A teen in North Carolina, USA, claims she was fat-shamed by a woman at her church for wearing shorts.
Jenna Munger, 19, and a beautiful singer at Swansboro United Methodist Church said when she left the stage Sunday and went to the bathroom, a woman from the congregation followed her in.
“She had gotten up from her seat in the audience,” Munger told InsideEdition.com.
“… This is all happening during church, of course, so it was crazy.”
Munger recorded the inappropriate encounter with Bonnie Sue, the older woman, who started by telling her she should dress like another “chubby girl” who wore what she considered more appropriate, longer dress.
In the video, the teen is heard sobbing as she responds to the woman’s accusations that she’s ‘too fat’ for shorts.
This women followed me into the bathroom and attacked me calling me fat and that I couldn’t wear jean shorts because I was too fat pic.twitter.com/xse8lKfQdo
— Jenna 🦊 (@roo_jenna) June 30, 2019
The conversation gets heated very quickly.
“So you’re sitting here calling me fat?” Munger asks.
“You don’t think you are?” the woman asks.
“No, because I f****** love who I am,” Munger replies.
Munger goes on to tell the woman to back off, but she doesn’t relent.
“Don’t come back on that stage with those shorts,” the woman says. “I’m warning you.”
When Munger becomes upset, the woman tells her to “lower” her voice.
Munger said the incident was particularly painful because she had recently lost over 30 pounds through healthy eating after struggling with depression, ADD and a thyroid condition.
“I was having a bad time at college; I gained a lot of weight,” Munger said.
Munger said the same woman had previously complained about her wearing shorts to the church’s band director.
“I have always struggled with my weight for the entire time I’ve been alive, it’s always been up and down, up and down, and so hearing that from someone who is either the same weight or even a little bit bigger than me looking at me and saying you’re fat… it’s like, what?”
Jenna wasn’t the only one bothered by the woman’s actions. She took the video to her pastor, Kevin Baker, who was deeply “shocked and saddened” by the “great harm” done to a “faithful and very gifted young lady.”
“We are shocked and saddened by this act. The church is supposed to be a place of safety, love and acceptance,” said the cleric in a statement.
He added that the church was taking steps to make sure something like this won’t happen again.
Jenna spoke out about her encounter as a reminder of just how damaging shaming a person can be.
Had this situation happened earlier in Jenna’s battle with depression, it could have done even greater harm and even been life-threatening. But Jenna has been doing the hard work to learn to love and see herself as Christ does.
While the incident was difficult for her, she is using it as an opportunity to remind everyone to love their bodies and trying to tackle body-shaming head-on.
“Always remember that you are loved,” she said.
Lots of people have offered up words of encouragement and support for the teen. Not only did the church’s leadership seek to uplift Jenna, so did thousands of people who heard her story online.
“You look beautiful!! And thank you for standing up for yourself — when you did, you did it for all of us,” one person wrote.
“I’m sorry this woman has put you through this. Sadly people like her are driving so many away from church and God,” wrote another.
Another added:
“Jenna, you are gorgeous and super cute in your shorts. Please don’t let this woman take a piece of you with her vicious cruel words.”
The woman has since apologised to Jenna.
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