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I didn’t have thoughts on Aubrey O’Day before, but after this summer I think she’s a sad character. She said she was moving to Bali and then got called out for Photoshopping herself into other people’s photos. Her response at the time was to say it’s because she wants to make sure she has the best photo of the background. Or something. Anyway, she addressed that and more in an exclusive interview with E! News, in which she talked about online critics of her appearance and upcoming new music.
Aubrey O’Day is looking back at a challenging chapter of her life.
In August 2020, The Daily Mail published a series of photos of what the outlet described as an “unrecognizable” O’Day out for a walk with her dogs, resulting in some social media users to accuse the singer of heavily edited her previous Instagram posts to appear thinner. The body-shaming comments prompted O’Day to respond by posting a swimsuit selfie while holding a piece of paper with the time, date and words “this is degrading” written on it.
Now, in an exclusive interview with E! News, O’Day reflected on how online critics called her “obese” and “fat” over the pictures.
While that wasn’t the first time the 38-year-old face criticism over her appearance, she was still hurt by the online response. “My body’s been on the chopping block since I was 17. Those were not the first fat photos,” she shared. “There’s been a lot of fat photos of Aubrey and I wasn’t even fat.”
O’Day added, “I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to heal with how many inaccurate things have been told about me.”
Part of O’Day’s healing journey includes making her “Couple Goals” music video, which she said helped her embrace her body. While she initially wanted to use a body double for the project’s nude scenes, the Danity Kane alum said director Alfredo Flores—who’s worked with the likes of Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez—was the one who helped her regain her confidence and quash her self-doubt.
“I felt so good,” O’Day said of the filming process. “I felt so comfortable in my body.”
O’Day is making the uncensored version of the video available on her OnlyFans account. Why?
“It’s offering my body up to belong to people again,” explained O’Day, who said she now has a “different perspective” on the public dialogue about her appearance. “I love the reclaiming of it.”
And that’s why O’Day isn’t too concerned about the recent chatter about how she Photoshops herself into vacation photos. “My Instagram looks the way it does not because I’m scared of my body,” she said, “it’s because when I’m in Bali and I scale a two-hour mountain…I don’t have a f–king caboodle kit, a tripod, my wigs and a whole custom line of clothing to put on.”
Explaining how she prefers to live in the moment, O’Day continued, “I am in Bali. I am here to heal. I am not bringing a camera and desecrating this place as a Photoshop moment for Instagram. I will give you the photo when I’m back.”
She added, “No, it doesn’t make me inauthentic.”
Okay, Aubrey’s reason for Photoshopping herself into those photos is still stupid. If you want to live in the moment and not “desecrate this place as a Photoshop moment for Instagram,” perhaps don’t take a picture at all? Or perhaps don’t feel it necessary to include yourself in the photo? No matter what she says, it is inauthentic and a bit silly. I think it’s fine to just take a picture of the beautiful scenery or a perfunctory selfie on the summit looking like a (gasp) normal, sweaty person who just completed a hike. Anyway, I’m glad Aubrey wasn’t Photoshopping because she was scared of her body. I did think that might have been the case and felt bad for thinking that, but glad to hear that it’s not body insecurity and just regular vanity. I do feel bad that she was criticized and mocked for her appearance. I think she’s missing the point a bit though: it shouldn’t just be that she wasn’t fat in the fat photos; we just shouldn’t body-shame people at all. So good for Aubrey that she’s healing and reclaiming her body confidence through nude scenes. If only she could do that without subjecting us to new music.
I’ve always felt bad for Aubrey because she was a pretty girl in Danity Kane who seems to have been made very insecure in the music industry and we see the result…So much plastic surgery that she is unrecognizable.
If you need to have essentially full-drag makeup on to take a vacation photo that you’ve deemed acceptable to post online, the problem starts with accepting yourself as you w/o all the extra. (And even drag performers are able to plan their content around their photoshoots and appearances…)
💯
Dating dbags like Don Jr and Pauly from Jersey Shore didn’t help with her already fragile sense of self-worth.
Is she really traveling to these places though? I think that was just an excuse – there’s no way she has the money to travel like this.
I remember her on Celebrity Apprentice, she was rather nasty. Anyways her photoshops are comically bad.
I have always found her quite nasty. Way overdone wannabe.
