Date 2019-06-21
Category Gist & Gossip
An Instagram model says she has quit social media after a bikini post from her travels in Bali sparked an angry backlash.
Swedish influencer Natalie Schlater posed in a white bikini overlooking a rice field under gloomy skies on the Indonesian island.
Instagram users slammed the model over her caption in the post, which compared her life to rice workers.
It read:
“Thinking about how different my life is from the man picking in the rice field every morning.”
Many of Natalie’s 12,000 followers were left outraged, calling her post “insensitive”, “narcissistic”, “humble brag” and “one of the worst” they had ever seen – but she says she was “misunderstood”.
One follower wrote: “The rice farmer is probably more content with their life though and not the status chasing like the rest of us.”
Another added: “This is one of the worst I’ve ever seen.”
And another wrote: “It is the epitome of the social media generation.”
One posted: “This is just my thinking bikini. Or thinkini for short.”
Natalie, from Stockholm, posed for the photo in Canggu, a Bali hotspot known for its surf beaches and rice paddies.
Before deleting her Instagram account, she tried to defend herself, claiming she had been “misunderstood”.
She wrote: “I am very aware of my privileges and how grateful I am for all that I have in my life and I was recognising how hardworking and unbelievably kind the Indonesian people are and never meant to come off disrespectful.
“That being said I am so sorry if I hurt anyone’s feelings which was never ever my intention.
“Please be kinder to one another and spread kindness and not hate.”
She told the website Bored Panda that the backlash had left her “heartbroken”, and she wishes she could go back in time and write a different caption.
She added: “It breaks my heart to see this photo turned into a different light than it was originally meant to be.
“I have always loved the Indonesian people and their culture and overall attitude towards life and the people who come to visit their country.
“I worked extremely hard to save up enough money to go on that trip as I do not come from wealth as it may look like from social media.”
“I completely understand that my caption can be taken wrong because of the social climate we live in today and if I could go back in time I wish I would have just worded it differently.”
(Ladun Liadi)
