Cassey Ho is a certified pilates and fitness instructor and was named as one of Greatist’s Top 25 Health & Fitness Influencers in the World alongside Michelle Obama.
Since starting her fitness blog Ho has been on the receiving end of vitriolic body shaming. In her video, Ho uses real comments left by cyber bullies on her blog to show how vicious and hurtful these attacks can be. Using special effects she then alters the parts of her body that were criticised, slimming down her waist, enlarging her breasts and airbrushing fat from her legs.
Ho wrote on her blog:
“When you look in the mirror, are you happy with what you see? Or do you stare at yourself, pinching your fat away, lifting up your butt, pushing in your boobs, wishing you looked like a VS supermodel? It’s hard to be content with the shape of your body when people are constantly telling you how fat you are. The backhanded compliments, the mean comments, the cyber bullying – all of this messes with us…and it hurts. What if getting flat abs and bigger boobs was as easy as a click. What if you could stop all the hate and just photoshop yourself right now, in real life? What would you change?”
Ho wants to spread a positive body message and shift focus away from unrealistic goals of perfection towards health and fitness instead.
After creating the video, Ho posted the photo of her doctored body (which was created using a body double) to her Instagram account. Some commenters were supportive, other commenters still pointed out flaws but the main question is, whether positively or negatively, why do we still feel compelled to judge each other on our appearance?
“What worries me is this: 1) That some people think this is real and that it should be ‘goals and 2) That some people still think it’s not good enough.”
