Instead of focusing on the incredible performance of Lady Gaga at the 51st Super Bowl, some chose to go on social media during the show and criticize her body.
On Instagram, people called her out and said, “Lady Gaga needs to do some crunches if she wants to show her flabby belly” and “Tried to enjoy Lady Gaga’s performance, was distracted by the flab on her stomach swinging around.”
When I saw those comments, I was shocked because I know people who would kill for a body like hers, including me.
Because of this kind of backlash, there are a lot of women with eating disorders and self-esteem issues.
We live in a society that is striving for an unrealistic image of perfection. Instead of loving ourselves and others for our differences, we judge and tear down each other because of self-image problems and as a means of lifting ourselves up.
The comments on Lady Gaga’s belly shows how fat-phobic and diet-cultured our society can be.
This is proven to be true by the people who spent the duration of Gaga’s performance drawing attention to her appearance rather than her show.
We must fix this problem by learning to love and accept our flaws.
When Lady Gaga chose to respond, her focus wasn't on the negative comments. Instead, she used it to send a positive message to those who feel insecure about their bodies.
On Instagram she wrote, “I heard my body is a topic of conversation so I wanted to say, I'm proud of my body and you should be proud of yours too. No matter who you are or what you do. I could give you a million reasons why you don't need to cater to anyone or anything to succeed. Be you, and be relentlessly you. That's the stuff of champions. thank you so much everyone for supporting me. I love you guys. Xoxo, Gaga.”
Lady Gaga is someone who has spent years fighting against bullying and has always encouraged her “Little Monsters,” her fan club, to love themselves just the way they are through her Born This Way Foundation.
Despite the negativity surrounding her performance, Gaga’s UK and US sales went up and pulled in 117.5 million viewers, making it the second most-viewed halftime show, behind Katy Perry at 120.7 million viewers.
At The Grammy’s last week, instead of hiding her body, Gaga wore a daring and revealing outfit that showed off her stomach that could have been seen as a message to show she embraces the skin that she's in.
A Lesson in Body Shaming: Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl performance
Erin Brett serves with the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot aiding in Hurricane Dorian relief efforts in the Bahamas.
