Instagrammer dragged for bikini photo comparing life to field workers in Bali: 'Narcissism, idiocy, and apathy combined'
A Swedish Instagrammer apologized to her offended followers for posting a bikini photo, likening herself to a rice picker in Bali.
Natalie Schlater, an Instagram influencer with 12,000 followers who has since made her account private, recently posted a shot of herself in a white bikini, gazing out into a rice field reportedly located in Canggu.
“Thinking about how different my life is from the man picking in the rice field every morning,” she captioned the story.
But Schlater’s post wasn’t received well by all. In screenshots of comments captured by sites Bored Panda and the Daily Mail before she made her account private, several users jumped in to call her “narcissistic” and said she was “humble-bragging.”
“Amazing how you have to be in underwear to think Deep Thoughts,” one Instagram user replied.
“From an ‘influencer’ just sounds like a little humble brag to me,” wrote someone else.
“It's the epitome of the social media generation,” another answered.
One user commented, “Narcissism, idiocy, and apathy combined.”
“He most likely has self-respect is a start,” one user said of a man picking rice.
“People who pretend to feel some emotional plights of others while they have a photographer they pay to follow them around in ‘trendy’ places which are more often than not places that live a more destitute life than them are the absolute worst,” said one opinionated instagram user. “Why should we protect these people from scrutiny?
After recognizing the intense blowback from commenters, Schlater privatized her account, and updated the original caption with a lengthier one that stated her post was “extremely misunderstood.”
“I am very aware of my privileges and how grateful I am for all that I have in my life and I was recognizing how hardworking and unbelievably kind the Indonesian people are and never meant to come off disrespectful,” she wrote in an Instagram post, screenshot by both sites. “That being said I am so sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings which was never ever my intention.”
She added a plea for tolerance, writing, “Please be kinder to one another and spread kindness and not hate.”
Speaking to Bored Panda, Schlater said she is disappointed about the backlash, claiming it, “breaks my heart to see this photo turned into a different light than it was originally meant to be.”
She went on to say that she understands why the caption could be taken the wrong way because of “the social climate we live in today,” and added that if she could go back in time, she would have communicated differently.
“I have always loved the Indonesian people and their culture and overall attitude towards life and the people who come to visit their country,” she told the site.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
Twitter explodes with influencer jokes as Instagram goes down
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