For many women and men, loving your physique isn’t any small problem. But should you’re fats and have the audacity to like and be assured in your physique, even the compliments are barbed.

Rapper Chika highlighted this dynamic on Tuesday night time, responding to a well-intentioned Instagram commenter who requested her how she “[stays] constructive about her weight,” including that they had been solely asking as a result of they had been “critically fighting it” themselves.

“This is a impolite query,” Chika responded. “I do know you meant properly however I’m bored with speaking about my physique with strangers.”

The 23-year-old Nigerian-American artist continued, “how can I keep constructive about my physique when I’m being requested about being fats each 10 minutes.”

It’s the type of remark that, whereas showing on its face to be complimentary, is simply ever lodged at girls within the public eye. Chika expanded on her response on her Instagram tales, which she posted to her timeline Wednesday morning.

“For me it is a double-edged sword as a result of this matter is like—it is one thing I hate speaking about, but when I do not discuss it, individuals will hold doing it, so I’m put in a really uncomfortable place,” she stated, including that this was the final time she is going to handle the difficulty.

“Stop fucking asking me about my physique. In reality, cease asking everybody about their our bodies,” Chika continued, including, “I do not give a fuck should you appear to be me, you do not appear to be me, should you’re searching for some type of confidence enhance, should you’re searching for some type of recommendation. Bitch, I’m not a therapist. I’m not any individual who’s designated to let you know the way to like your self.

“Do not are available in my feedback asking me how the fuck I might dare love myself,” she stated. “Like, I do not give a fuck what place you are coming from, it is fucking impolite. Who raised y’all?”

The artist, who additionally fashions and acts, says she feels gaslit into not talking up in regards to the barrage of feedback about her physique as a result of it is coming from well-intentioned followers who’re “genuinely fighting their very own shit.

“But on the similar, intention versus influence,” she stated, including that the buildup of curiosity in her physique was “damaging” and stating that, regardless of if she misplaced, gained or maintained her weight, she had nothing to achieve from the eye.

“I’m not the spokesperson for physique positivity. I’m not the spokesperson for being dark-skinned. I’m not the spokesperson for having a nappy-ass dread head. I’m none of these issues. Stop asking me questions that it is best to work out for your self,” she stated.

It’s not the primary time the “Industry Games” rapper has known as out poisonous feedback associated to her physique, however discussing ostensibly constructive remarks from followers is a tougher needle to string than calling out extra blatant examples of misogynoir and fat-phobia. While the “physique positivity” motion has created more room for fats girls in vogue and music to be seen—which is to say, to easily share the identical platforms and get related alternatives as smaller, extra “conventionally enticing” girls—they’re nonetheless tasked with always having to clarify themselves and their relationships to their our bodies to the general public.

While some may be glad to tackle this mantle, it is presumptuous to imagine any girl needs or wants to speak at size about one thing as private and sophisticated as their relationship to their physique—or that they are certified to dispense recommendation. Even complimenting fats girls on their “confidence” or “bravery” emphasizes the concept that such emotions are anomalous or unusual: that being fats betrays a norm, and fats girls should really feel disgrace and insecurity over it. On prime of being a loaded assumption, it is a ludicrous one—particularly contemplating many skinny girls within the leisure business have spoken at size about their struggles embracing their look.

As Chika alluded to, the deluge of commentary about her physique can be distracting, decreasing the gifted and outspoken artist repeatedly to a handful of her bodily traits: her weight, her pores and skin, her hair. So whereas Chika’s strongly worded response could seem abrasive to some, it is however a useful reminder that higher proximity to celebrities by way of Instagram does not can help you overlook your own home coaching. Fans, in spite of everything, nonetheless have the choice of calling an artist “lovely” and “inspiring.” But the backhanded interrogations praising marginalized girls for daring to be themselves can go.