No matter how many times you say it, people still don't seem to get the message: blackface is not ok. It never has been ok, it never will be ok, and no amount of "but it was only for a bit of fun" excuses are going to change that fact. The topic comes up time and time again when talking about using black emojis, dressing up as black characters from film and TV, and - in extreme cases - in people who claim to be 'transracial'. Every single time, the answer is almost unanimous: blackness is not a costume, and treating it as such is incredibly disrespectful. So why are people still doing it? Just this week, a Russian makeup artist who uses the Instagram handle @notcatart has come under fire for posting a bizarre and controversial tutorial on how to do blackface. [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BX8FN2oD6ak/?taken-by=notcatart]] In the caption for the tutorial, @notcatart claims that his motives for darkening his skin using makeup come from a positive place. "I love skin of all colors and this look is inspired from it," he says. "We all are beautiful... And I wanna show you how it’s beautiful". Ok, so I could maybe see how the artist didn't consider that this would be taken in an offensive manner. He says he loves all skin colors, and I would have believed that. I could also kinda see how he (misguidedly) thought that this might help show other people that dark skin is beautiful - especially in Russia, where the vast majority of the population is white. But that all changed when he followed up the post with an outrageously racist comment directed at a 14-year-old girl. The teenager, who - unlike @notcatart - is actually black, and therefore more qualified to speak on racial issues than a white man, called out the artist for the disrespectful tutorial. In response, the Russian artist had this to say: So, here's a guy who says he "love[s] skin of all colors", but goes ahead and uses a racial slur against someone of a different skin color. This shows that he doesn't actually care at all about people of color - just the appearance of their skin. And that's the problem with blackface: it allows white people to dress up as another race and treat it like a costume, while simultaneously maintaining a position of power over people of color. The Instagram makeup artist has since deleted his offensive comments and disabled any further comments on the video altogether. He's also refusing to listen to people who are telling him that the tutorial is inappropriate, and instead posted another image of himself in blackface saying, "I will posted [sic] it again and again... love u guys". [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BcBF4MSDcwf/?taken-by=notcatart]] The original post is currently sitting at nearly 400,000 views, and has attracted over two and a half thousand comments - many of them critical. Despite this, the post is still up, and @notcatart is showing no remorse for the post or his hateful comments. Hopefully, the internet will come to its senses about blackface and other racial issues very soon - but we still have a long way to go.    

While we have graduated beyond having our heads shoved into lockers and getting our lunch money stolen, it's apparent that this new age of internet bullies work around the clock. But regardless of whether Twitter is your medium of choice, or if you prefer posting memes on Instagram, one thing is for sure: trolls will come flooding in as soon as you garner a following.

This is something that Talia Gargan knows too well. When she uploaded a bikini picture to her Snapchat, she attracted a troll who accused her of "catfishing" - that is, adopting a false persona online.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/taliagarganx/status/1014839990851915777]]

When Talia Garagn posted a bikini snap to her Snapchat, she received a message from a troll who accused her of "catfishing" the internet writ large. The body-shamer stated that Talia had a "bit of a belly", before going on to say that he was "glad you uploaded this btw, would’ve been annoying meeting wasting time to be catfished."

Naturally, Talia clapped back, and said that she "wasn't made to impress" the troll. She shared the entire interchange on Twitter, where everyone agreed that she looked absolutely flawless. 

"Sorry I’m not a size 6. I wasn’t made to impress you or all people, you ain’t nothing special – looks don’t mean sh8t when you’re a nasty pr*ck tryna put others down," she responded. "Now you’ve gone out of your way after I blocked you on Snap to comment on my body yet again, you must have an exciting life. Now p*ss off and carry on taking sh*t selfies of ya self. P.S. wouldn’t (have) met you anyway, ya t*sser."

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Talia is not the only woman in recent weeks to have her appearance attacked on social media. Body positivity activist Carmen Smith has endured cruel remarks and comments from strangers after developing lymphedema as a child - a condition which causes her legs, ankles and feet to swell.

But after years of attempting to hide her limbs, Smith has come to grips with her condition, and regularly poses in lingerie to encourage women to show of their "flaws" and be confident in their own skin.

Speaking to Barcroft TV, the Pasadena, California native asserted "Be what you wanna be, [don't be] stuck in this weird box society wants to keep us in."

