Emily Ratajkowski has spoken out against comedian Celeste Barber mimicking her Instagram photos.
The forty-year-old Australian comic has amassed nearly ten million Instagram followers thanks to her hilarious reimaginings of glamorous celebrity pictures. However, Ratajkowski has taken issue with Barber’s posts, and has gone so far as to ask her to stop mimicking her photos.
Ratajkowski is a legend of the internet – ever since she appeared in the music video for Robin Thicke’s controversial track ‘Blurred Lines’, the model has been a mainstay of internet culture.
The London native then went on to completely dominate the modelling industry, and even branched out into acting, having starred in movies such as Entourage, I Feel Pretty and We Are Your Friends. She even starred in the Oscar-nominated flick Gone Girl, playing the role of Ben Affleck’s mistress.
A couple of years later, she reflected on the questionable music video that shot her to fame in a relatively positive light, claiming that the video is “actually celebrating women and their bodies.”
She further reflected: “I love that kind of conversation [that the video sparked] and I think it’s so important now. We see so many images of n**e women because of the Internet. I think it’s very important to make that distinction. I think the video is a great way to do that.”
Years later, however, Ratajkowski released a book titled My Body, where she reflected on her experience in the music video and revealed that she had been assaulted by Thicke on set.
“Suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt the coolness and foreignness of a stranger’s hands cupping my bare breasts from behind,” she wrote, via The Guardian.
“I instinctively moved away, looking back at Robin Thicke. He smiled a goofy grin and stumbled backward, his eyes concealed behind his sunglasses. My head turned to the darkness beyond the set.”
She went on to describe how she was “desperate to minimise” the incident, but added that it was the “first time that day” that she had felt “n*ked.”
Ratajkowski’s book was praised for its “uncomfortable honesty,” something that the model has rarely shied away from.
However, one thing Ratajkowski doesn’t appear to find joy in is her image being used for comic relief.
“I don’t think Emily is a fan. That’s OK, she’s allowed to not love it. But she blocked me,” Barber revealed while talking on the Nova radio station last year, via VT.
Since then, thirty-two-year-old Ratajkowski has opened up about her feelings on Barber’s content on her High Low Podcast, revealing that her view is a little more nuanced than it might seem at first glance.
She said: “This whole drama with Celeste has been blown out of proportion. In general, I find her to be really funny. But, [the] message I was trying to send to her was, ‘I just don’t want you to do this to me anymore.’”
Back in 2021, Barber satirized one of Ratajkowski’s swimwear photoshoots, with the caption: “We are sick of you objectifying our bodies! Also, here’s my a**.”
“This isn’t it,” Ratajkowski responded, with many agreeing that the post “misses the mark” and perpetuates “internalised misogyny” by mocking younger women who use social media to promote their work.
Ratajkowski made it clear recently that she has no personal resentment towards Barber, but agrees that the comedian’s style furthers misogyny that criticises women for freely exhibiting their bodies.
“We really love to pick on female influencers. Like they are considered the trash, lamest, most cringe, most embarrassing people on the planet,” Ratajkowski added.
