I’m a model – there’s a stigma to being sexy, people don’t realize I’m more than my big breasts and good looks
GLAMOUR model Lindsey Pelas is sexy – and she's not hiding it.
But the tells The Sun that being so unapologetically hot means people often mistake her for being dumb or mean – and not only are they wrong, but they're being manipulated into thinking that.
"Unfortunately, I do think being beautiful means people don't take you seriously," Lindsey said.
"There's been a lot of my life where I've had to prove that I'm smarter and more talented, [that I'm more] than beautiful. It feels like every day and every interaction," she said.
That can include fending off nasty messages she gets on social media or contending with presumptuous men who are fixing her car.
"They ask me what my husband or father does for a living," she said. "A lot of people fully assume that there is a man taking care of me.
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"There's always that fear that I'll be mistreated and certainly ripped off," she said.
She argues that so many people see a pretty woman – especially one who knows she's pretty and embraces it – and make up their minds: "She must be vain. Or she must have nothing else to offer."
Lindsey explained: "On the one hand, people think you're playing into what men want you to be. And on the other hand, there's always been this trope that to be beautiful, you must also be stupid.
"In a patriarchal society, a woman can't win no matter what. If you're ugly, you're not wanted, you're undesirable, and no one's looking at you.
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"If you're beautiful, they had to come up with something, so they went with stupid and it's really caught on," she explained.
Lindsey pointed out that this cliché – pretty, dumb girls – is everywhere, in TV shows, movies, magazines, and books.
"The stories were concocted to keep a couple of people in power and in charge and benefitting from these stereotypes," she said.
"I don't buy them."
And it's only aimed at women, she said – never men.
"I don't see a lot of comments about The Rock being stupid," she noted.
"And I don't see a lot of comments telling Mark Whalberg, who's got a six-pack and wakes up at 4 am every day to work out, that he's a bimbo and he must be an idiot, and how does he have time to take care of his children?"
Along with assumptions that she doesn't have a brain, Lindsey says that she and other beautiful women are often pegged as mean or nasty before anyone gets to know them.
That, too, is a product of TV shows and movies.
"[In media], the blonde is the a**hole bully, the blonde with the big boobs. She's dating the popular guy," she said.
"Those stories are given to us repeatedly and they become our favorite shows and movies, and they really do impact us on a subconscious, deeper level.
"So when our brain is trying to figure people out, we have all that footage. 'Oh, blonde, big boobs, she goes in that category! Cause I've seen that time and time again.'"
That means people are often taken aback to find out that she's kind.
"A lot of people would be surprised that a lot of the most famous glamour models on the internet and in the world are the nicest, most philanthropic, kind intelligent, community-changing, brave people that I've ever met.
"The glamour girls, the girls with the big boobs and big butts and bikinis ... these are the people who are investing in their communities, they're trying to make a difference, and it's because they're so used to so much ridicule for being beautiful or having the bravery to wear what they wanted and not shield their beauty.
"It's just the polar opposite of what you would think, and there's certainly a correlation between the beauty on the inside and the beauty on the outside."
Another clueless mischaracterization is that she is a ";s**t," a "w***e," or an anti-feminist.
"The biggest thing that people say is, 'How can you be a feminist and post a sexy picture? Aren't you playing into the role of what they want?'"
In fact, she said, she is doing the opposite.
"I'm not making a man richer most of the time anymore. I'm making money for myself," she said.
Plus, she has 8.6million followers on Instagram, 1.8million on Twitter, 1.3million on Facebook, and nearly 200,000 on – a huge platform to push feminism and speak out against domestic abuse.
"I have natural big boobs that have happened since eighth grade. So I was already given that characterization of s**t or w***e, simply by my natural body type at a very young age.
"So as soon as I learned that those slurs had nothing to do with my moral character, or sleeping with men, I realized 'Oh, I'm gonna do whatever I want to do anyway.'
"And if that's dress really hot, so be it. If that is take photos of myself, so be it."
Male stars can certainly do it without criticism.
"Justin Bieber performs topless all the time! And he looks cute! But no one is calling him a s**t in the comments. So it's just never made a ton of sense to me that only women weren't supposed to use their beauty, only men can."
And for women, being naked can be a statement.
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"Look at a lot of countries that we as Americans like to criticize and say they're so oppressive to women, they don't get to go to school, they cover their faces.
"Well, what is the visual opposite of having someone forced to cover themselves from head to toe? In my opinion, the opposite is me being naked."