During the Super Bowl halftime show all eyes were on the gifted Lady Gaga. The talented artist incorporated patriotism from the start with her stunning version of “God Bless America”. Hundreds of twinkling drones lit up the sky with red, white and blue as Gaga placed her right hand over her heart reciting the “Pledge of Allegiance”. Unfortunately, numerous viewers decided to focus their attention on Gaga’s appearance rather than her amazing performance. Once Gaga changed out of her silver-studded one piece and into a crop top which resembled football pads, the cruel body shaming began.
Posts began to erupt on social media criticizing Lady Gaga’s “flabby belly” and “flab on her stomach”. Thankfully, Gaga did not allow these unkind body shamers to get under her skin and fired back at these unpleasant critics. Gaga responded to these bullies and posted on her Instagram account, “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.” Not only is Gaga throwing aside the negative comments, her music sales have soared after her spectacular halftime performance. According to Fox News, Gaga announced late Sunday night her 48-day world tour which includes many stops in North America.
I respect Lady Gaga for her boldness and confidence throughout this entire episode of frustrating body shaming. Lady Gaga is a positive role model for girls of all ages, races and cultures. She does not allow harsh and rude people to upset her and she voices her opinion to shut these disrespectful people down. In today’s society, there’s an unnerving amount of young girls and women who suffer from eating disorders and self-confidence issues because ill- mannered individuals cannot keep their comments to themselves. NEWS FLASH! No one is perfect. No one. People currently have high standards and expectations of what women should look like and how they should act. If you feel like wearing sweatpants and throwing your hair up in a messy bun, then do it! Treat yourself to an entire tub of ice cream and eat the whole thing without a care in the world. Ladies, the reason I wrote this article is to remind you to please be yourself and do not allow society’s expectations to change you. Be you and only you.