CMAT on bodyshaming: "The success is increasingly becoming tarnished by the fact that I would be allowed to enjoy it so much more if I was thin"

CMAT has shared her "deep sadness" over body-shaming in a statement on Instagram after performing at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in Sunderland.

The Irish singer-songwriter said she had removed Instagram, TikTok and X from her phone to protect her mental health, but she came across an online essay which discussed online criticism of her appearance, which she said, "has really summed up a lot of what is causing my deep sadness."

"It is literally so boring for me, a gorgeous genius, to keep having to yap on about how horribly I am treated because of my body," she wrote. "I would love to stop, but I cannot because it keeps happening, at an accelerating and worsening pace as I become more famous."

"There is no relief from this - nobody can protect me or save me from this, and all that is demanded of me is more and more work as every environment I am placed in becomes more hostile."

"I also want to point out, to some very well-meaning people, that I am not being defiant. I am not choosing to look like this or weigh this much as some kind of punk rock act of liberty. I simply have a body, one that I would of course like to change in order to fit in and avoid all of this abuse, but I have had extreme difficulty doing so."

"I don't get a say in whether or not I want to be brave; I simply have to sit here and take it."

Support from other artists poured into her comments.

"Been a while since I was in a bar fight, but I'd have one over CMAT," said Brandi Carlile.

"This is hard to read, but I also feel a fool as I see you being so glorious and wonderful, and I didn't understand how little things have changed," said Sophie Ellis Bextor, "I actually thought things were better now."

CMAT is due to play a sold-out show at St Anne's Park in Dublin on Saturday as part of her Euro-Country tour.

In 2024, after making her debut at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend, CMAT said comments had been disabled on a BBC post featuring her performance, "because so many people were calling me fat."

"I didn't realise it was illegal to have a huge ass!" she joked at the time.

 

View this post on Instagram.

 

A post shared by cmat (@cmatbaby)