"Our differences make us beautiful. I always tell my followers on Instagram to embrace their bodies at every step of our journey," she continued.

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Carmen was just three when her mother noticed that her extremities were uncharacteristically swollen. "My mum tells me I was about three when she noticed that something was going on. I was complaining a lot that my feet hurt," the 30-year-old revealed. "She took me to the doctor and they diagnosed me with lymphedema, stating that most likely I was born without some of my lymph nodes."

Lymphedema affects up to 10 million people in the United States and as Carmen explains, "Your lymph nodes and your lymphatic system are supposed to be moving fluids through your body". In her case, however, there was a blockage in her legs which explains the chronic "swelling and discomfort" that she started to experience.

Good on people like Talia and Carmen for standing up to the trolls of the internet!

Like fingerprints, skin tones or hair types, people's bodies come in every shape and size, and it's totally out of order to give people hate because their physique doesn't conform to some warped sense of body standards.

Body shaming, it goes without saying, isn't cool, and one Instagrammer took to the social media site to skewer the expectations behind different body types, and it's so refreshing once you hear what she's got to say.

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Meet Sarah Tripp, Instagram model, who wants to shine a light on the kinds of body shaming that occur on a worryingly frequent basis on the site. Posing next to a friend of hers who's a size zero, Tripp revealed that both herself and her friend are subjected to body shaming of different types.

"This is my friend @daniaustin. She’s a beautiful size 0 and one of my favorite ladies to follow here on IG,"  says Tripp in her Instagram post, introducing us all to Dani Austin, who's the size zero model seen in the photo, while explaining that because of her slim frame, she's subjected to online bullying.

"Because of her naturally thin figure she tells me she often sees comments like “she’s anorexic”, “looks like she needs to eat”, “look at those chicken legs”, etc. how sad is that?! one thing i know is that this beautiful woman is strong, healthy, and more importantly... much more than her body!"

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Awful, isn't it? Tripp continued to lavish praise on her friend, describing her as an amazing female entrepreneur, as well as "one of the most genuine bloggers I know".

"She and her husband @jordanjramirez have a wonderfully supportive relationship. she is so strong yet vulnerable, opening up freely about her faith, her trials, and her real life offline."

But while she made really good point about body shaming, Tripp was only getting started. The model revealed that she also got quite a bit of hate for her body type:

"I’ve been shamed this same way for years, but on the other end of the scale. Strangers online are constantly telling me I’m 'overweight', or 'unhealthy', or 'a terrible role model' because of my size. But I know better. Because I know this size 12 body of mine is curvy fit!"

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Sarah Tripp refutes this, right off the bat. "I know that these bootylicious curves makes me sexy, strong, and stylish!" Tripp said emphatically, showing off the depths of her confidence in her body and in herself, in the face of what I'm sure can be distressing criticism.

"I also know that my self-worth does not depend on the size of my jeans or what other people say about me," asserted Tripp, before reminding us all: "body shaming is never okay!"

"We should all speak kind words to each other online and in real life. Your words have power and meaning. And we could all benefit from spreading a little more love and positivity."

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While sadly, not everyone's going to heed Sarah Tripp's amazing advice, we should all do our best to watch our words while we're online, and appreciate all different kinds of bodies. Because they're all beautiful.

Despite huge steps being taken to make the world are more accepting and inclusive place for all, we're still living in a time where people are shunned for a variety of different reasons, whether it be their sexuality, their race or their body shape. Social media apps such as Instagram and Twitter have undoubtedly have had a huge part to play in this newly-found inclusivity, but they are also the breeding ground for trolls and body-shamers.

It would be fair to say that the last few years have seen the issue of body-positivity become a global phenomenon. One swipe on your Instagram Discovery page and you will be inundated with models who are teaching their audience to embrace their "flaws" and learn to love themselves.

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There are many women who are seen as leading lights in the movement, with Iskra Lawrence and Ashley Graham being two main players. Speaking about her battles to love herself, Lawrence said it hasn't been an easy process.

"I used to be that teenage girl who looked in the mirror and hated what she saw and really wanted to change her body," she admitted. "Now, I'm just like, it's not the end of the world to not have a thigh gap. It's not the end of the world to have cellulite. When I'm insecure, I'm just like 'hell, no, I've been through so much, I will not feel bad today. I'm going to shine today because I deserve to.'"

