Anastasia Garcia had seen enough. The memes were “fucking toxic.”
Despite the fact that the fashion photographer has made it her mission to reclaim the stigma around fatness, the jokes about gaining weight—also known as the “quarantine 15”—weren’t just impossible to ignore, they stung. “If I’m being honest, I felt triggered,” says Garcia, whose body-positive work has appeared in campaigns for Chromat and editorials for Glamour, among others. (The stunning imagery for our first-ever Plus Size Fashion Awards? That’s all her.) “At first, seeing that stuff took me right back to where I was 10 years ago, when getting any fatter was the scariest thing that could happen to me. I became hyper aware of my body,” she says.
It’s a feeling she’s been open and honest about throughout her years of advocating for fat women—a dedication fueled by own her struggles with fatphobia and a weight-loss surgery that left her unhappy and in pain. As she puts it, it took cutting herself open not once but twice—during her lap-band-reversal procedure—for her to realize it wasn’t her weight that was making her miserable, it was society’s perception of it.
“If these memes triggered me after all the work I’ve done to promote self-acceptance, I wondered how it was affecting women around me,” she says. “I was so disappointed that despite all the body-positive progress we’ve made, fat people were still the butt of the joke.”
So she decided to do something about it by addressing the fear of “getting fat” head-on. She stripped down into her black Calvin Klein undies set and snapped a selfie. #MyQuarantineBody was born.
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“This is #MyQuarantineBody. It’s definitely not as strong as it was a month ago—when I was in the gym every week—AND THATS OK!” she wrote along with her photo on Instagram. “This body is my home. It’s keeping me safe and healthy during times of crisis. And now more than ever I am so thankful that I am healthy…when so many are losing their lives. I’ve been really disappointed seeing blatant body shaming and weight gain stigma around being quarantined. It feels tone deaf, short sighted and incredibly privileged. We are all quite literally in survival mode. So it’s okay if you’re not feeling your fittest, or if you’re eating differently (as many of us are due to grocery store availability). Life right now is not business as usual and no amount of body stigma and fat shame is going to change that.”
Her post went on to encourage others to share photos of themselves in quarantine—weight gain, weight loss, or not.
“I wanted bring light to the situation but not in a way that would create more anger, stress, and anxiety. I think there’s enough of that right now,” Garcia tells Glamour. “Instead, I wanted to create something where women could take back pride in their bodies and have honest conversations about how they’re feeling and how quarantine is impacting them.”
I’m sure you know where this is going. The posts from women across the country began pouring in, their photos reflecting bodies of all shapes and sizes; thighs with various states of dimpling, bellies both soft and flat, and also some seriously chic bra and underwear sets. But where they differed in stature, the message behind their captions was the same: If you’re able to post a photo of yourself in quarantine, it means you’re safe from the virus. And that’s something worth celebrating.
“Before Anastasia created her post and hashtag, I was being inundated with so many memes that had captions like, ’me when I leave the quarantine’—which showed before photos of thin people and after photos of people who looked like me,” says Rosey Blair, 31, a plus-size style influencer who is currently self-isolating in Dallas (pictured in the beige bra and jeans, above, at center). “I ignored it. I’m used to people taking easy route jokes on fat bodies.”
Blair says she felt disappointed until she came across photos promoting #MyQuarantineBody, which encouraged her to speak up. “A lot of women feel daily pressure and uncertainty about their bodies on a normal basis, and currently we’re taking precautions to protect ourselves,” she says. “I was so hurt that we all felt so much pressure to maintain an ideal figure—whatever that is—during a really frightening time. I want to show people that their current fear is my daily reality. And that I lead a life that’s still special and full of love and beauty. If Anastasia hadn’t created the hashtag I might not have entered into the conversation.”
For Ashley McIntyre, 29, a stylist and copywriter in Durham, North Carolina (pictured, above, in the matching brown bra and underwear), the stories people were sharing helped her feel less alone. “Anastasia’s post put into words a feeling I’ve had a hard time articulating. I felt seen and validated. Fatness is not a moral failing,” she says. “#MyQuarantineBody was so important to me because my journey to self-love has been incredibly hard, and I wanted to celebrate how far I’ve come. I love my body for what it is and what it does. Right now it’s helping me survive a stressful world, where there’s an unprecedented pandemic and very little certainty. It was a great reminder to give myself some grace to adapt.”
Indeed it was, and it remains to be, despite the fact that only a handful of top posts for the hashtag can be seen now. It got enough attention for Instagram to block recent uploads—supposedly because some tagged photos don’t meet community guidelines, but as most body-positive advocates will tell you, trolls love to report photos of fat women. (#MyQuarantineBrain and #MyQuarantineBae both surface in search before it, even though both have been tagged less than Garcia’s creation.)
Even still, Garcia is grateful for the small change it has made on her outlook and for the many others who have reached out to her. Accessible to the masses now or not, if there’s one thing she hopes #MyQuarantineBody underlines, it’s this: “Your happiness and worth has never been defined by the size and shape of your body. Loving your body is a choice you make, and it’s not up to anyone else to validate or tell you that you’re beautiful enough. It’s up to you. You hold that power, and when you make that choice, nobody can change it.”
Lindsay Schallon is the senior beauty editor at Glamour. Follow her on Instagram @lindsayschallon.
A few short months ago, our world was irrevocably changed. But one constant that’s remained as we’ve navigated our new normal are the everyday heroes who continue to inspire hope. All year long we’ll be celebrating the women who are stepping up and doing good—the Glamour Game Changers. Up first: 10 women who are redefining what self-care means in 2020, whether that’s organizing to donate thousands of personal-care products to the front lines or helping to keep others, stuck at home, sane.
