Shania Twain Confesses She Had to Flatten Her Chest as a Child to Avoid Stepfather’s Alleged Sexual Abuse
The country singer talked about her trauma and how she learned to embrace her femininity. Shania was raised by her mother and stepfather in Canada.
Shania Twain, 57, just bravely opened up about how she dealt with the trauma of alleged physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather. The country songstress detailed her experience with The Sunday Times published on Dec. 6, and during the chat she admitted to trying to flatten her chest to avoid his attention.
“I hid myself and I would flatten my boobs,” Shania confessed. “Because, oh my gosh, it was terrible — you didn’t want to be a girl in my house.”
The “That Don’t Impress Me Much” singer was raised by her mother Sharon and stepfather Jerry Twain, who legally adopted her and her four siblings. She’s detailed their difficult upbringing in the Ontario, Canada area many times before.
Shania had a number of strategies. “I would wear bras that were too small for me,” she revealed. “And I’d wear two, play it down until there was nothing girl about me. Make it easier to go unnoticed.”
Having to hide her body to protect herself was confusing for Shania as she grew into a young woman. She explained, “…Then you go into society and you’re a girl and you’re getting the normal other unpleasant stuff too, and that reinforces it. So then you think, ‘Oh, I guess it’s just s***** to be a girl. Oh, it’s so s***** to have boobs.’ I was ashamed of being a girl.”
As the star got older, she came into her own and learned to embrace her femininity. “All of a sudden it was like, ‘Well, what’s your problem? You know, you’re a woman and you have this beautiful body,'” the “Man! I Feel Like A Woman” hitmaker told the Times of her early days of fame. “What was so natural for other people was so scary for me. I felt exploited, but I didn’t have a choice now.”
For Shania, it became a part. “I had to play the glamorous singer, had to wear my femininity more openly or more freely,” she said. “And work out how I’m not gonna get groped, or r**** by someone’s eyes, you know, and feel so degraded.”