Emily Ratajkowski was on the Today Show in a segment promoting her swim line. It’s just a brief interview where she’s talking to the camera, but I was interested in what she said and wanted to talk about it. She talked about the negative comments she gets on Instagram, being sexy and self confidence. She’s talked about these things before and she makes good points about body positivity and inclusivity. She’s not dumb about feminism or women’s issues, she’s been consistently decent about that. She definitely tries, which is more than you can say for some more famous women. Here’s what she said.
I love my belly button because it’s very unique it’s sort of a half innie outie. I got made fun of it in elementary school. On every picture you can see my belly button on instagram there’s like five belly button comments.
The comments I get on Instagram are insane they criticize everything about me in every direction. It’s like too skinny, too fat, too short, too tall, ribs stick out, lips are too big, nose is weird, whatever. I just really have learned to ignore them but it’s not easy.
I think it’s important that women choose if they want to be sexy, if they don’t want to be sexy, if they’re trying to feel themselves through covering up or being sex that’s their choice.
There’s no ideal, there’s no perfect. There’s just you and you have to learn to love yourself. Everyone will love you for it.
It’s milquetoast to say “love yourself” and “we’re all beautiful,” but the bar is low for some of these famous model types who hustle. I do have to give her credit for not taking the comments on Instagram to heart and for not fighting with people. So many other celebrities fight with the commenters, I’m thinking about Pink. I’ve learned through so many experience on this job that people talk smack on the internet and you have to let it go. I can’t imagine it being directed at my looks though.
Oh and Emily got a gorgeous new puppy! I saw her bring him on Fallon which was brilliant actually. I wonder how her landlord feels about that. That dog is going to be HUGE. Look at his paws.
Here’s that interview:
Photos credit: WENN and Backgrid
I’m just at a loss as to why this woman seems to be everywhere.
Adorable dog.
Interesting how she equates covering up with not being sexy. You can be stark naked and not sexy at all or bundled up in a ski parka and exude sexiness.
Yep, you got it. Thank you for saying this.
I think her point was that those who have issues with nudity are usually the ones who exhalt covering up so she was speaking from that perspective.
In the past she’s pretty much said what you said about being sexy in a parka… word for word interestingly enough lol
Never seen anyone in a ski parka look sexy. I guess I haven’t lived.
Anyway, her lip game is…well fishy.
I thought she was saying the opposite – that she’s advocating everyone doing whatever it is that makes them feel good/sexy, etc…
Which I think is interesting. Living in the Bay Area, there’s a lot of non-sexual nudity. Or maybe it was originally supposed to be sexy, but you just get super desensitized to it. It really has shifted something for me internally. I find that now I usually feel more “sexy” when I’m mostly covered, but maybe choosing to reveal a shoulder, or a little bit of back, or something like that. No real point here except that I find it quite interesting to notice.
Is she famous for anything other than taking off her clothes? Ugh.
and her belly button, apparently.
Someone please get a timer because I could have sworn her 15 minutes were up but here we are!
It’s getting almost impossible to tell her and Kendall Jenner apart. I honestly thought it was Kendall in the header picture.
She’s plain looking to me but that’s the point…it’s TO ME. I hope everyone does whatever they’re comfortable with.
This is going to sound incredibly harsh as I grew up in an era where Instagram and Twitter were not there, nor did my career rely on publicizing everything. If she doesn’t want to read criticism then get off Instagram and Twitter. I am so sick of fame whores who are willing to do anything for fame then whine when people don’t like it. Hello Kardashians.
Bullying is not okay, but she is setting herself up.
I do like her dog though.
She can’t, it’s basically a prerequisite for celebrities nowadays. Casting directors literally ask you how many social media followers you are before auditions. And many celebs are contractually obligated to have social media accounts.
She’s gorgeous, like a perfect guys version of a woman’s figure. People are mean but please she has it pretty damn great in life!!!! Shhhh!
This woman must pay a fortune to the Daily Mail because every time I scroll through it, she is featured, usually in some stage of nakedness. So, I call BS on her complaining. She knows that if people are criticizing, at least they’re talking about her. Cute dog, though.
Yeah if you demonstrate your body from all the angles and it’s like the only thing you do in life, then that’s what gonna be criticized.
Also I actually disagree with “ everyone is beautiful” thing. Like, you can be beautiful for you friends or partner or parents, or for yourself, but it’s dumb to expect everyone to adore you. Your face/ body is not necessarily the epitome of beauty, and it’s normal. It’s like saying “everyone is a genius” . Mmm no. Some ppl are smarter or hotter or stronger. And you do what you can with what you’ve got.
Well, open a book the odd time, learn a new skill, replace the air in your head with something, back away from the lip fillers and admit your tits are fake. That would be a good place to start.
Looks like Piers Moron missed his ship to the sun.
Also, the lady hate in the comments section is kinda harsh. I don’t understand why people have such a negative reaction to this woman. Yeah, she’s trying to make a career that involves her body. Is that it? Is that really where we’re at ladies?
Yeah i don’t really get it, comment sections on every gossip website are sad.
What’s sadder is that this is super tame compared to how awful it usually gets (both around here and elsewhere).
It’s not just her immodesty as a woman that triggers both sides. It’s the fact that she’s also an outspoken sex positive feminist and a flawed human being.
Every time I go into the comment section of this website for articles on this girl or a similar celebrity, even if what the person is saying is neither bad, dumb or offensive the comments are always a bit sad. I’m neither a fan or a hater, just kind of indifferent to her.
