Body Image

The fashion world was abuzz as word spread we were going to see rather buxom models in the Prada show (one of the most influential shows in the entire fashion spectrum) during Milan Fashion Week and really solidify the trend that bums were back, hips were big, curvy bodies were the next big thing.

So the fashion press waited with baited breath to see what dizzying beauties Miuccia Prada had flown in to prove to the world that she was all for promoting voluptuous women.

Who came down the catwalk? Victoria’s Secret models. You know, the ones with the ridiculously tiny thin bodies who also happened to be blessed with a B-cup (‘cause on a superslim body, a B-cup can look quite large. Most models have zero in the breast department.

Continue reading "The non-return of curvy models to the catwalk" »

I’m going to confess straight up to having little to zero interest in the underwear choices of Venus Williams.

Yet in recent days her flesh coloured shorts have become a story in sport in themselves and sent twitter abuzz with is she or isn’t she wearing underpants debates.

Perhaps this isn’t so shocking, Maria Sharapova’s green “frocklet” (I kid you not- apparently there is indeed such a thing), got its own press conference launch and then we saw precious column space designated to the diamond earring and necklace choices of Serena Williams, (which she liked “because it had lots of S’s in the design”, and we can all respect that).

Continue reading "Treating women’s sport like a trivial fashion contest" »

UPDATE 2pm: Mia Freedman, the chair of the committee put together by Kate Ellis to look at body image in the media, has just responded to Jackie Frank’s comments in her own blog Mamamia.com.au. As Freedman points out, the government doesn’t chose cover models, editors do.

Cue the Nobel peace prize for the editor of Marie Claire who has taken the decision to put a naked Jennifer Hawkins on this month’s cover, not to boost circulation, of course, but in the name of “positive body image.”

How brave of Jackie Frank to take a genetically-blessed 26-year-old former Miss Universe and pay her to get her kit off to make us all feel better about ourselves. Her historic move even came accessorised with a free lecture for Youth Minister Kate Ellis, who Frank says hasn’t done enough to address the crisis of confidence in Australia’s girls and young women.

Now Marie Claire can join the orgy of self-congratulation among Australia’s women’s mags which in the past couple of months have been bold enough to put Sarah Murdoch on the cover of Women’s Weekly without airbrushing her 3.5 wrinkles and encouraged Tiffany Wood to show off her curves in the buff in Maddison.

Continue reading "Don’t buy into mag land’s body image spin" »

Hannah Montana. The very name is enough to chill the heart of any parent desperate to dodge the scourge of our age – the commercial exploitation of young children.

Weak fool that I am, though, I gave in recently to my 10-year-old daughter’s pleas to watch the show.

“You get the best of both worlds,” crooned Miss Miley Cyrus as we tuned in to the Disney Channel. If only, I growled to myself.

Continue reading "Why I hate Hannah Montana" »

A mother of twins died in Buenos Aires on Sunday due to complications following buttock implant surgery. Two children no longer have their mother for the rest of their lives because of her desire for a firmer arse. Has the world gone mad?

Solange Magnano, 38, a former Miss Argentina reportedly died when liquid injected during her gluteoplasty procedure (arse surgery to you and me) caused her to have a pulmonary embolism. It was her second cosmetic enhancement since having breast implants after the birth of her children.

A spokesperson for Gustavo Rosso, Magnano’s husband, said during his statement that there have been only 15 recorded fatalities from the same procedure worldwide. I’m sorry, only 15 people dead because of the desire for a firmer butt?

Continue reading "Leaving it all behind for a firmer bum" »

What happened in the Liberal party room on Tuesday morning was above politics.  I’m hoping it was the start of a revolution, a signal that a large number of downtrodden, forgotten Australians are about to stand up and be heard. 

I’m talking about wing-nuts.  Tony Abbott is a wing-nut.  So am I.

Our ears are unique.  They come out of heads at a rather extreme angle.  If we’re not wearing budgie smugglers, our ears are the first thing that people look at when they look at us.

