Why did so many people find Cara Delevingne's recent Instagram post offensive?

The model-turned-writer has come under fire

Words - Karen Fratti

From the editors of HelloGiggles

Posting memes to Instagram is basically a national pastime at this point, and unfortunately — in today’s viral world — sometimes what we post can have unintended consequences. Most recently, Cara Delevingne’s selfie meme offended some fans, which led her to post a follow-up message clarifying her intent.

On Friday, Delevingne - who is soon to release her first novel - posted a black-and-white picture of a girl sitting on a set of stairs surrounded by a stack of books. The meme read, 'One girl loved reading so much, she forgot to take a selfie.'

Many followers weren’t happy about the anti-selfie message.

Commenters were quick to say that it felt like Delevingne was implying that selfies — or the people who take them — are wasting their time, vapid, or silly.

This lead Delevingne to edit the original post, writing, 'Wow! The backlash on this picture is heavy!! I am not trying to say that I am better than anyone. It’s a nice reminder to me and to anyone. The power of getting lost in a book.'

Fair enough. It’s definitely true that celebs often get flak for posting otherwise harmless memes or pictures, and that it often feels like internet commenters are looking for a fight always. However, we also can totally see how this specific meme could rub some people the wrong way.

Because reading and taking selfies are not mutually exclusive.

Women, or 'girls' as the picture says, can love to read, take body positive selfies of themselves, and play on social media all at the same time. Heck, they can take selfies of themselves reading. Sort of like how ladies can talk about thigh high boots, makeup tutorials, and debate the nitty gritty details of health care policy all at the same time all in the same afternoon.

And we’re definitely glad that Delevingne chose to clarify her point on this one. Because TBH, we could probably all use a reminder to unplug and get lost in a good story every now and then. Now, let’s all take a deep breathe, snap a selfie, and dive into a book.