Thickalicious fashion model Ashley Graham continues her body positive advocacy via social media, exemplifying the power in body acceptance. Progressing the body inclusivity movement by example, Graham embodies the essence of true self-appreciation.
Her comfortability in her beautifully big body can be observed through her Instagram, a space where Ashley Graham illustrates the normality of existing imperfectly and the beauty that surrounds it.
“I don’t post myself half-naked to get the likes. I post myself half-naked so that someone who’s 10 years younger than me knows that that side butt, that hip dip – that’s not abnormal to have,” Graham told Porter magazine. Graham further explains that she’s grateful to have “a voice to be able to say what is beautiful and what is OK. I wish that, when I was younger, there had been someone as outspoken as I was, who was as fearless with their cellulite and back fat, so I could know that this was normal; this was what a body looks like.”
From the beginning of her career Ms. Graham has been outspoken about normalizing size inclusivity in mainstream culture. Pushing back against traditional beauty standards, Graham embraced her voluptuousness, carving a place for herself in the high fashion modeling world in addition to the swimsuit modeling industry.
Graham posing for Sports Illustrated and strutting her full-figured self down Fendi’s fashion runway has helped redefine the status quo, inspiring those who aren’t the ideal body frame. On the runway or on social media Graham flaunts her unfiltered truth, showing that you don’t have to succumb to unattainable beauty standards.
As a thicc woman myself, yes with two c’s, I sometimes find myself subconsciously fretting over bra overhang and butt dimples after swiping through countless IG photos of women without them. Scrolling through social media or flipping through magazines filled with perfectly proportioned and smooth bodied women can often alter one’s perception of what bodies are “supposed” to look like.
Graham disbands the idea of how women are “supposed” to look by exhibiting how many women do look, helping other women to not be ashamed of a little jiggle. Ideally, Graham wants society to evolve to “the point [where women] don’t have to explain our bodies at all,” enabling women to live freely in their own truth.
Until then, Ms. Graham remains as one of the most eminent voices of the body positivity movement, motivating women to define their own “normal” and love their bodies unconditionally.
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