Continue reading "Abbott’s ascendancy a win for all people with big ears" »

Maybe it’s Tony Abbott’s own fault, and maybe he thinks it’s fantastic, but I’m a bit creeped out by the amount of attention being paid to the new Opposition Leader’s, um, assets.

Log on to any blog or social networking site in the past 36 hours and you’re likely to find as much in-depth analysis of Mr Abbott’s physical characteristics as his policy range. And I’m not talking about the size and shape of his ears.

While this might be a great boost to The Punch’s Question Time Live coverage - bring on the influx of stay-at-home-mums tuning into APAC at 2pm on sitting days - can you imagine what would happen if the same conversations were taking place about Julia Gillard?

Continue reading "Phwoar!!! Tony Abbott’s the full package. Wink wink." »

Kate Moss, who has made millions of dollars from being pretty skinny, has said: “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” You can read the news story here.

Cue outrage! How dare she actively encourage young women to starve themselves! She’s a role model! You can read the hundreds of condemning articles here.

Seriously? Do we really expect a woman who once devoted quite a bit of time to Pete Doherty to be a pin up for healthy living? Relying on the likes of Moss to guide our girls is dooming ourselves to perpetual disappointment. And putting too much store by what she says derails the body image debate.

Continue reading "We expect too much from our celebrities" »

Unless you were lucky enough to be of nightclubbing age in the 1970s it has never been cool to wear white leather shoes. Despite being akin to wearing a large sign that says “I’m a tool”, this hideous footwear has had something of a resurgence in trendy nightclubs thanks to metrosexuality.

But after a decade at the cutting edge of cool, metrosexuals have been given one clear signal they may have to go back to being ordinary blokes. Nightclub promoter Scott Mellor has chalked a line in the pavement outside a new club event in Melbourne that debuts on Friday. Beyond it, metrosexuals shall not pass.

Anthropologists might be tempted to attribute this to a socio-collectivist and culturo-genetic realisation that men are not capable of understanding manicures and shopping to the extent required to live a truly metrosexual life. But most would say metrosexuality was like platform shoes for blokes – a stupid idea in the first place – and besides, since David Beckham first dyed his tips blonde women have been clamouring that they prefer real men.

Continue reading "End of metrosexuals is a win for real equality" »

ALMOST 70 per cent of men say that a woman’s face is much more important than her breasts, legs or figure, a Punch survey of male attitudes on female body image has found.

And almost two-thirds of men believe that women spend far too much time worrying about their appearance, and should spend less time fretting about what men think - because you are all much hotter than you think you are.

The Punch has today assembled this special package of pieces about female body image through the eyes of blokes. Much of it is framed around our 100-man survey, but also includes columnist Joe Hildebrand talking about his love of fat chicks and former Zoo Weekly online editor Chris Deal’s essay on why men are as dumb as you probably suspect they are.

Continue reading "Guys talk about female body image" »

Are you gonna take me home tonight? 
Ah down beside that red firelight? 
Are you gonna let it all hang out? 
Fat bottomed girls you make the rockin’ world go round. - Queen, 1978

My name’s Joe Hildebrand and I like fat chicks.* My best friend Byron likes fat chicks. My other best friend Matt likes fat chicks. My other best friend Darrin is actually fat himself. Even Queen likes fat chicks, and they’re all gay.

Yet fat chicks seem to think that nobody likes them at all.

Continue reading "Fat bottomed girls you make the rockin’ world go round" »

A little known fact I like to trot out at feminist rallies and family gatherings is that I use to work for the esteemed gentlemen’s periodical, Zoo Weekly magazine. Officially my title was Online Editor, but unofficially it was You Tube surfer and talker to the hottest chicks planet earth has ever produced.

Sadly my tenure at the Encyclopaedia Tit-tanica was brief, and a decision that to the male ego sounds like the frothy rantings of a mad man. In bloke-speak the phrase “I quit a job at Zoo Weekly” roughly translates to “I’m a frightful shirtlifter, pass the amyl and pump up the Right Said Fred”.

