Sad truth behind gross comments Amanda Anisimova has to deal with

I don’t want to alarm anyone but I think we’ve forgotten what women’s bodies are meant to look like and I have proof.

OPINION

I don’t want to alarm anyone but I think we’ve forgotten what women’s bodies are meant to look like.

Everyone needs to take a deep breath, perhaps have a $10 glass of wine, and gain some perspective.

We need to stop commenting on women’s bodies. If you have a thought about a body that isn’t yours, it is best to keep it yourself.

Amanda Anisimova, 23, who is currently in Melbourne for the Australian Open, has recently returned to the sport after taking an eighth-month mental health break.

She’s in Melbourne right now for the Aussie open. Picture: Emmanuel Wong/Getty Images

She took an eight month break from Tennis. Picture: Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

Her time away from the sport came after she was being body-shamed online. Yes, a female athlete at the top of her game, who is currently ranked No. 35 in the world, was being trolled online because of her body.

The very body that she has used and honed to make her an absolute superstar player is also the one people online think they have the right to call not good enough. It is actually maddening.

In May last year, someone who isn’t a professional athlete dared to comment on her Instagram that she had the “most unathletic body ever” and then proceeded to critique her body in detail.

The troll wrote that she had “narrow shoulders and giant boobs”, which objectively aren’t bad things, but those traits were spewed at her online like they were.

The tennis player replied, “Thank you,” and then shared a screenshot of the exchange on her profile with additional commentary.

“The amount of people who comment on my body every day on social media … will never understand what the hyper fixation is about,” she wrote.

She’s previously said she doesn’t understand why people comment on her body. Picture: Instagram/amandaanisimova

She’s a hugely talented player. Picture: Instagram/amandaanisimova

At what point are we just going to leave women alone? In the last few years, there’s been a concerning rise of famous women shrinking in droves, which seems to have warped our minds.

It is this weird catch-22 where it doesn’t feel right to comment on women’s bodies, whether they’re getting smaller or bigger, but when everyone’s shrinking, it impacts the culture.

Suddenly, we all start assuming that if a woman doesn’t look like Kate Moss in the nineties, there’s something wrong with her.

Sure, we could chalk this up to trolls being trolls, and there is a sad truth that if you’re a woman in the public eye, no matter what size you are, someone will find something mean to say about you.

There’s been a body image culture shift. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

There’s also just a cultural shift, though, where women being skin and bones has become the goal again, and if you’re not that well, you’re going to be told there’s something wrong with your body.

If you’re famous, that’ll probably be online by some gross anonymous person, and if you’re a normal lady living her life you’re told indirectly by the fact famous bodies similar to yours are criticised until they start shrinking, and then suddenly they’re celebrated.

It is a grim state for women, but we have to get a grip at some point.

The world has actually gone mad if we’re telling a woman her boobs are too big so she must not be a very good athlete.