Melissa McCarthy has a message for all the body shamers out there. On Thursday, the comedian posted a photo to her Instagram of a sign that read, “Warning: Reflections in this mirror may be distorted by socially constructed ideas of ‘beauty.'”
The picture was accompanied by a caption that was equally powerful. “We have to stop categorizing and judging women based on their bodies,” she wrote. “We are teaching young girls to strive for unattainable perfection instead of feeling healthy and happy in their own skin.”
She even included a quote from Gloria Steinem, “Imagine we are linked not ranked.”
McCarthy is no stranger to discussing the importance of teaching young girls to be comfortable in their own skin. During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show last year, she opened up about the time she shut down a reporter who told her that she was “only a good actress when she looks attractive.”
“I said, ‘Just know that every time you write stuff, every young girl in this country reads that and they just get a little bit chipped away,'” she told the talk show host.
She also revealed to Refinery29 that she’s aware her size 14 frame is not considered “the norm,” even though the norm is a social construct: “I know I am not the ‘norm.’ It never occurs to me in terms of being a role model, though, because I don’t know any perfect women. If I, off the top of my head, name 20 of the most amazing women in my life, it’s all shapes, sizes, ages, colors, jobs. I can only go off my reality. What people pass off as ‘normal,’ I just have to keep in my head that it’s bullshit. It’s all fictitious, made-up stuff.”