Miranda Lambert’s Response to Online Bullies Will Absolutely Break Your Heart
With Dani Mathers facing up to six months in prison as a direct result of body-shaming, our interactions with others, social or otherwise, have been on our minds lately. Apparently, it’s been on Miranda Lambert’s mind too, as the country crooner recently took to Instagram to get that very topic off her chest.
After attending Wednesday night’s Country Music Awards (did you SEE that Bey and Dixie Chicks performance?), Miranda posted a picture of herself and her man, Anderson East, all dolled up on the red carpet.
“I had a great time last night celebrating country music at the CMA Awards with my sweetheart by my side! @andersoneast I’m a lucky girl!” she wrote.
So freakin’ cute, right?
The post had 2,292 comments as of print time, and while most of them appear to be largely positive now (no doubt thanks to Miranda’s next move), the public’s initial reaction was… less than awesome. With many sounding off with their not-so-nice opinions on everything from Anderson’s appearance (“He looks like a teenager,” one wrote, as others compared him to Blake, saying “Sorry you don’t look happy and he’s no Blake Shelton,”) to the couple’s body language, the photo was all but ripped apart by those who claim to be her fans. “Love your music,” another began. “But the body language between you two does not really reflect that you’re in love…your heads are leaning away from each other and neither of you are really smiling.”
Others still meanly speculated about her motivations for dating Anderson. “You’re just trying to make Blake jealous! Gwen and Blake hooked up after,” said one, as another all but called her a man-eater. “Not cool that she leads on another man when she’s still heartbroken over Blake. Not fair to the new guy. You would think she would at least pretend.”
Ouch! Way harsh, Tai, no? If you’re thinking, ‘who cares, I doubt she even noticed,’ however, you’d be wrong. Miranda DID notice, and she wasn’t too impressed. In fact, it made her pretty sad.
Posting a follow-up photo of herself riding into the sunset on a horse, she shared the following with her readers. “Every now and then I decide to re-join the world of social media and post something really personal,” she began. “Not promoting anyone or anything. Not selling a better version of myself to anyone or trying to look cool like we do all the time. Just a picture that either I or someone I know and care about took the time to take and see the beauty in. This is one of those moments that I’m proud of. My friend Tommy snapped it on a trail ride on his phone at golden hour on the farm in TN. What a blessing. I’m wearing yoga pants and no makeup, and I’m on the back of my beloved Leilani. A gypsy vanner horse. But…last night I was all dolled up and out on the town with my sweet man at the CMA Awards in Nashville. I was excited about the night and posted a picture. Just now when I looked I realized so many comments were judgmental and negative. Cowardly people hiding behind a keyboard or a cell phone writing their useless comments about our eyes and our clothes and body language. What a bunch of bullsh*t. Thank y’all for reminding me why I read books, write songs and spend most of my time with animals and people I trust and love. And one last thing…’Words are things. You must be careful, careful about calling people out of their names, using racial pejoratives and sexual pejoratives and all that ignorance. Don’t do that. Someday we’ll be able to measure the power of words. I think they are things. They get on the walls. They get in your wallpaper. They get in your rugs, in your upholstery, in your clothes and finally into you.’ — Maya Angelou.”
WOW. Our hearts just broke a little bit (okay, a LOT), not only for Miranda, but for ourselves as a society. Why do we think that cyberbullying is ever ok? It just goes to show that no matter how far removed from the subject one may seem, they could be reading at any given moment. Our words to each other MATTER, especially when they’re full of hate.
Luckily, Miranda’s second post has been all but taken over by much kinder fans, leaving a sea of overwhelmingly positive comments behind in their wake, many of which are powerful enough to lift up even the heaviest of hearts. Hopefully, she’s still reading.
We love you, girl.
How do you handle negative social media comments? Tell us over @BritandCo.
(Photos via Rick Diamond + Michael Loccisano/Getty)
