Home Pop Culture Stella Boonshoft’s bikini photo sparks body image debate.

Stella Boonshoft’s bikini photo sparks body image debate.

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Stella Boonshoft in a bikini.
Stella Boonshoft in a bikini.

A young woman by the name of Stella Boonshoft has sparked debate about body image and the definition of beauty after a picture of her in a bikini became widely disseminated via tumblr and later Facebook.

Posted the NYU student on her tumblr page, ‘The Body Love Blog,’ with her accompanying picture:

“WARNING: Picture might be considered obscene because subject is not thin. And we all know that only skinny people can show their stomachs and celebrate themselves. Well I’m not going to stand for that. This is my body. Not yours. MINE. Meaning the choices I make about it, are none of your f***ing business. Meaning my size, IS NONE OF YOUR F***ING BUSINESS.”

After Ms Boonshoft ran into a photographer by the name of Brandon Stanton he elected to take a picture of her but instead of posting the clothed picture of her via his photography driven Facebook account, ‘Humans of NY’ he instead posted Ms Boonshoft’s bikini photo that she had posted on  tumblr.

That though didn’t necessarily go down too well with many criticizing Ms Boonshoft for her appearance. As of Monday afternoon the picture posted 4 days ago has received 497 484 likes and over 22 000 comments.

Commented some:

The phrase “Methinks she doth protest too much,” comes to mind. Pity the poor horse that has to carry her when she goes riding! And you know what…a bit of moderation in what you eat and drink never does any harm. Nor does a bit of exercise. And who knows…..maybe then you won’t have to write pathetic articles attempting to justify the unjustifiable!

 

There is no need to be fat. It is due to laziness and a lack of effort. Parent also play a big part in this as they feed the kids way to much of sugar in this day and age. This girl needs to put some clothes on and show some respect to other and especially to herself. She needs to get on a proper “diet programme” meaning she needs to change her eating habits and do a little exercise. With in 2 months if she really want to she can loose between 10-20kg…. and yes i’ve done it..

 

there are many,many reasons from medical to genetics that keep weight on people no matter what they do, and that wieght has NOTHING to do with WHO THEY ARE. My ‘overlooked’ medical problem caused me to suffer most of my life. There’s skinny, useless, unattractive slobs if you think about it- then there are morons that go by looks without looking at themselves in the mirror- like you obviously do

 

dont judge a book by its cover” this quote just means you cant judge somebody by what you see on the outside,you really have to get to know them first then after you get to know them then you can judge them..

 

Ohhh your cool, you can be healthy. And be fat. Bitch I’m healthy and I’m fat! so don’t try me. Just cause your skinny and stuck up. dont mean u can be like that to anyone. How bout you get a life.

 

besides most skinny girls r shallow an ugly inside

 

Perhaps, she has come to terms with the fact that for her, a diet is just not worth it. I believe she is finally making a choice for herself, not a choice dictated to by what society expects of her. Many people may not like the way she looks, but really, the truth is that it has nothing to do with us. if we start to go overboard telling people how fat they a, very soon those same people might tell us how ugly or stupid we are. the fat person can lose weight, while the ugly and stupid can do very little.

 

I happen to think bigger women and girls are more beautiful than skinny rods on most occasion. My girlfriend is a bigger girl and my mother too and they’re the most breathtaking women I have ever seen.

Stella Boonshoft fully clothed.

Thinking through it Brandon Stanton later that day also posted the clothed picture he took of Ms Boonshoft which has also elicited over 28 000 Facebook likes and over 1400 comments.

Wrote Mr Brandon under the clothed photo: “Given the unbelievable amount of attention the past post has gotten, Stella has (quite fairly) asked me to post my portrait of her, along with some context. Hope everyone takes a second to imagine what it’s like to have tens of thousands people viewing / supporting / judging / commenting on you at one time,”

Then there was the following reaction from Ms Boonshoft too after the comments started piling up:

“My first instinct [when I saw the photo on Facebook] was to burst into tears. It’s what I do when I’m too overwhelmed and don’t know how to feel. A million thoughts raced through my brain – but the most prominent one was;

‘This is exactly the exposure you wanted to spread the message of size acceptance. This is the perfect venue for you to share your story, and you should be honored.’

Then why did I feel like utter s**t?”

She continued that she considered asking Stanton to take the photo off his site but ultimately decided against it.

“I know what I am trying to do, which is help young women struggling with their body image and expose the hypocrisy and cruelty that is sizeism, is SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT whatever feelings I may have about myself.”

Ultimately one has to wonder why all the fuss about the image of Ms Boonshoft in a bikini, but then again perhaps we ought not be surprised as so often society affirms that’s a woman’s value is contingent on her appearance and whether she approximates a desirable image which might be quite ironical given the fact that most women showcased to portray the ideal form are the minority, paid quite well to maintain that image even if sometimes it means bouts of their own self loathing and unrealistic and often unhealthy non eating habits.

Ultimately one is predisposed to find their own sense of beauty whilst remaining healthy perhaps not the easiest task to achieve in our fast food culture that at the same time equates beauty, image and desirability as the preferred arbiter of acceptance and validity in society in the same way a man is only judged validated if he earns a certain keep and has managed to achieve certain career milestones…all conditional on society expectations that many individuals have thankfully long ceased paying attention to, including Stella Boonshoft.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. shit post. All you really do is take comments from other people and post. Then 2 paragraphs of your own Jerry Springer closing comments drivel.

    Sorry, but you asked for honesty. Im being honest. Im sure you can do better.

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