Modern Family actress Ariel Winter drew ire earlier this month for wearing a short, sheer dress at the series' season premiere.
The 19-year-old best known for playing Alex Dunphy on the sitcom was bombarded with negative commentary about her appearance, with Instagram comments ranging from "tacky", "insecure", a "show-off" and that old reliable "slutty", when the original post went up – and those are just the repeatable comments.
![The cast of Modern Family attend the premiere event.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170609051619im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/k/y/r/2/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwk922.png/1496740820495.jpg)
Page Six sneered: Ariel Winter Didn't Get the Dress Code Memo, calling her "very out of place".
Winter responded to the critics on social media, asking "Why can't people just let other people feel good about themselves and what they wear?"
This isn't the first time Winter has been shamed for daring to dress in a way most young women do on nights out. As a matter of fact, the actress has been defending herself time and again against abuse online for the past two years.
It seems every time she is photographed wearing anything that does not cover her entire body she's shamed for it. In November 2015 she had to explain to Instagram commenters that she was not "asking for it" because she wore a bikini on a beach.
That's right, in 2015 an actress has to educate people on such rudimentary topics as victim blaming.
Last July she was criticised for wearing a short, pink dress, with one male commenter telling her she looked like a pig.
![Ariel Winter.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170609051619im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/k/y/q/z/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gwk922.png/1496740820495.jpg)
On Thursday she was shamed again for her choice of bikini on a beach on US Memorial Day, with one headline warning "Ariel's beach antics … will make you feel uncomfortable".
Apparently, posting video of yourself in a bikini, goofing around with your boyfriend, is "inappropriate" considering the holiday is about honouring those who have died in war. What's interesting is that the beach is exactly where most Americans go on Memorial Day, often, in swimwear.
The other point to remember is that most young women, (famous or otherwise) enjoy posting photos of themselves and their loved ones on holidays. Remember how, for a few years back there, Taylor Swift seemed to have co-opted July 4 into her own private friendship party? Complete with bikinis and wet T-shirts and beach scenes?
But Swift is not shamed the way Winter is, and the reason has to do with body type. Winter, who has already had breast reduction surgery, is, according to critics, not allowed to wear anything that would draw attention to the upper quadrant of her body.
As Winter herself told Refinery29 earlier this week, "… my best friend, she's super tall and skinny and she'll wear the same bathing suit as me, but people will automatically look at me and call me out as a slut or write headlines about 'Ariel Winter's cleavage'."
It's not just about cleavage, though. Winter has a body that's within the realm of normal. She's not overly tall, and she's not skeletal. Because of this, when she's looked at, it's with different expectations.
If we, as a society, see a woman wearing very little, with a body that resembles that of a model, we might consider it racy, but we are conditioned to accept that women with that body type can wear what they like. In other words, objectifying a woman who looks a certain way has become normalised. It's the visual equivalent of white noise.
Look at Kylie Jenner, who is the same age as Winter. Jenner may be criticised for altering her appearance, but nobody is calling her a pig. Look at model Emily Ratajkowsi, who posed nude on the cover of a magazine called Treats when she was 19. That cover led to her being cast in the music video for Blurred Lines, which catapulted her acting career.
What about Kate Moss, who at just 15, was photographed topless on a beach for Calvin Klein? Certainly, at the time, the shoot was considered controversial, but the fashion elite viewed it as revolutionary and the advertisement is now considered iconic.
But Winter, who started out on our TV screens as an 11-year-old, can not be so easily objectified. Part of it is context – on Modern Family, she plays a bookish wallflower, so to see her in different outfits creates a contrast.
But the bulk of the reason is that we are so conditioned to seeing the "model body" – (a washboard stomach, thigh gap, high, spherical breasts, narrow hips) – in a bikini, that when we see a normal woman with breasts that move, a rounded tummy, and flesh on her thighs, people find it obscene. It's "too much" and should be put away.
Winter's normal, curvy body renders her human and means that she can not be seen as merely ornamental. When we look at her we see our daughters, our sisters, and ourselves. And perhaps those of us who hate what we look like in a bikini or a short skirt are going to get angrier than anyone else.
It is not a question of showing too much flesh, then, but rather the type of flesh that is being shown. Commenters may scream abuse about "sluttiness" but what they are really offended by is reality.
But considering that Winter is now an unofficial spokeswoman for body positivity and has over 3 million followers on Instagram, it's unlikely she'll lose sleep over it.
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