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Camila Cabello is not here for unrealistic body expectations, and honestly, neither are we. In case you missed it, Cabello spent the weekend clapping back at trolls who deigned to shame her for her body. In the process, the 22-year old also delivered an important message about the idea of perfection and how challenging it is to grow up in the age of social media.

Camila Cabello on social media
Camila Cabello | Photo by Christian Vierig/Getty Images

The “Senorita” singer admits that she had been previously avoiding social media for her own sanity. With over 37 million fans on Instagram alone, the singer gets her fair share of harsh criticisms. Unfortunately for Cabello, and countless other celebrities, social media culture has emboldened people to be rude, disgusting, and downright vicious to people they’ve never even met. For whatever reason, people feel safe behind their screen and feel free to be cruel in order to combat their own deep-rooted insecurities.

Cabello claps back at body-shamers on Instagram

After stumbling over a headline that was shaming her for her perfectly normal body, Cabello took to her Instagram story to speak out about how she felt about being assessed in such a public and disgusting way.

“My eyes accidentally ran over a headline of people body shaming me. Honestly, first thing I felt was super insecure just IMAGINING what these pictures must look like, oh no! My cellulite! Oh no! I didn’t suck in my stomach! But then I was like… of course there are bad pictures, of course there are bad angles, my body’s not made of fucking rock, or all muscle, for that matter, but the saddest part of young girls growing up in an airbrushed world is they’re seeking a perfection that’s not real,” the “Havana” singer wrote on Instagram.

Photoshop perfection culture

Cabello then went on to critique the photoshop perfection culture that currently plagues social media and our society. “I’m writing this for girls like my little sister who are growing up on social media. They’re constantly seeing photoshopped, edited pictures and thinking that’s reality, and everyone’s eyes get used to seeing airbrushed skin, and suddenly they think THAT’S the norm. ?!!! It isn’t. It’s fake. AND FAKE IS BECOMING THE NEW REAL. We have a completely unrealistic view of a woman’s body. Girls, cellulite is normal, fat is normal. It’s beautiful and natural. I won’t buy into bullshit today! Not today Satan, and I hope you don’t either,” Cabello wrote passionately.

The downside to social media

We truly admire Cabello taking a stand and sticking up for herself after trolls dared to shame her. The 22-year-old is absolutely right. Our society’s obsession with perfection has only been heightened by social media. Most of the content we intake comes from extraordinarily curated, filtered, and airbrushed lenses. This creates a false sense of normalcy for children, teens, and adults alike and can lead to horrible pandemics like eating disorders, self-hate, and body dysmorphia.

The need for inclusivity in media

As a society, we need to start demanding that the media needs to do a better job of widening their standard of beauty. For far too long, companies have failed to be inclusive and represent the great number of body types, ethnicities, races, religions, sexual orientations, genders, etc. that our world is comprised of.

Furthermore, constantly advertising an unattainable ideal of perfection simply needs to stop on social media and in media as a whole. We’re pleased that Cabello used an unfortunate incident to speak out about a larger issue. Even if it only helped one of her fans feel better about their body, it has made a huge impact.

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