Selena Gomez hits back at people body shaming her latest bikini photos
The past year had a lot of ups and downs for Selena Gomez, who was not only caught up in the tabloid fire following her breakup with The Weeknd and her subsequent on-again-off-again relationship with Justin Bieber, but also in regards to her life-threatening (but ultimately life-saving) kidney transplant.
The singer and actor revealed in September last year on Instagram that she had gone through the transplant after learning of the detrimental effects her Lupus was having on her kidneys. The 25-year-old posed with her friend Francia Raisa, both in hospital beds, revealing that Francia had donated her kidney for the transplant.
And now, more than half a year on, Selena was photographed lounging around with friends on a yacht in Sydney's harbour on a sunny day. But rather than leaving her be and letting her enjoy her well-deserved Australian vacation, some people decided to make nasty remarks about the state of Selena's figure.
The bikini photos – in which Selena's surgery scars were made fully visible for the first time – were not selfies the superstar uploaded to her 135 million Instagram followers, but photos which were snapped by paparazzi following the yacht from afar.
Selena took a break from her holiday in order to respond to the body shamers, uploading a dreamy video from the day on the yacht to Instagram, with a caption that hit back at their remarks.
"The beauty myth- an obsession with physical perfection that traps modern woman in an endless cycle of hopelessness, self consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society’s impossible definition of flawless beauty," she wrote. "I chose to take care of myself because I want to, not to prove anything to anyone. Wind in her sails."
Selena breezily emphasised that she is more concerned about her health and taking care of herself than trolls saying she looked "thick" or "pregnant". It's especially unfair considering the surgery and its after-effects mean the "myth" of "flawless beauty" is even more ridiculous.
In a recent interview on The Today Show, she revealed that she has an "obtrusion" on her abdomen that she will have for the rest of her life. You can see her try to cover it with her hands in several of the paparazzi pictures.
"I have a bit of an obtrusion that will be there forever," she said in the interview. "And that means I’m going to have to dress differently. It was really, really massive at first. I ended up having to get it drained [initially to reduce the size]."
"It was a six-hour surgery that they had to do on me, and the normal kidney process is actually two hours," Selena recalled of the transplant itself. "Apparently one of the arteries had flipped. I’m very thankful that there are people who know what to do in that situation."
One scar on her inner thigh reveals where a vein was removed because of complications. But ultimately, the surgery saved her life, relieved the worst of the Lupus symptoms, and also restored energy in the star.
Isn't that what's most important?