Country music star Shania Twain is reclaiming her self-confidence, saying she is “so unashamed” of her body.
Twain, 57, opened up in an interview with People about her struggles with body positivity in the past, and how her newfound self-love inspired her to shoot the cover for her new single, “Waking Up Dreaming,” topless.
“This is me expressing my truth. I’m comfortable in my own skin, and this is the way I am sharing that confidence,” Twain told People.
“I think the best fashion is confidence, and whatever you wear — if you’re wearing it with that, it’s fashionable. I am a woman in my late 50s, and I don’t need to hide behind the clothes,” she continued. “I can’t even tell you how good it felt to do nude shooting. I was just so unashamed of my new body, as a woman that is well into my menopause. I’m not even emotional about it; I just feel OK about it. It’s really liberating.”
The singer explained that after filming her first music video for “What Made You Say That” without a bra in 1993, she started to feel differently about her body.
“From the very beginning — the very first video — I was ditching the bra,” Twain said. “But, I was a lot firmer then, so as I grew older, I started feeling a different pressure of, ‘Well, your breasts are not as plump as they used to be. Your skin is not as tight as it used to be. Maybe you should start covering it up a little bit more.'”
Twain previously shared with The Sunday Times that she struggled with her body image as a child, and even attempted to try to flatten her breasts to avoid abuse from her stepfather.
“I’m somebody that (was) never wearing a bathing suit at the beach as a teenager because I was way too self-conscious. My father made me feel self-conscious. It was almost dirty to wear shorts or not be entirely covered up. As my body was maturing and I was becoming a teenager, all of a sudden I was getting real curves. I mean, I’m a curvy person. I have boobs, and they bounce when I walk,” she said.
“So when that started happening, I started strapping myself down: I was wearing two bras; I was wearing tight, tight spandex things under my sweatshirts, that were way oversized; I was dressing like a boy. I didn’t feel good about becoming a woman. I was embarrassed by it. I was hiding my curves. I was rejecting it,” she continued.
The “That Don’t Impress Me Much” singer described the experience as “shameful.”
“I was rejecting what I was growing into, which was very natural,” she said. “How shameful is that? And not shameful of me, but shameful of that pressure. It was terrible.”
Twain said she eventually “hit this wall” and decided to honor her body.
“I … was like, ‘Whoa, my confidence is regressing. My courage is dulling. Why am I allowing this? Frig that. I am not regressing. I am embracing my body as it changes, as I should have from my childhood to my teens, as I should be from my taut, 20s and 30-year-old self, to my menopausal body,” she said. “I’m not going to be shy about it. I want to be courageous about it, and I want to share that courage in the artwork that I am directing.”
Shain said now she feels more comfortable in her skin than she’s ever felt before, and that she wants women of any age to embrace their bodies.
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