How Olympian Shawn Johnson Is Fighting Back Against Body Shaming

"I was not the stereotypical gymnast body that everybody seemed to think was perfection."

shawn johnson
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Former Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson knows what it's like (and how much it sucks) to be judged solely on her looks. That's why she's teamed up with Dove for a powerful new campaign called #MyBeautyMySay, which sheds light on how female athletes are often unfairly criticized about their appearances by the media.

"It was always frustrating for me, because in my career, I was not the stereotypical gymnast body that everybody seemed to think was perfection," said Shawn at a press event for #MyBeautyMySay this morning. "I was always compared to Nastia Lukin, my teammate, who was six inches taller, long and lean, and flexible, and I was what [the] media would describe as bulky, stocky, powerful, too big, too short, too fat."

Shawn said that this really affected her when she was younger. "Being in a subjective sport, I thought if I looked the part that everybody wanted, then I would do better," she said. "So I remember sacrificing probably how I should've been training and eating and sleeping and resting, and focusing on my appearance more than my actual performance."

Eight years later, she doesn't take comments personally anymore, but she's still annoyed by them. That's because as a coach and mentor to younger girls, she said she fears how viscious the media can be. "We need to change it for them because they're on the path to have it worse," she said. 

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Dove created a billboard (which they unveiled today in Times Square in New York City) and video for the campaign. In the video, images of women are slowly blurred as real sexist comments made by various media outlets about female athletes are displayed. Watch it below:



TMZ referred to three-time track and field Olympian Lolo Jones's "quality ass" in May, and a female reporter at the Toronto Star said tennis player Dominika Cibulkova was "built like a fire hydrant" during this year's Wimbledon. Ugh. 

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We love that Dove is starting an honest conversation about this, and hopefully, it'll lead to real change. With the 2016 Summer Olympics around the corner, it'd be great to see women praised for their awesome athletic feats and not criticized for their looks. 

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