Florence Pugh took aim at the men who criticized her body, and specifically the size of her breasts, after she was photographed wearing a sheer dress at the Valentino Haute Couture show Friday.
“Listen, I knew when I wore that incredible Valentino dress that there was no way there wouldn’t be a commentary on it. Whether it be negative or positive, we all knew what we were doing,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “I was excited to wear it, not a wink of me was nervous. I wasn’t before, during or even now after.”
Pugh explained that she’s deeply comfortable with her body, and that online criticism from random men won’t change that.
“What’s been interesting to watch and witness is just how easy it is for men to totally destroy a woman’s body, publicly, proudly, for everyone to see,” she continued. “You even do it with your job titles and work emails in your bio..?” Pugh acknowledged that women being subjected to sexist remarks isn’t something new, but she admittedly found it worrying “how vulgar some of you men can be.”
“Thankfully, I’ve come to terms with the intricacies of my body that make me, me,” the Academy Award nominee explained. “I’m happy with all of the ‘flaws’ that I couldn’t bear to look at when I was 14.”
“So many of you wanted to aggressively let me know how disappointed you were by my ‘tiny tits’, or how I should be embarrassed by being so ‘flat chested.’ I’ve lived in my body for a long time,” Pugh wrote. “I’m fully aware of my breast size and am not scared of it.”
Pugh said she was appreciative of her upbringing, which included a “household with very strong, powerful, curvy women” who raised her to “find power in the creases of our body,” and “be loud about being comfortable.”
Pugh concluded her message with a few words of advice, writing, “Grow up. Respect people. Respect bodies. Respect all women. Respect humans. Life will get a whole lot easier, I promise.”
Read her entire statement below.