VeryVeryTerryJerry:
“Well, open a book the odd time, learn a new skill, replace the air in your head with something, back away from the lip fillers and admit your tits are fake. That would be a good place to start.”
What is this internalised misogynistic bullshit, just goes to prove their point. The woman hate is real. It’s sad that we tear down other women so easily.
To me it sounds like this…
– If you take of your clothes/sell sex, you are a whore and deserve all the attacks, criticism, and molestation coming to you, don’t complain.
– If you speak about something else, something you care about – you’re an idiot, shut up.
I’m not a massive fan or anything, but this woman consistently uses her platform to talk about race, politics, feminism. She consistently hires women of color to model her clothing line. She’s started including older women and women of different sizes. She SPEAKS about the terrible things that happen in America (which is more than I can say for many young celebrities). It isn’t the MOST woke, but she’s not even 25. Lord knows I regurgitated some lousy/hackneyed arguments in my early 20s. The important thing (internally, for young women) is that they’re THINKING about these things.
Sure, I would LOVE to have her boobs, but it doesn’t make me despise her.
I agree with everything you’ve said here, but just a note, Wikipedia lists her at 28.
+1. She may not go about things the way we think she should all the time, and I appreciate her use of her platform because it’s not something that comes without sacrifice.
Her thoughts on feminism wouldn’t land with such a thud if she hadn’t married someone with a history of being both a racist and a misogynist.
As much as I wish she had not married that guy, didn’t he also delete some of those comments? For all we know, that could have her doing. I don’t think Emily’s feminist card should be revoked or that she should be ‘cancelled’ over problematic shit her husband has said over the years, especially as we’re having debates as recently as yesterday about why it’s ok for individuals to consume the art, jokes, and products of problematic people.
If we’re going to give senior citizen/ middle-aged problematic men like Eminem and Howard Stern chance after chance after everything they’ve done, and let them be allies, why can’t we stop expecting millenial female allies like Emily Ratajowski to be perfect- both in their own actions and in those of the people around them?
Also, people were treating her like garbage and wanting to exclude the ‘loose woman’ from feminism before she settled for her current husband and his past social media comments came out. That just gave them an extra thing to hide behind- as they continued to support their own problematic celebrities and say things much worse than anything she does.
I’m not big on second chances for racist and sexist behavior. In my experience people don’t magically become less racist or sexist, they just get better at disguising it.
+1
You can’t play the Feminist Card for cookie points and then expect people to see you as Woke(tm) if you support trash.
I cant get with this chick. Its good she speaks about body positivity and feminism, but her feminism is rooted in her looks only and there is nothing about her looks that are transformative for women. She is the epitome of what has been traditionally considered attractive: white, tall, skinny. She is not some of these plus sized models or WOC who have been excluded from the beauty industry fighting for their place and changing the conversations about what is considered beautiful. This woman defends Kim K, who is the epitome of appropriating black bodies, and considers Kim K. an alley. Yes, you can be attractive and have talent. But Emily has done nothing to prove that she has any talent and skates by on her traditionally attractive looks while using feminism to silence her critiques
Emily R. has never defended Kim K against people who were calling her out for cultural appropriation and even acknowledged that some things Kim does rightfully get criticized for. She only defended her against people slut-shaming her. I agree with you though that Emily Ratajowski should not be centered in conversations about body positivity (as opposed to sex-positivity) because she’s pretty much the beauty standard.
Most of what Emily gets though is not a valid critique like that though. It’s mostly misogynistic abuse from defensive liberals and conservatives who feel like a woman of girl should just shut up and be grateful she, personally, is not being brutalized, killed, or imprisoned for being loose instead of coming for their bigotry and their slurs. (Much like how Megan MCCAIN thinks some of us should shut up about homophobia and be grateful). That Kind of abuse dressed up as feminist/cultural ‘critique ‘ should be silenced by feminists every time.
I am still not sure how she is relevant. But yes she is the nerdy chubby mans wet dream – the ones who think they are worthy of supermodels (just going off the men I know who love her). They keep her going. I saw her on Good Morning America a while back and she doesn’t work in motion. She is so slim that anything looks incredible when photographed. Positive she has had back teeth removed to give her better cheekbones.
lol @ people shouting “internalized misogyny” at everything. Not everything is “internalized misogyny”. Go support the real feminist activists out there instead of expecting people to worship some rando who has no idea what she’s talking about. That’s like paying attention to an empty bag of chips with the word FEMINISM written on it, while Audre Lord stands next to you.
Sometimes it ain’t that deep.
You’re not being asked to worship anyone. Nice try though. You’re being asked to stop treating women and girls like shit just because you grew up in a violent victim-blaming culture that teaches you that your closed legs and covered tits make you ‘more equal’ than other women. You don’t like us calling out that abuse and dehumanization because you’re complicit, and likely have been since you were a teenager or younger, but we’re not going to stop…AS we continue to support other feminist activists. Miss me with the skeletons-in-the-closet, Dear Muslimah bullshit.
She would be taken much more seriously if she would sometimes put some clothes on. Like, any clothes, dress, shirt, whatever. Lady is constantly naked and it is becoming boring and counterproductive. I’ve seen her ass and boobs more times than my own, and I don’t really follow her “work”.
Only being able to take the modest women seriously as feminists or just as human beings is a mentality people have to be willing to work to deprogram themselves from in the 21st century. For many people this isn’t really much of a problem either because they have chosen to put in the work, because they were never fully on board with patriarchal standards of morality/respectabilty to begin with, because they understand the consequences of people being exposed to those standards, or some combination of those factors.