Ilona Maher’s Body-Positive Message Following Critique Is One You Need to Hear Today

The Olympic rugby athlete didn’t allow a troll’s comment on a recent Instagram post to go unnoticed.

Ilona Maher / UNIQUE NICOLE/Getty Images

Ilona Maher never lets the trolls get her down, and that’s just one of the countless reasons why we adore the Olympic rugby player.

When someone rudely took to the comments section of one of her recent Instagram posts to declare that she “looks pregnant” in a dress she wore to a red carpet event, Maher quickly clapped back.

“A guy recently commented on a picture of me and said ‘you look pregnant in that dress,’” Maher stated in her Jan. 11 Instagram reel. “ ... So to him, I say that’s just a normal woman’s body. You probably haven’t seen a woman naked in a long time, if ever, and I hope you never get the privilege to again, because that’s just how we are, O.K.? That’s just what we’re working with. Me, professional athlete, I always have this, O.K., it’s just part of me. I’m sucking it in right now and I have it, so please, please stop commenting the dumbest stuff.”

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The 29-year-old Vermont native then signed off by blowing a kiss to the camera. Maher’s body-positive messaging was incredibly well-received by her 5.4 million followers, many of whom chimed into the comments section.

“Can you believe we have organs!?” one fan quipped.

“God forbid we have a uterus,” someone else concurred.

“Where else does he want our organs to go? In our purses?” another user joked.

“More like ‘you look like an Olympic medalist in that dress!’” one person cheered.

Meanwhile, others piped in to note that while the troll attempted to imply something negative with his comment, “looking pregnant” is actually far from an insult.

“I dunno. Whenever my friends have been pregnant, I’ve always thought they were the most beautiful creatures I’d ever seen. Sooo from now on we’re taking that as a compliment,” someone stated.

“I’ve always found it incredibly sad that looking pregnant is meant as an insult too 😭😭,” another noted. “I look like i’m creating life? Ok doing WAY more than you then.”

The Instagram post that the troll’s comment originated from featured Maher on the red carpet alongside her sisters, Olivia and Adrianna, at an event hosted by The Hollywood Reporter in Los Angeles on Jan. 8.

“You’ve no idea how healing it is to see gorgeous real bodies and gorgeous women like you three in the media 🙌❤️,” one person wrote in the comments section of the post.

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