her acting like she is the only young girl to ever grow too big boobs or too big butt and talk about NOTHING else! I know the media baits her on these topics but I’m sick of it. I think her body is great but she needs to learn how to dress it. The pic above with the LBD and heels is perfect! I’m not about to body shame or slut shame anyone but this girl posts photos that are sure to get a reaction – any reaction.
Body positivity is not equal to letting it all hang out. It also doesn’t equal lack of fashion sense. However, I do understand why a young woman like her is confusing letting it all hang out as “body positivity”. In an industry that she’s grown up in – where everyone is pumped, plumped, tucked and botoxed to kingdom come, its easy to see where she derived her understanding from. She does sound like a girl with sense which is great considering she’s gone through a traumatic childhood. Maybe given a bit more time, she’ll reinvent her fashion sense and develop a classier sense of taste.
She does not dress the right way for someone with her figure. it does come off as slutty and she is usually under the impression that it’s hot. but we have to remember she is still quite young..maybe it will improve?