Lauren Oakley, a professional dancer on Strictly Come Dancing, has weighed in on the body-shaming outrage against Miss France, championing ‘unconventional’ beauty and encouraging people not to remark on someone’s looks.
The 32-year-old, who appeared on this year’s edition of the BBC entertainment show with Krishnan Guru-Murthy, has a cropped hairstyle.
Eve Gilles, who was named Miss France last week, also had a pixie cut, which drew criticism for her self-described ‘androgynous’ appearance, with trolls strangely suggesting her success was the product of ‘woke’ scheming by judges.
The mathematical student is believed to be the first participant with short hair to win the tournament, which has been running for over a century.
On Thursday night, the celebrity said on Instagram that she wasn’t sure if she should reply or not but felt she ‘had’ to.
‘The subject has surfaced this week, and people have reached out to me about it. I’m generally not inclined to comment, but I feel quite strongly about it, and the bigger picture,’ she began in her message.
‘I’m happy, comfortable and most of the time confident with my appearance. I choose to have short hair, and I think it looks nice on me I have days where I compare myself and don’t feel so pretty (don’t we all)… but I feel lucky that I’m confident with my image.’
Continuing next to a selection of photos of herself smiling as she showed off her short hair, she added: ‘I like the difference. I like representing what is unfortunately classed as ‘unconventional’ beauty. I think it’s important.’
‘Only being feminine if you have long hair is a social construct, when actually, beauty is in choice,’ she reminded her fans in the post, for which she turned off the comments.
‘Comments on social media and otherwise don’t upset me, what upsets me is that people feel the need to have an opinion on somebody else’s appearance. I’m grateful that I’ve learnt how not to take it personally (at first it was difficult, especially when related to my career – because ‘dancers don’t have short hair’),’ Lauren explained.
‘I want to encourage people to think twice about passing comments on appearance, when in fact it has nothing to do with you. You don’t know what someone else is going through, you don’t know how they feel.
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‘The most important thing is that they’re happy in their skin, and if they’re not quite there yet, let’s help them by building them up.’
Lauren first mentioned it after performing a Viennese Waltz with Krishnan in early November, during which she wore a long brunette wig.
Following her metamorphosis, the dancer stated that spectators told her she ‘should’ have long hair forever.
‘Alllll the comments on my long hair last week saying I ‘should’ have long hair. I’m good thanks girls don’t have to have long hair to feel pretty,’ she wrote on X.
‘Boys don’t have to have short hair to feel handsome. Nobody has to be a certain way! Just make yourself happy.’
In a separate tweet she added: ‘Not annoyed or offended by the hair comments ps. Just a polite reminder to have confidence in yourself!’
Fans hailed the TV personality for shutting down the comments, telling her, “You rock being you,” and complimenting her for seizing the opportunity to express herself freely.
Source My Celebrity Life.