Miss Universe Canada Calls Out Body Shamers on Instagram

By now it’s clear that if you’re a person with a social media presence, you’re probably going to be body-shamed online at some point. Along with death and taxes, it’s one of the things about modern life we can pretty much guarantee — that no matter how you look, some keyboard thug is always going to have something to say about it.

As we learned (or were reminded of) in the recent presidential campaign, even beauty queens are subject to criticisms about their weight. Another instance of this phenomenon now comes from 23-year-old Miss Universe Canada, Siera Bearchell, who took to Instagram last week to deliver a message to those who seem so preoccupied by her weight.

“I was recently asked, ‘What happened to you? Why have you gained weight? You are losing points.’ This was a reference to my body of course,” her post, since liked more than 2,200 times, began.

“While I am first to say I am not as lean as I was when I was 16, 20, or even last year, but I am more confident, capable, wise, humble and passionate than ever before,” the Saskatchewan beauty continued in the caption for a photo of herself in a swimsuit. “As soon as I started to love who I was rather than always trying to fit what I thought society wanted me to be, I gained a whole new side of life. This is the side I am trying to bring to the @missuniverse competition. The side of life that is so rare to find: self-worth and self-love. We always focus on the things we wish we could change rather than loving everything we are.”

This year’s Miss Universe pageant is being held at the Mall of Asia Arena in the Philippines, and model and body activist Ashley Graham has been tapped as one of the judges. If there was ever a good time to take a stand against stringent body standards, it’s this year. Bearchell got plenty of support in the comments for her post.

“Spoken like the next Miss Universe. You just made this competition into something so amazing,” one person wrote. Another chimed in, “I also gained weight recently and a lot of people have been noticing it. Your post made me realize it’s not about what’s written on the scale but what’s in your heart.”

Yet another added: “Plastic surgery and two a day workouts are not what make a woman beautiful. What century do we live in that people still believe beauty can be pigeonholed that way? What you stand for and how you carry yourself and celebrate yourself and inspire others to do the same does make a person beautiful! What an example you are setting. Your statement and stance on body diversity is going to heal a lot of messed up brain washed girls and set them on a path of celebrating who they are and loving themselves and accepting themselves and embracing themselves so that they can empower not only themselves but support and celebrate women and their beautiful diversity.”

Bearchell told the BBC that the pressures of trying to live up to some pageant standards have taken a toll on her. She says that in a previous competition, one pageant director asked her to take scale selfies as proof that she was losing weight. “I caved in to the pressures of wanting to do well. I was eating very little and working out a lot and absolutely miserable,” she explained. “I was not happy getting the results I was getting, because I was constantly being told there was more I could do. I was never good enough.”

Bearchell is abandoning the extreme dieting she would need to rely on to maintain the size some people felt she should be. While she continues to exercise and eat healthy, she says she’s going to accept her body as it is and continue to compete.

You can watch Bearchell compete at the Miss Universe pageant Sunday, Jan. 29, on Fox.

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