Ziora notes the parallels between the lack of diversity within modelling and the way she’s received online. “There is a racialised aspect in the way that I am and was treated on social media. So often on the internet, fat Black women are made the butt of the joke.”
“You have men that dress up in drag as fat, Black women for comedy, Madea [a character played by Tyler Perry], Big Momma’s House, Norbit. It’s so much of comedy. Our culture is based on the foundation of fat, Black women being the butt of the joke. I’m absolutely not surprised that this precedent has shaped social media, regardless of who the president is or who the CEOs of these companies are. It’s literally how we as a society have formed.”
Credit Stefan Klapko
We chat about what drives a person to make body-shaming comments online about complete strangers. “It’s boredom, it’s cruelty,” says Ziora. “A lot of people don’t realise that there are people behind those pictures you see on social media. I feel like social media platforms encourage a disconnect between the person and the online persona. And so a lot of social media consumers view us like characters and comment the way they would on a TV show.”
Does she have a message to people who body-shamed her online? “Fuck off,” Ziora laughs. “I really don’t have anything nice to say. I can’t do the ‘We are the world, we are the people. Kumbaya’ because especially for people my age, we were taught in school about social values and what is and isn’t OK to say.
“I feel like it would be one thing if it were children who maybe grew up amongst this cultural rolling back of values of compassion. But for people my age and older, I’m like, ‘What are you doing?’”
So, what needs to change? “Honestly, I don’t know. I feel like everybody needs to get off their phones,” says Ziora. iPhone and social media addiction is so real, and I struggle with it at times as well. When you’re constantly consuming and consuming and consuming, you don’t realise that the object of your consumption is a person.”
Aside from the negativity, being online has brought Ziora “so much perspective and opportunities for learning and opportunities to build community. A lot of my best friends today, I met on the internet, and then we started hanging out in person. And today these are people I’ve known for years, and they’re like my family.”
“I feel like there has to be some sort of cultural reorientation,” Ziora says, as we’re finishing up the interview. “We need a recentering; some compassion.” I don’t know about you, but that seems like a good place to start.
Glamour has reached out to xAI for a comment.
For more from Glamour UK’s Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
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