Plus-size activist responds to Instagram trolls who say she doesn’t ‘deserve’ her boyfriend

'Our relationship is political'

(Instagram: yourstruelymelly

A plus-size blogger has hit back at Instagram trolls who condemned her relationship.

Melissa Gibson, from Louisville, Kentucky, has amassed an impressive following on social media where, as a body-positive activist, she regularly shares empowering photos in an effort to encourage women to love their bodies.

But, after posting an image on Instagram of herself and her boyfriend, Johnathan, as they celebrated New Year’s Eve, the blogger was confronted with a flood of judgemental comments.

While the photo prompted warm praise from many of Gibson’s followers, she was unable to ignore the flood of hurtful remarks from Internet trolls.

The comments ranged from people saying she doesn’t deserve her boyfriend because he’s thinner than she is to others insisting that he must have some sort of fetish to want to be with her.

“I think people feel entitled because there is a sense that attraction is tied only to bodies that fit within a certain mould, one that my body does not fit into, but my partner's does,” she told Café Mom.

“What they are doing is not only defining a person's worth by their body, but also then buying into ideas about who deserves to be loved and by whom.”

Two days later, Gibson posted another image from the same night and proceeded to caption it with a message for anyone who felt they had the right to judge hers or other people’s love.

“If the world won’t just let us be, we will keep fighting for our love, for our space, for our right to be seen, accepted without question, and celebrated,” she wrote.

“In all honesty it’s silly to think it bothers people so much, but when privileged people base their value on attraction and relationships, it results in the plethora of relationships that look like mine being erased and delegitimized.

“So while you insist on yelling your insecurities and bigotry at me, realise I’m not playing the game you play any longer.

“2018 is the year for Love that is not defined by weight, age, ability, genitals, gender, sexuality. Not defined by race or ethnicity or religion.”