Former Miss Universe Alicia Machado Claps Back at Body-Shaming Trolls
Can we give this former beauty queen another crown, please?
It appears Donald Trump isn’t the only person body-shaming former Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado. The actor, singer, and TV host also has an army of trolls to deal with online. But don’t worry—she knows how to deal with them.
Rude commenters came after Machado on Instagram a few days ago, after she posted a photo of herself at the Premios Tu Mundo award show. Amid positive comments like “hermosa como siempre” (“beautiful as always”) and “siempre sera para mi una miss universo” (“you’ll always be Miss Universe to me”), there were messages like “the extra pounds are noticeable” and “you’re overweight in my opinion”—as if anyone asked.
But not only is Machado perfectly happy with her weight—she’s actually looking to put on more pounds, she told the commenters.
“Yes, and I still have another five pounds more to gain to appear even fatter for the next character that I will be playing,” she wrote.
Machado is a seasoned expert at dealing with haters by now. She entered the national spotlight last fall, when then-candidate Hillary Clinton called out Trump for body-shaming her. Trump owned the Miss Universe pageant in 1996, the year Machado won, and he said some horrible things about her afterward, claiming she’d gained 40 pounds and pressuring her to lose them. He even went to a hotel gym in New York with reporters from 90 media outlets to watch her work out. Machado said in a Clinton campaign video that he called her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping,” ostensibly referencing her Venezuelan heritage.
Fortunately, it looks like Machado hasn’t let anyone’s body-shaming—not any Instagram troll’s, and definitely not Trump’s—stop her from looking the way she wants.