She seems really insecure and thirsty and a tad messy. That business more than any business will f*ck up your mind and how you view yourself. I think taking a hiatus from social media would benefit her but who knows…
Am I the only one who is fed up of photos of people who don’t look like humans? For example, the photo in Greece, while striking, is just too much, over the top, and definitely unrealistic. I’m also over the same old tired poses which scream “look at MEEE while I pretend I don’t care if you look at me”. And, I’m exhausted at looking at women who are so desperately invested in looking “sexy”. I mean, I guess this is marketing/PR for her career, so she has gotta do what she has to do, but I see this nonsense everywhere. At this point it’s a bit boring and depressing
Could not agree more. It’s Instagram and other social media, it’s brought out the narcissist in a lot of us. We crave and thrive on that affirmation.
“I find social media media to be a soul sucking void of meaningless affirmation.” – Wednesday Addams
Such a succinct line. Looking at her pictures it popped into my head. I can’t imagine spending hours in hair and makeup to pose for a pic when surrounded by beauty. And be a part of it and enjoy it. But I am an old. What the hell do I know?
I went to Maui last fall and you wouldn’t believe the number of photoshoots I saw on the beach. These people weren’t even hanging out on the beach or in the water, they would show up in full makeup and string bikinis, have their friends photograph them in various poses in front of the water and then leave. It was so sad to me.
Mr. EmmGee and I were in Mexico a couple weeks ago and saw the same thing. Always one girl posing like it was her job (it wasn’t), and a friend taking pictures. The model would run over, look at the photos, then go pose a few more times. Very seldom would the model reciprocate and take pics of her friend. It was super weird/awkward.
The fake stuff is so annoying and it completely clouds your own judgment when it comes to casual pics. I was holding my bff’s baby this weekend and she usually snaps a few pics when we see each other. Now, you cannot pose with a 4-month-old who’s busy. BUSY. LOL So it was just me trying two wrangle a baby. She sent me the pics and they were so cute but ALL I could see was a bit of a roll below my shoulder blade caused by a bra strap. I was so annoyed with myself and had to hold myself back from texting her that I looked chubby. I didn’t, it was just “bra fat” as I like to call it.
So I can understand why people succumb to it on SM but I wish it would stop. It’s all posed and boring and mostly fake. I’m sorry … curated.
the preoccupation with looking “sexy” online is one of the saddest things about the modern age. esp when women do it, 9/10 times it’s so desperate and sad, and not in fact empowering by any definition.
i find it truly tragic that women feel the need to “empower” or “reclaim” themselves by being naked – i’ve never understood the rationale behind that. the attention-seeking is very high school, like these women never fully grew up, and are just always desperate for someone to call them pretty.
but social media is a vortex – some people will be supportive, sure, but others will be nasty, leaving comments about her body/life that make her feel like crap all over again:
why don’t more people see these patterns, and do better?
Not nearly as sad as the fact that in a rape culture, many women still can’t find peace in their ‘classier’ choices without constantly going after the seemingly more ‘promiscuous’ women in their circles and the media. At some point in life, a sensitivity chip is supposed to develop. Progress would be a woman getting to a place in life where she’s ok with the fact that she kept her clothes on and had very little participation in hookup culture, BUT refuses to build herself up for those choices by supporting the culture of bullying others to death or blaming abuse on how they present themselves. No need for a whole online persona built on trolling women who don’t fit the Daria mold.
I had a professor once who said we never evolved to know what we look like and it drives a lot of people a little crazy. I think about that all the time. All those millenium on the grassy plains of Africa, maybe you’d catch an occasional glimpse in a pool. Past 5,000 years, the ultra rich had maybe a hand mirror. And for under 200, we’ve had to look at ourselves constantly, standing next to other people and comparing ourselves in ways our mind was never built for. Yeah, people go a little nuts.
Wow, that’s a really interesting point!
This is fascinating – thank you for sharing!
I had a similar thought once. That’s pretty much the only thing I envy cavepeople for.
I always had a very strong confidence that was never based on looks. I used to be happy, before the pandemic. Now I have to stare at my ugly face on Zoom all day long and I am seriously depressed. As in I have a therapist and pills now. Thanks, Zoom/Covid.
I’m sorry, but her plastic surgery/makeup looks really bad!
She was such a pretty girl when she started and ruined her looks with this awful, aging plastic surgery. I hate, hate that fillers and surgery are “normal” and “empowering” when I think a lot of it is just these companies making $$$ and trying to sell us confidence back after taking it. Not to mention I will never buy that injecting this stuff in your body is safe. Women are currently suing because their hair straightening treatments gave them uterine cancer but we’re somehow supposed to believe that these fillers that are 20 years old at best don’t have any long term effects and we know how they affect women long term? Sure Jan. I hate how social media has made normal aging, body fat and looks unacceptable.
Oh well as long as you weren’t ACTUALLY fat.
*eyeroll*