Maria Thattil hits back at bikini troll

After receiving a comment telling her to put some clothes on and do some work, Maria Thattil pens a scathing column for Stellar addressing the imbalance women still face in 2023.

A pandemic and a crazy career growth trajectory in 2020 after becoming Miss Universe Australia has meant I haven’t been able to take any time off for three-and-a-half years.

No breaks at all. I’m sure many of you can relate because the last few years have been... unusual.

But a month ago, I ventured to Bali with loved ones to celebrate my 30th birthday.

My Instagram account is home to a lot of my work, including columns, campaigns and TV segments where I comment on social and political issues and my advocacies.

But in Bali, it was a holiday album to share one of the most wholesome experiences of my life.

However, one day I saw a comment on a post where a man remarked he was tired of “the bikini content”, critiquing me for “acting like an intellectual but actively showing my body”.

He asked where the videos of me doing advocacy work were, before asking to see a video of me “feeding the homeless... or something”.

Naturally, I blocked him. I won’t bite the bait with a bigot, but if sharing this here will inspire another to not internalise sexist and harmful rhetoric, I’ll sure as hell use him to do it.

His comment reflected objectification, error and entitlement; objectification of my body and a proclivity to tell me how to present it, an erroneous assumption that intelligence and confidence in one’s body are mutually exclusive, and an entitlement to me that required me to prove my “productivity”, just because I live life publicly.

Let’s unpack. We need to challenge the ingrained cultural attitude we have towards women that our worth is external to ourselves.

Maria Thattil: ‘My body is not a passive item to possess, and if I choose to show it off, I will.’ Picture: @mariathattil on Instagram

We need to really think about how our bodies – which are profited off and exploited – get critiqued and devalued when we reclaim their agency. If I wear a tiny bikini in the sweltering tropics, that’s OK.

Hell, it’s OK irrespective of the weather or location. Contrary to the male gaze, my body is not a passive item to possess, and if I choose to show it off, I will. Key concept? Choice.

Someone else’s inability to see my body as nothing more than a prop has nothing to do with my capabilities or worth.

News flash: my IQ doesn’t drop with every item of clothing I shed. We live in a voyeuristic society that breeds productivity guilt.

As a woman with a public platform, I choose not to succumb to pressure to justify a holiday.

As it is, women bear the brunt of unpaid domestic labour and do more behind the scenes than most can fathom. And as a public figure, people see a sliver of my life online.

Maria Thattil’s latest column appears in this Sunday’s Stellar. Picture: Simon Upton for Stellar.

I don’t owe anyone a resumé. So, to women everywhere: wear whatever you like, whenever you like. None of it has any bearing on your substance, worth or value – and you don’t have to “prove” your intellect.

Your body is yours to enjoy with agency. You don’t have to submit proof to be deemed worthy of rest. I know I don’t owe anyone labour. And neither do you.

If the man behind the comment is reading this: if you want to see a video of “someone feeding the homeless”, why not record it yourself? While you’re at it, best you unfollow me.

There will probably be bikini throwback pics coming in hot.

Maria Thattil was Miss Universe Australia 2020 and is a TV presenter and author.