A UK-based Instagram model is brushing off angry responses to her posing topless by a war memorial, saying she was expressing herself and her freedom just as the "war heroes fought for our freedom".
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Lauren Henson, who goes by the stage name of Indiana, uploaded a series of snaps in which she is standing with her bare breasts in her hands in front of a church plaque which commemorates a group of British soldiers who died in World War I.
The 31-year-old mum of two garnered over 600 likes on post, but also received criticism from those who said she was acting disrespectfully.
One wrote: "It just shows you have no respect for the people who gave their lives for this country.
"It's a shame you had to do it in front of a memorial to the people who died trying to protect this country. It shows zero class and respect."
"It's a cool photo but couldn't you have found a better wall to pose in front of?" another added.
Defending herself in a later post, Henson said she was demonstrating living in the "free world" fought for by the fallen soldiers, by "embracing my body and being free".
"Take me back 100 years, stand me in front of those soldiers, what would they think? What would they say? What would they do? I think I look good in front of that wall," she said.
"I haven't done it to upset anyone and I don't think it's a particularly offensive image, in fact anyone who checks my social platforms will have seen it before... If I've offended anyone then it was not my intention."
Henson echoed the sentiment when speaking to the Sun this week, saying she wasn't being deliberately disrespectful but instead was trying to 'gram the perfect shot.
"My two grandpas fought in the war. I didn't do it to be disrespectful and I wasn't really aware it was a war memorial; I chose the spot because of the lighting," she said.
"I'm a very sexual person and the image was a way of me expressing myself, fighting for my freedom as these war heroes fought for our freedom."
Newshub.
