5 Times Emily Ratajkowski Flawlessly Shut Down Sex Shaming

We live in a world where shaming women for their sexuality has become far too common. Whether you call it slut shaming or sex shaming, the fact is that, no matter how women choose to take up space in this society, we're judged for it and judged harshly. We're either too this or not enough that, and every time a woman is sex shamed, it sets in motion the ideology that such statements are okay when nothing could be further from the truth.

"Sexual shaming is defined as 'the stigmatization of an individual based on his or her appearance, sexual availability, and actual or perceived sexual behavior and is primarily aimed at women and girls,'" therapist Dr. Rebekah Shallcross told Glamour UK. "In a patriarchal society it is used with the aim of controlling women and girls to follow cultural norms of purity and virginity which are upheld as pillars of femineity. It means that women are not free to be their full selves, including their sexual selves." And when we dare to embrace our sexuality, we face a backlash. This is especially the case for those in the public eye.

While many women have spoken out against sex shaming, Emily Ratajkowski has all but made a name for herself in shutting down the patriarchy every chance she gets. She's not only spoken up about her own sexual shaming but has come to the defense of others who have experienced it — and has done so without skipping a beat.

Even before Trump won the presidential race in November 2016, his wife, Melania, had been dragged through the media for the life she had previous to her marriage. As a former model, she had posed for photos that had the media coming for her, and the Daily Mail went so far as to accuse her of being an escort. This claim pushed Melania to file a $150 million lawsuit against the publishers of the Daily Mail. But, of course, that didn't put an end to what people had to say about Melania and her sexuality.

Shortly after Trump's inauguration — enter a joke about the crowd size here — Ratajkowski was at an event where a journalist from the New York Times had a few choice words for the then-First Lady. "Sat next to a journalist from the NYT last night who told me 'Melania is a hooker.' Whatever your politics, it's crucial to call this out for what it is: slut shaming. I don't care about her nudes or sexual history and no one should," Ratajkowski tweeted in 2017.

She was immediately commended for coming to Melania's defense and the journalist, Jacob Bernstein, took to X to tweet an apology. Melania, too, got on X, tweeting, "Applause to all women around the world who speak up, stand up and support other women!" Although, it's worth noting that all the times her husband sex- and slut-shamed women, Melania stayed mum.

Like some people, Ratajkowski developed breasts fairly early and was a D-cup by the time she was 12 years old. As anyone with large breasts will tell you, going through life with big boobs is hard enough as an adult, let alone when you're just a kid. It is literally impossible to avoid not just the male gaze, but prying, full-on ogling, especially when warmer months roll around and it's sundress season.

In 2017, Ratajkowski wrote a piece entitled, "Baby Woman" for Lena Dunham's now-defunct Lenny Letter. In it, Ratajkowski candidly shared what it was like to come of age with breasts of such a size, especially in the modeling business, and the impact it had on her. While the entire essay was equally beautiful and heartbreaking, there were two lines that stood out regarding what Ratajkowski won't tolerate. "I refuse to live in this world of shame and silent apologies," she wrote. "Life cannot be dictated by the perceptions of others, and I wish the world had made it clear to me that people's reactions to my sexuality were not my problems, they were theirs." Hear, hear, Emrata!

As we've seen time and time again, some people just can't handle it when their favorite — or any — celebrity speaks out about important subjects, especially politics. It seems that people tend to forget that, at the end of the day, celebrities are just like everyone else and have opinions to which they are entitled. In 2016, Ratajkowski wrote about the backlash she received when campaigning for Bernie Sanders in Glamour. "Commenters said I had 'an excess of beauty and lack of brain' and told me to 'shut up and show us your tits,'" Ratajkowski wrote.

After sharing what she endured from online trolls, her essay took a turn when she shut them down in a far more eloquent fashion than any of them could muster with their insults. "Often it's men propelling these acts of sexism, but women discount one another too: Think about how many times you've heard a woman say about another woman, 'Oh, she's just doing that for attention.' We've internalized this trope," Ratajkowski wrote. "Our society tells women we can't be, say, sexy and confident and opinionated about politics. This would allow us too much power. Instead, our society asks us to declare and defend our motivations, which makes us second-guess them, all while men do what they please without question."

It seems that no matter where Kim Kardashian goes or what she does, she gets some sort of backlash. Granted, sometimes it's warranted, like her association with Balenciaga after the fashion house seemingly made the horrible decision to capitalize on the sexualization of children in an ad campaign in 2022, but other times we just need to give the woman a break. In 2016, Kardashian posted a nude photo on her Instagram with the caption, "When you're like I have nothing to wear LOL." While it may have been in poor taste from the perspective that this woman will never not have something to wear thanks to her bank account, it was the slut-shaming that was layered on thick and harsh.

Again, Ratajkowski wasn't going to stay quiet and, instead, spoke up for Kardashian tweeting, "We are more than just our bodies, but that doesn't mean we have to be shamed for them or our sexuality. Even if being sexualized by society's gaze is demeaning, there must be a space where women can still be sexual when they choose to be. Why demonize female sexuality if only to keep us in the dark about the power and beauty of our bodies?" The two even posted a topless photo together giving the middle finger with the caption, "When we're like ... we both have nothing to wear LOL."

In 2017, after being called a "global bimbo" by misogynist and all-around bad guy Piers Morgan because of a photoshoot, Ratajkowsk took her response to X. "Lol never said my love video was a feminist statement," she tweeted. "But now it's worth saying that telling women what to do with their bodies & sexuality is actually just classic sexism. I can have opinions about feminism & also do sexy photo shoots k thanks."

But that wasn't the first time Morgan exchanged words with Ratajkowski. In 2016, Morgan offered to buy her clothes after a photo spread of her as Lady Godiva was published in Harper's Bazaar. Ratajkowski took to X and tweeted, "thanks, but I don't need clothes as much as you need press." The photoshoot was accompanied by an interview between Ratajkowski and author Naomi Wolf, in which the two discussed everything feminist-related, and the sexuality and shame Ratajkowski has received because of her body and her career. "It's not right. Sex is normal. Desire is normal. Attention is normal, and that's okay," she told Wolf. "That's really what slut shaming is, right? You talk about this in your book 'Promiscuities.' A woman talks about having sex, and it's like, well, a guy got to have sex with you, so you're stupid. You've given something up." In other words, even before the photos were published, Emrata had already shut down Morgan and his like-minded cronies.