Shania Twain is speaking out about body positivity and explained why she is“unashamed” of posing nude.
The 57-year-old discussed her decision to pose topless for the cover of her latest single, “Waking Up Dreaming,” during an interview with People.
“This is me expressing my truth. I’m comfortable in my own skin, and this is the way I am sharing that confidence,” Twain said. “I think the best fashion is confidence, and whatever you wear — if you’re wearing it with that, it’s fashionable. I am a woman in my late 50s, and I don’t need to hide behind the clothes.”
The “You’re Still the One” singer said she took pride in doing a nude photoshoot, as a woman going through menopause.
“I can’t even tell you how good it felt to do nude shooting. I was just so unashamed of my new body, you know, as a woman that is well into my menopause,” she continued. “I’m not even emotional about it; I just feel okay about it. It’s really liberating.”
Twain added that she’s been “ditching the bra” since “the very beginning,” a nod to her going topless in her debut music video in 1993 for her song, “What Made You Say That”. She also confessed that she’s still had moments over the years where she felt insecure about her looks.
“As I grew older, I started feeling a different pressure of: ‘Well, your breasts are not as plump as they used to be. Your skin is not as tight as it used to be. Maybe you should start covering it up a little bit more,’” she added.
Once she hit a point where she saw her confidence “regressing” and courage “dulling,” she said she put an end to it. That helped her “embrace” the process of ageing.
“I am not regressing. I am embracing my body as it changes, as I should have from my childhood to my teens, as I should be from my taut, 20s and 30-year-old self, to my menopausal body,” Twain said. “I’m not going to be shy about it. I want to be courageous about it, and I want to share that courage in the artwork that I am directing.”
Twain said her body image struggles began as a child, when she would avoid wearing swimsuits as a teenager because her stepfather, Jerry Twain, made her feel “self-conscious”.
“It was almost dirty to wear shorts or not be entirely covered up. As my body was maturing and I was becoming a teenager, all of a sudden I was getting real curves,” she continued. “I mean, I’m a curvy person. I have boobs, and they bounce when I walk.”
She said that she was “strapping [herself] down” at the time, wearing “two bras” and oversized clothing, which prevented her from taking pride in the woman she was becoming.
“I didn’t feel good about becoming a woman. I was embarrassed by it. I was hiding my curves. I was rejecting,” she said. “I was rejecting what I was growing into, which was very natural. How shameful is that? And not shameful of me, but shameful of that pressure. It was terrible.”
Twain implored other women to be confident in their bodies.
“I want other women that are ageing, or any women … even if you’re 12 and you’re developing, you shouldn’t feel like you need to hide behind your fear or your self-conscious shield,” she added. “But you have to do it within your own sense of what is right and good and safe for you.”
Earlier this month, Twain spoke to The Sunday Times about her stepfather and revealed that she would “flatten” her breasts to avoid sexual abuse from him.
“I hid myself and I would flatten my boobs,” she said. “I would wear bras that were too small for me, and I’d wear two, play it down until there was nothing girl about me. Make it easier to go unnoticed. Because, oh my gosh, it was terrible – you didn’t want to be a girl in my house.”
