Joan Collins, 90, Stirs Up Heated Debate With Controversial Throwback Photo

Joan Collins

Joan Collins is getting the people talking!

The English actress, 90, made a bold statement about women's bodies with her latest social media post—and some of her followers have mixed feelings about it.

Earlier this week, Collins took to Instagram to share a throwback photo of herself from back in the day, wearing a black and white plaid mini dress and showing off her legs with a pair of white high heels.

In the glamorous shot, the film star appeared to be sporting an ultra-tight corset around her waist, accentuated by a thick black belt to give off an exaggerated hourglass effect.

In the caption, Collins wondered, "Have women's bodies changed? Decades ago most women had naturally small #waists. Is this trend coming back?"

Collins' message seemed to be about Kim Kardashian's controversial Met Gala look, which featured an extremely tight corset that made her waist look almost non-existent.

But while many of Collins' followers were allured by her gorgeous figure from her younger years, many weren't convinced about the notion of women having "naturally" small waists, as women back then commonly wore corsets to keep their waists looking snatched.

"Back then girdles were almost mandatory, so the figures weren’t natural," one commenter wrote, while another agreed, adding, "That's is called a waist /corset. They are laced into that until they can't breathe."

Someone else told Collins, "Don’t get me wrong, you are one of the most beautiful women on earth, but that waist is too good to be true 🤔."

Others insisted that women's bodies were smaller back then due to food scarcity or even excessive dieting—the latter of which is something that the modern body positivity movement intentionally tries to discourage.

"Love u Joan but kids growing up in UK and Europe in WW2 era tended to be on the smaller side due in part to food scarcity and nutritional deficiencies."

"Yes, I think women, in particular, ate much less in the past than we do today... tiny portions! 🍗 😉," another person agreed.

"Skinny is not necessarily healthy," someone else wrote while insisting, "We need to embrace a healthy lifestyle and eating habits."

"Women’s bodies are women’s bodies … there should be no ‘trend’ to follow 😢 🥰 xx" another comment read.

"Women are always held to unrealistic beauty standards. 🙂‍↕️Dame Joan as an actress was held to even higher standards," someone else professed, urging, "We need to move on."

Next: Kim Kardashian Speaks Out in Defense of Her 'Disgusting Old Sweater' at the Met Gala