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"When I stopped [comparing myself to other people] and really just saw the beauty in other people as well as myself, it was a sigh of relief, to be honest. I can't ever be them, but they can't ever be me. That's what makes you special. It just makes life easier, just knowing that you are good enough."

However, sadly, for some people, they still can't get their heads around this positive and inspiring movement. One guy who clearly missed the memo about body-positivity is Leyton Mokgerepi from South Africa.

Popping up on his Twitter account, he chose to fat-shame women - specifically, he chose to fat shame Lesego Legobane, a plus-size model, blogger, and body positivity activist.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/imleyton/status/910190821881913344]]

Mokgerepi created a meme in which he compared Legobane with a slimmer model, Joëlle Kayembe, that reads: “Girls that I like vs. girls that like me.” The sizeist joke implied that he likes thin women but only larger women like him in return.

However, while Mokgerepi's tweet went viral, the clap back from Legobane absolutely shut him down and gained far more traction.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/ThickLeeyonce/status/910210541083402240]]

Her tweet got over 300,000 retweets and was like over 940,000 times by a variety of people including Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande and Ana DuVernay.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/imleyton/status/910221350559780869]]

Despite his attempts to say that Legobane was his ideal woman, no one was buying into Mokgerepi's BS.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/ReallyDontTrump/status/910254713047863297]]

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Kayembe, the other model in the image, also wasn't having any of Mokgrepei's joke.

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Sadly for Mokgerepi, it appears that the women that he likes don't like him. Also, not only that, neither do other women. It's a lonely life being a troll, isn't it?

Because it's so easy to hide behind a social media profile these days, the famous faces we see on Instagram aren't always what they seem to be.

Take Emma Hallberg, for example: a 19-year-old self-described model and influencer from Sweden. She has just shy of 200,000 followers on the picture-sharing platform, and regularly updates her followers with makeup looks and tutorials. This is a picture of her:

[[imagecaption|| Credit: Instagram/Emma Hallberg]]

From her appearance, many have assumed that Hallberg is Black or mixed race. But she's not. She's white, and claims that she has never tried to identify as anything otherwise.

However, due to the way she looks, many Black and mixed race women had followed her for her beauty tips - and now they feel betrayed knowing that her entire look is manufactured and fake.

The revelation caused something of an uproar on Twitter, with hundreds of people calling out the so-called influencer (and others like her) for profiting off appearing as a Black woman while real women of colour face all sorts of problems and prejudice due to their natural look.

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"The girl was clearly posing as black, as she’s posted by many black pages etc.," said one person.

"Emma Hallberg really had my ass fooled, I'm sick," added another.

Some Twitter users even went so far as to suggest that Hallberg was doing blackface by using makeup that is so much darker than her natural skin tone. And when you see her without makeup, it's not hard to see why.

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Hallberg has since spoken to Buzzfeed news about the backlash, saying "I do not see myself as anything else than white," and claiming that, "I get a deep tan naturally from the sun."

She backed this up by sharing a snap of herself from two years ago, where she says she has no product on her skin to darken it in any way.

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"The only difference is that I didn’t post as many pictures that summer compared to this summer, because I didn’t have as many followers then as I do now," she said.

"It made me sad that some of my natural features are hurting and upsetting people. It also made me upset and scared that I can’t look the way I look naturally, without receiving false accusations, hate, and threats," Hallberg said. "I do not have any specific intentions other than [to] show my passion for makeup and fashion."

[[imagecaption|| Credit: Instagram/Emma Hallberg]]

But Hallberg has also been called out for falsely claiming that her dark, wavy hair was natural, as she'd previously posted that she styled it specifically to achieve that texture.

Still, many fans are on her side.

"Think it’s absolutely disgusting that emma hallberg has had to justify wearing dark foundation and turned her comments off cause she’s getting threatening messages. Anyone pretending they’re ‘offended’ is just puuuuure jealous cause she’s stunning," said one person.

Another added: "You all should really be ashamed for sending Emma Hallberg so much hate. That girl felt the need to explain herself when I could look at her & tell it wasn’t cultural appropriation. Maybe your approach should have been different & from a point of curiosity and not assumption."

Older photos of the teen do show her with a significantly different complexion, however.

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Hallberg still maintains that she is being her authentic self.