Clementine Ford slams ‘gross assholes’ who ridiculed dancing influencer in ‘body shaming’ post: ‘Sad, hurt people’
Clementine Ford has hit out at body shaming trolls who left cruel comments on a video of an influencer dancing.
The 43-year-old feminist writer shared her thoughts on a video she shared on the Instagram page Influencers In The Wild on Monday via Instagram Stories.
The account is known for its satirical way of poking fun at influencers who film in public places. This week, the account shared a video of a woman filming in a remote park.
The clip showed the woman laughing as she filmed herself dancing with her phone on a tripod. At one point, a car honked in the background.
Clementine has now joined a number of other social media users to criticise the body shaming comments under the video.
The author passionately attacked the “dirty assholes on the internet” who felt the need to comment on the influencer’s appearance, calling them “f**king basic.”
Clementine wrote the following about the post: ‘She looks like she’s having a lot of fun and doesn’t hate herself. I can see why that might bother some of the sad, hurt people in these comments.’
She then posted a video further criticizing the cruel online trolls, even lashing out at Influencers In The Wild for sharing the video in the first place.
Clementine Ford has hit out at body shaming trolls who left cruel comments on a video of an influencer dancing
Influencers In The Wild, known for ridiculing social media users, shared a video on Instagram on Monday of a woman laughing and dancing in a secluded public space
She stressed that it was not relevant to ridicule the influencer as she was clearly filming in a secluded outdoor location and not in the way of other people in a busy place.
“This woman exists in a larger body, I’m not going to speculate on the size of that body, it doesn’t matter, it’s none of my business,” she fumes.
“It was really reassuring that the majority of the comments were against posting this video because let’s face it, it was clearly a dog whistle. It was clickbait, it was engagement.”
She continued: ‘The reason I’m writing this story now is not to make the point that we still live in a society and in a world where people feel completely entitled to comment on other people’s bodies and make moralizing remarks about other people’s bodies. [like] “She has to go to the gym,” but for a different reason.
Clementine went on to compare the body shaming comments to the criticism of Olympic boxer Imane Khelif, who faced bizarre gender criticism after her victory in Paris 2024.
Imane felt compelled to hit back at online trolls who are “murdering people’s thoughts, souls and minds,” responding to speculation about her gender.
Clementine compared the two situations and criticized the trolls for commenting on women’s bodies and accused them of misogyny.
She shared: ‘The [comments] The ones I find most ridiculous are almost reminiscent of what inspired the attack on Imane Khelif: racism, misogyny [and] transphobia, even if transphobia does not directly apply to [Imane’s] “My experience is based on my personal experiences. That’s why we need to defend all trans women.”
This comes after Influencers In The Wild responded to criticism of the sharing of the video, claiming that people were projecting their own feelings about their bodies onto the images.
Clementine has since criticised the ‘gross assholes’ who left body shaming comments under the post, comparing it to the recent backlash over boxer Imane Khelif’s Olympic victory
Influencer Jade, who goes by the Instagram handle chubbybellyredhead, also identified herself as the woman in the video while addressing the online storm
They wrote: ‘If this post only bothers you because she’s not thin then you’re the one who’s the problem. I post this stuff multiple times a day but now it’s over the line because she’s overweight?
“When you are angry, you are projecting YOUR feelings onto people who are overweight. Not posting because she is overweight would be more discriminatory, and I am not doing that here.”
Influencer Jade, who goes by the Instagram moniker chubbybellyredhead, identified herself as the woman in the video addressing the online storm.
After people criticized the page for sharing the video, claiming she was filming in her private garden, Jade assured people she was filming in a public place.
She captioned the post: ‘Oh my god this is me lol!!! I didn’t expect to see myself on this page today, thanks to all the positive comments! And don’t worry I wasn’t in my garden I was in a public place enjoying it.’
Jade, who has 168,000 followers on Instagram, also responded to the body shaming comments below her post in a video on her Instagram.
She said: ‘Even with the comments saying it was creepy, the person filming was probably just walking home and thinking, ‘Look at that girl, she’s so confident, she’s enjoying her life.
‘Or they said something like “look at that f**king beached whale” like all my comments say. Who knows, and it doesn’t matter because it must have helped me anyway!’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Jade for further comment.