Florence Pugh goes all in on body acceptance
Written by on January 12, 2023
Months after being body shamed for stepping out in a see-through Valentino dress revealing her bare breasts, Florence Pugh says that she was raised with the type of radical self-acceptance that she continues to display today.
“We were always naked as kids,” she told Vogue of growing up alongside her 3 siblings near an ocean in Spain with parents who taught them to embrace an unselfconscious view of their figures. “We are human, we are bodies.”
Even as she’s become famous, with people expecting her to abide by a certain standard, she maintains that same outlook.
“I can put makeup on and look good for a premiere. But at the end of the day, I still have hair on the top of my lip and I still smell after a workout and I still get spots when I’m stressed,” she explained. “I think that attitude definitely has trickled down from when I was a child.”
Embracing what’s natural about her is something that she experiments with in clothing, whether in the beautiful Bottega Veneta dress that she wears on Vogue‘s cover for the 2023 Winter issue, or in the various sheer ensembles she’s worn for public appearances.
“I’ve never been scared of what’s underneath the fabric,” she said of not further concealing her bare body. “If I’m happy in it, then I’m gonna wear it. Of course, I don’t want to offend people, but I think my point is: How can my nipples offend you that much?”
While it isn’t the first time that Pugh has defended herself against the negativity she’s received in response to the looks, the actress maintains that it’s an important discussion to have.
“If a dress with my breasts peeking through is encouraging people to say, ‘Well, if you were to get raped, you would deserve it,’ it just shows me that there’s so much more work to do,” she said.
She’s also using the opportunity to share how she’s put her beliefs about body acceptance to practice in her work.
“How would this character have lived? What would she be eating?” are two questions she said she considers when preparing for a job. “I’m never losing weight to look fantastic for a role.”
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