“I am so proud of my body”

Warning: The following story contains discussions about eating disorders.

Kesha has a simple message for anyone who has something to say about their body: Go ahead and hate it, it only makes it stronger. The singer, who has been open about her body image issues and recovery from an eating disorder, appeared to respond to some unkind comments about her body in a snarky Instagram post on Sunday (July 7).

“I didn’t think people would still be body shaming in 2024 but I’m so proud of my body. She’s been through a lot. She tore her ACL on stage and finished the show. She held my damn broken heart together,” Kesha, 37, wrote in the post, which also showed a photo of the singer lying on the beach in a black string bikini and showing it off on a balcony, wearing a black baseball cap and a white bathrobe.

“To those who think you’re humiliating me, you’re actually making me feel very powerful. So to you, I hope one day you feel complete enough to stop tearing other women down. And in the meantime, hate me even more bitch :),” she added, adding a muscle emoji.

In 2017, Kesha posted about her struggle with eating disorders, writing, “I had a life-threatening eating disorder and was very afraid to confront it. I was getting sicker and sicker and the whole world was constantly telling me how much better I looked, so I realized I wanted to be part of the solution.” Additionally, Kesha spoke about her past struggles with self-image at the 2016 Billboard Women in Music event. “I decided to be confident about my ever-changing, completely imperfect body,” she said at the time.

Around the same time, Kesha commented in an essay in Teen Vogueand writes: “When I think about the kind of bullying I dealt with as a child and teenager, it seems almost old-fashioned compared to what happens today. The amount of body shaming and baseless slut shaming on the internet makes me sick. I know from personal experience how comments can destroy a person’s confidence and self-esteem. I have felt so unlovable after reading cruel words from strangers who know nothing about me.”

She added: “It became a vicious cycle: When I compared myself to others, I read more mean comments, which only increased my anxiety and depression. Paparazzi photos of me and the accompanying hateful comments fueled my eating disorder. The sick irony was that when I was at one of the lowest points in my life, I kept hearing how much better I looked. I knew I was destroying my body with my eating disorder, but the message I was getting was that I was fine.”

The singer, who released her new single “Joyride” last week, recently told Himself in 2023 that after entering an inpatient program to treat bulimia in 2014, she began working with therapists on a new routine to manage her fear of eating.

According to NEDAwareness Week organizers, approximately 30 million Americans will experience an eating disorder such as bulimia, binge eating, or anorexia at some point in their lives. For more information, visit nedawareness.org.

See Kesha’s post below.