Strong Reactions to Tahiti Quarantine Video
OK, I know all press is good press. But it isn’t fun to be body shamed.
I published a video about filming a beautiful octopus friend at the marina where we are quarantined. The thumbnail image elicited a strong reaction on a Facebook group for sailors. The first two comments were about how I needed to put some clothes on! The moderator removed them pretty quickly, but ugh.
This particular group is encouraging people to share more fun videos during the pandemic, and people have enjoyed my quarantine videos for the most part.
But this morning the first two comments made my stomach turn. I am no vlogger or swimsuit model, but I like how I look. And I think it’s crap that women are supposed to be concerned about looking perfect all the time. We have bigger things to think about. Like exploring our surroundings and learning new things. So there I am, without a tan, not super toned, totally embodying the saying: how do you get a bikini body? You put on a bikini.
The photo stays for now. Haters gonna hate. Maybe tomorrow I’ll change it to an octopus photo, but not because of haters. Because the octopus may appeal more to my Magic Ocean people and show what they can see in the water.
It’s not my first time dealing with internet haters. I found an unsavory scuba group online and made the mistake of sharing a video of a remora biting my butt: https://youtu.be/zxm5d5U4GMg.
It’s a fun video, presented in what I feel is a tasteful, g-rated manner…but they didn’t quite see it that way.
The group went crazy on it after a couple twisted comments piqued everyone’s interest. They quickly pushed the video to 1K views, which was nice for my YouTube statistics, but the comments were not exactly…g-rated.
It can be scary to appear on YouTube in a bikini, but not as scary as shark diving. I do that in a bikini, too.
Here’s my new video:
I am going to keep this G rated, which you know is not my normal mode of conversation.
Freaking Hell, people want to fat shame everyone that doesn’t look like a model on the runway, we won’t even go into how unhealthy most people are.
Most of this comes from people that are struggling with being that perfect looking model person that they think everyone should be. (Maybe they should start watching videos of all the famous people that are doing vids from their home now, and definitely are looking a lot more like the rest of us!)
I have dove with you, you are a fit woman that is very physically active. You are one of a very small handful of people that I would dive with, and feel like I didn’t have to take care of them as well as myself.
Besides that you are a kind and compassionate person.
Thank you, Guy! I agree there are a lot of people out there trying to hold others to model standards, as if we should all look a certain way. We need more real people out there, that’s what YouTube is all about anyway. I like this about YouTube!
You are too kind. Not many people can say they have gone diving from a dinghy in the remote atolls of the South Pacific!
Lisa