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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Sabrina Barr

Marina Diamandis calls out the ways women are shamed during emotional interview

Marina Diamandis has spoken about how society continually shames women in an emotional interview.

Speaking to Krishnan Guru-Murthy for the Channel 4 News podcastWays to Change the World, Diamandis explained that women are seemingly criticised no matter what they do, due to their appearances, their career choices and whether or not they have children.

The interview was released on the same day that the singer publicly condemned a fashion designer for digitally altering a photograph of her to make her legs and thighs look like “literal sticks”.

“I did a post recently on Twitter listing all the ways that I could think of that women were shamed,” she told Guru-Murthy.

“And that went from being too fat, being too thin, being beautiful, not being beautiful, wearing makeup, not wearing makeup, having kids, not having kids, being a working mother, being a stay-at-home mother, being confident, being assertive.

“I know that men get shamed in different ways too, but it just seems like the female experience, it has to change. It just has to.”

Diamandis continued, stating that she’s “not going to put up with it anymore”.

“I don’t want to make myself small or make myself different to who I actually feel like inside just to be palatable to society, and I know that a lot of other women feel the same,” she added.

Several of the musician’s 2.76m Twitter followers agreed with her stance on the topic.

“She’s so kind and intelligent. She’s not wrong,” one wrote.

“It’s like women have to change in order to feel accepted and loved and taken seriously.”

“You have no clue how much this has impacted me. Thank you for speaking out and making all women feel better about being their own selves,” another fan commented.

During the interview, Diamandis also spoke about how she would often compare herself to other female artists during the earlier stages of her career.

“The women that I saw on the Internet were all size zero, and that was really damaging to me. I really was affected by that,” the singer said.

In 2017, a study conducted by UK charity Girlguiding found that the pressure to create a “perfect” online life is damaging more than a third of young girls.

Almost 2,000 girls and young women aged between seven and 21 took part in the investigation.

According to the survey’s findings, 40 per cent of 17 to 21-year-olds stated that their main concern about spending time online is the frequent comparisons they make between their lives and those of others.

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