As you all probably know, Lady Gaga recently performed the half-time show at the Super Bowl. I have never been a huge fan of her, but I never disliked her either and I personally think she did a fantastic job...but of course, people chose to focus in on one thing. As soon as she changed her outfit to uncover her stomach, the internet went crazy over her "fat rolls." First of all...all I saw during the half-time show was a strong and healthy woman giving an entertaining performance, not someone who needs to lose weight or who shouldn't be wearing a certain outfit. She performed non-stop for 13 minutes singing, dancing, and flying through the air and yet all people saw was her stomach? Seriously? Why are we focusing more on her body than her performance as an artist?

Second of all, this is just flat out wrong. Why do we feel the need to body shame? We are constantly putting each other down and sometimes even putting ourselves down for absolutely no reason. You are either too skinny or too fat and no one ever fits into the ideal image...but there shouldn't even be an ideal image! Everyone is built differently so why do we think that we should all look a certain way? Lady Gaga is not big at all and even she is being called fat and told that she needs to "do some crunches if she wants to show her flabby belly," as one person on Twitter stated. It's no wonder people have trouble feeling comfortable in their own skin with comments like that being thrown around every day like it's no big deal.

Sadly, this is a much bigger issue than we make it out to be. There are people out there who are literally harming themselves because they feel like how they look is wrong. People are starving themselves to fit the standards of society. Body shaming has lead to eating disorders and suicidal tendencies which are both extremely serious and scary things. The Center for Advancing Health did a study which actually tied body shaming to suicidal thoughts in teens. In this study 6, 504 middle school teen boys and girls were surveyed over the span of 13 years. Participants were simply asked how they feel about their body weight and if they had considered suicide in the past year. Researchers found that suicidal thoughts were incredibly higher in those teens who thought they were overweight or underweight, than those who felt comfortable with their bodies. That alone shows that this has been a real problem for a really long time and it needs to stop!

Lady Gaga did choose to respond to the body shamers of the internet in a positive way. She posted this on Instagram underneath a photo of her performing:

"I heard my body is a topic of conversation so I wanted to say, I'm proud of my body and you should be of yours too. No matter who you are or what you do. I could give you a million reasons why you don't need to cater to anyone or anything to succeed. Be you, and be relentlessly you. That's the stuff of champions."

I couldn't have said it better myself. It is time for people to wake up and realize that we should all be proud to be who we are. No one is perfect and there should be no ideal image. Because of body shaming, not only are many people out there feeling uncomfortable in their own skin, but too many even take drastic measures to change their appearance to suit what is perceived as the "ideal image." It doesn't have to be like this. We should be encouraging each other to love our bodies, not telling each other to change something because they are "too fat" or "too skinny."

A big thank you to Lady Gaga for not only giving us a fantastic and entertaining half-time show performance but for also being such a great role model for body positivity. Despite some of the negative attention she has received over her performance, she has voiced that she is completely comfortable in her own skin and encourages others to be as well. In my eyes, she is a true role model for everyone.