Ronoh challenges victimhood - Why she believes women are trapped by learned helplessness

In a year where many public figures have spoken openly about cosmetic procedures, content creator Chebet Ronoh has taken a sharply different stance.

Instead of addressing surgical trends, she delivered a raw, uncompromising message on what she calls a growing culture of learned helplessness among women.

Her argument is simple but provocative: many women are not trapped by their bodies, they are trapped by the belief that society holds all the power.

It is a view that has already stirred debate, partly because it challenges narratives about body shaming and societal pressure.

Yet Ronoh insists she is speaking from lived experience, not detached commentary.

Ronoh draws heavily from her own struggles with weight and identity. She describes years of feeling undesirable, unaccepted, and constantly judged.

Her point is not to dismiss the reality of body shaming, a very real experience for many women, but to show how internalising society’s standards can create a mental imprisonment far deeper than the physical one.

Throughout her monologue, Ronoh criticises what she views as a widespread tendency among women to frame themselves as powerless.

She calls it learned helplessness: believing that no matter what you do, society will reject you.

Her message is intentionally uncomfortable. Instead of placing society at the centre of the problem, she urges women to examine how much of their suffering comes from waiting for external validation.

But here is the nuance: while Ronoh challenges the mindset, it doesn’t erase the genuine pain women face from beauty standards, bias, and prejudice.

Her experience gives her authority, but not the universal truth. For many women, these pressures are not imagined, they’re systemic.

According to Ronoh, the moment you depend on public approval is the moment you surrender control of your life.

She points out that even women who fit society’s current beauty ideals, curvy, slim-waisted, or surgically enhanced, still face criticism.

Ronoh also pushes back against the belief that altering one’s body solves deeper emotional issues. Despite having transformed her own physique through physical effort, she admits the emotional struggles persisted.

This is one of the more compelling parts of her argument, change does not necessarily heal. It’s a critique of the modern obsession with glow-ups and body transformations as shortcuts to acceptance.

A recurring theme in her message is the danger of performing femininity for approval. Nails, curves, outfits, waistlines, she sees many of these as expressions shaped by fear, not self-expression.

According to Ronoh, self-acceptance is not soft or poetic, it is a foundation that prevents manipulation. Without it, she warns, people will exploit your insecurities.

“Stand up. Stand up, love. There’s no other way. No one cares. I started liking myself and I never looked back,” she said.

She urges women to develop a backbone, not out of rebellion, but self-preservation. For her, boundaries are not optional, they are survival.