Overview

#WeWearWhatWeWant is a popular Twitter hashtag used by plus-sized women to post selfies and promote body positivity.

Background

On July 23rd, 2016, Los Angeles-based plus-sized model and blogger Simone Mariposa posted a series of tweets slamming the practice of fashion policing against plus-sized women after reading fellow Twitter user @thesoulasylum's firsthand account^[1] of being bodyshamed for wearing ill-fitting clothes. Inspired by one of her followers' suggestion, Mariposa then posted a call to action via her Instagram^[2] and Twitter^[3] accounts imploring plus-sized women to show off themselves in their favorite clothes using the hashtag #WeWearWhatWeWant.

Fatkini

The trend can be seen as a successor to the #Fatkini trend from 2012, a Twitter photo fad that found women taking pictures of themselves in plus-sized two piece bikinis to promote fat acceptance acceptance.

Developments

In the following week, the body positive campaign took off as women began using the hashtag to post selfies, many of which were retweeted by Mariposa. Three days later, Buzzfeed^[4] picked up on the trending hashtag and interviewed Mariposa. In the following days, the story was subsequently covered by outlets like Cosmopolitan,^[5] Essence,^[6] People,^[7] and more. As of July 29th, 2016, there are over 1,500 selfies associated with the hashtag on Instagram.^[8]

Search Interest

External References