The tedious skinny vs ‘real’ women debate has been played out ad nauseum in the press. It’s a spurious compromise between celebrity worship and the self-esteem problems it seems to promote. It’s the basis for publishing ‘shocking skinny pics!’ on one page, and giggling and pointing at someone’s cellulite on the next.
It’s unsurprising, therefore, that images of reality or imperfection can provoke unabashed hysteria. A three-inch version of this photo (right) appeared in Glamour – inviting hundreds of thousands of comments and letters, variously extolling the ‘reality’ of her belly fat. (Although it’s arguable that readers so attracted to authenticity might want to avoid the airbrushing army at Glamour.)
In her foreword to yesterday’s Sunday Times Style supplement, Shane Watson gushed:
At last we have the defining image of the year… We’ve been predicting the return of the real figure for months… If all goes to plan, this time next year we will be comfortable with our rolls and feel sexier for it.
It’s easy to mock the gusto with which this image was received. But perhaps it really will change our perception of beauty – ushering in a new dawn for the fashion world, in which style magazines promote reality, rolls and all. I’ll leave you with Watson’s postscript:
Watch the bingo wings though. There’s sexy fat and there’s flab, and wings are never coming back.
Ah.
Almost all women have some belly fat so of course it must be sexy!
Posted by: Arre | Mar 08, 2011 at 06:35