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Paulina Porizkova isn’t having any negativity on her social media account. In a bold move, the stunning 57-year-old model posted a screenshot of a nasty comment and responded with measured grace. “Here’s a good follower comment- echoing a few others,” she wrote in a caption on April 29. “A woman of 57 is ‘too old’ to pose in a bikini – no matter what she looks like. Because ‘Old’ is ‘Ugly’. I get comments like these every time I post a photo of my body. This is the ageist shaming that sets my teeth on edge. Older men are distinguished, older women are ugly.”
Paulina posted her thoughts alongside photos of both the comments, and a jaw-dropping photo in a white bikini that showed off her flawless physique. The troll’s comments accused the world-famous print and runway model of “falling from grace.” “You must be in so much pain to keep posting bikini pictures at your age,” they wrote. “I’ve always thought that getting old and ugly is hardest on the pretty people. The fall from grace is so much farther when you were beautiful.”
The cover girl‘s perfect response continued, saying that the critics in her comments section “do not understand beauty.” “People who believe prettiness equals beauty do not understand beauty,” she added. “Pretty is easy on the eyes, partly because it’s a little bland, inoffensive. It’s easy to take in and easy to forget. Not so beauty. Beauty can be sharp. It can wound you and leave a scar. To perceive beauty you have to be able to SEE.”
Paulina’s epistle on beauty underscores her incredible achievements in modeling, as well as her own intelligence, in responding to negativity. “This is why I believe we get more beautiful with age. We have earned our beauty, we understand what it is, and we can see it so much better. There is no such thing as ugly and old. Only shortsighted and ignorant.”
She concluded the post with the hashtags #bewtweenjloandbettywhite #seasonedistasty and #matureisbeautiful, along with a final though. “PS. I’m not posting this because I feel bad and need sympathy- quite on the contrary! I’m posting this because this is a pervasive sentiment that needs to be done away with. So we can be proud of aging, as we deserve to be!”
Paulina lives by her words — on April 2, she posted a good-natured selfie with a filter that made her appear to have plastic surgery. “Alright- screw this natural aging biz,” she jokingly captioned the pic alongside a row of laughing emojis and the hashtag #happyfoolsdayyesterday. “It’s getting me nowhere.”