Australian swimming legend Cate Campbell has taken aim at capitalism for driving unrealistic beauty standards for women while hitting back at trolls who have targeted her over her appearance.
The four-time Olympian, 32, has been spending a lot of time in front of the camera doing media appearances since she retired from competitive swimming last year.
Cate explained that she loves the work, but seeing herself on screen so much has made her more aware of how she looks.
‘Suddenly I’ve felt all my insecurities creeping back,’ she said in an Instagram post.
‘So much of society is about what we look like and the people who are on camera look a very certain way…
‘I am 32 years old and I don’t know what I’m supposed to look like and when I’m on camera and watching myself back all I can see are these wrinkles around my eyes or the puffiness or my eyelids or these lines on my forehead.’
Olympian Cate Campbell says she’s recently become more aware of her own insecurities through the media work she is doing
Campbell says she is 32 ‘and does not know what she is supposed to look like’
Campbell’s candid post was met with a wave of positivity from her followers, but it also attracted some attention from online trolls.
The swimming great fired back at them with a second video, noting that her post was ‘not a critique on anyone’s personal choices, rather an interrogation of the beauty standards our capitalist society has created for us.’
‘There was your run-of-the-mill basic bitch trolls, which I kind of expected. “You look terrible”, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you’re 32, you look more like 60, 50, 40” and that was pretty predictable.’
Campbell explained that she also received comments from people who she called ‘concerned trolls’.
‘They looked at me and they still thought that what I looked like for my age was unacceptable, but they couched their horror in concern and started trying to rationalise and figure out why I would look the way that I look at the age that I am,’ she continued.
‘I got told that I had too much sun exposure, that I should wear SPF, that I should not drink alcohol or eat sugar, that I should stay in the shade, that I should have all kinds of antioxidants.’
Some trolls even wondered if she smoked cigarettes and suggested that the former Olympian should ‘lead an active, healthy lifestyle’.
‘Do you know what one of the biggest, contributing factors to aging is?’ Campbell said.
The four-time Olympian copped some criticism from trolls online when talking about the issue
Campbell thanked the trolls, saying that they have inspired her to continue doing the things that she loves
‘It is stress and let me tell you, going to four Olympic Games is very stressful. So maybe that has something to do with the wrinkles on my face.’
Campbell went on to say that she’s realised society views aging as something we can avoid if we try hard enough, rather than a natural part of life.
‘It feels like we are unable to look at people and see their value based on what their faces look like because we look at them and if it doesn’t fit into a very small, narrow beauty standard, we think that they should have tried harder,’ she added.
‘And I’m just not sure that I want to subscribe to that.’
She thanked all those who had sent messages of support – and then also addressed the negativity she’s copped.
‘I want to give a bigger shout out to the trolls or to the people who were writing in and giving me advice,’ she said
‘Telling me to stay inside, to put on SPF, to stay in the shade, to drink more water, to get more sleep who made me feel like what my face was doing was a failing on my behalf, was because I wasn’t trying hard enough or doing ‘the right things’.
‘I wanna say that you have inspired me to keep doing all the things that I love … to not let myself be made smaller by trying to fit into this very, very narrow way of how we as women are supposed to look, and therefore how we are valued, because so much of our value is based on our face.’
