Natasha Oakley runs the popular Instagram account A Bikini A Day. Photo / Instagram
Natasha Oakley runs the popular Instagram account A Bikini A Day. Photo / Instagram
Bikini blogger Natasha Oakley has written a scathing attack about the criticism women face for their looks, after being the target of online body shaming.
She has slammed the "uninspiring", "negative" criticism she received from a tabloid website, which published unflattering bikini-clad paparazzi photos of her and compared them to the images she posts on Instagram.
Writing on her Instagram feed, Oakley called out "any other woman who has ever commented something bad on another woman's photo, put someone down for there physical appearance or bullied someone for something natural".
Natasha Oakley has found support after being body shamed. Photo / Instagram, @tashoakley
"I for one love my body, I work hard, I live a healthy lifestyle and proud of what I see in these photos," Oakley said in response to the article.
"All women should feel this way and should feel free and happy within their own lives, not as if they constantly have to be living up to other people's standards or society's idea of 'beauty.'"
Oakley co-founded the popular blog A Bikini A Day with her best friend, Devin Brugman, and is also a designer (of Monday Swimwear), with more than 1.8 million followers on Instagram.
Oakley says she loves her body, works hard, and lives a healthy lifestyle. Photo / Instagram
It comes after Hollywood actor Jennifer Aniston penned a powerful blog entry for The Huffington Post slamming tabloid culture and body shaming.
"For the record, I am not pregnant. What I am is fed up. I'm fed up with the sport-like scrutiny and body shaming that occurs daily under the guise of 'journalism,' the 'First Amendment' and 'celebrity news,'" Aniston said this week.
Controversial British newspaper columnist Piers Morgan today weighed in on the issue, saying Aniston perpetuated an unrealistic body image partly because she appeared airbrushed on magazine covers.
Jennifer Aniston penned a blog post saying she is sick of tabloid culture. Photo / Getty
"It's this: female stars like Jennifer Aniston deliberately perpetuate the myth of 'perfection' by posing for endless magazine covers which have been airbrushed so much that in some cases the celebrity is virtually unrecognisable," Morgan wrote in the Daily Mail.
Citing Aniston's appearance on the front of magazines including Vanity Fair, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, Morgan said the "cover shots had clearly been airbrushed to make Jennifer look even more perfect than she already is".
So do women still have to put up with negative body shaming and public humiliation over their looks?
Body image expert and psychotherapist Sarah Harry said it was all part of a "harmful culture" of public criticism over celebrities' bodies.
"We are starting to hear very vocally from people like Jennifer Aniston that they have had enough of this culture, that's a really harmful culture, and I think there's a push back towards the pressure that women face to look a certain way," Harry told News Corp Australia.
"But unfortunately, what we are not seeing change is the pressure that women face in terms of their bodies," Harry said.
"This kind of scrutiny through camera lenses and Instagram is not helping women feel good about themselves.
"It's a harmful message to portray that your body is always under scrutiny and that you should always look perfect at every hour of every day.
"Cindy Crawford has that quote, 'I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford'. The whole thing is a construct, it isn't real."