But after I’ve stopped trying to use my penis for a brain, not only is the fleshy mirage of life at a lad’s mag revealed, but so too are a few finer points of the deluded male mind.

Continue reading "Men: we really are as dumb as you think" »

These are the raw numbers for the female body image survey.

1. Which of these physical qualities do you value most highly in a woman?

A.) Pretty face 68
B.) Great breasts 8
C.) Nice legs 8
D.) Perfect fat-free figure 16

Continue reading "This girl looks normal: The 100 man body image survey" »

Hi.  My name is Ashlee.  I’m a 24 year old Australian woman. I have a relatively successful media career for my age, given the current economic climate. I currently live and work in Indonesia. I have always tried to give back to the communities in which I live through volunteering and I don’t have a criminal record. I do have a gym membership though. I’m doing OK. Oh, but I forgot to add, I am fat.

Actually, I should say obese, according to my BMI. 

And apparently this makes me some kind of social pariah who should be the target of intense public ridicule and scorn, no matter what food I may or may not put in my mouth, no matter how many times a week I work out. 

Continue reading "Why is the weight debate full of so much hate?" »

This is a digitally enhanced photo of Sydney woman Deborah Luckie. She’s 50 years old.

A picture of her as she appears in real life is down the page.

If you were to see a photo of Deborah in a magazine, the photo above is how she could, potentially, appear after digital retouching. After a week of hype over model Sarah Murdoch appearing “untouched” on a magazine cover and the launch of a national body image initiative, the treated photo was commissioned to illustrate how removed from reality faces and bodies in the media can be.

Continue reading "How old is this woman?" »

Sarah Murdoch and Mia Freedman are hot. Like really, really hot.

But I don’t reckon that fact takes away from their years of experience, their first hand insight and the value of their contributions on the subject of tackling negative body image.

That was exactly the reaction we’ve seen this week though, from some who argued that these women were too beautiful to have a valid role to play in the debate and were misplaced on the Government’s Body Image Advisory Group that reported this week.

Continue reading "Moving past the blame game on body image" »

Life’s about film stars and less about mothers. It’s all about fast cars and cussing each other. But it doesn’t matter cause I’m packing plastic, and that’s what makes my life so f***ing fantastic.

And I am a weapon of massive consumption and it’s not my fault, it’s how I’m programmed to function. I’ll look at the sun and I’ll look in the mirror I’m on the right track, yeah I’m on to a winner. - Lily Allen.

The body image issues that plague so many women in our society are very real and are, in their essence, rooted in fear.

Continue reading "The fear making mothers invisible" »

People have always wanted to look better than they really are, and there have always been products around to facilitate this desire, like corsets, make-up, botox. I myself spend a ridiculous amount of time and money having my hair made ultra-blonde, my eyebrows plucked and tinted, my nails buffed and polished.

In this digital era people are aware of Photoshop and retouching. In any given social situation when someone finds out I’m a professional in the dark art of retouching the first question is invariably: “Can you retouch my (insert profile pic, wedding photo, family portrait etc here).

When they discover my area of expertise is the fashion and celebrity world, the next question is: “Who is the hardest person to retouch?” (No, I’m not telling.)

Continue reading "My life as an image retoucher" »

This is pop star Miley Cyrus’s little sister Noah at a Halloween party last weekend. It’s not the first time little Noah has been sent out on the red carpet in an outfit that is, ahem, a little old for her.

And not surprisingly it drew a pretty quick knee-jerk response from commentators right around the world. OUTRAGE! But is it really that bad?

The Punch decided to ask the people at the coal face of the battle against the growing sexualistion of children, mothers with young daughters, what an image like this did to their efforts to stop their little girls growing up too fast.

Don’t miss our body image special on The Punch tomorrow morning. You won’t believe your eyes.

Continue reading "What mothers say about a 9-year-old dressed like this" »

I teetered into my 40th birthday earlier this year.

Fabulous heels? Check. Spectacular dress? Check. Girls Night Out? Cocktails? Dancing? Check. Check. Check.

I’m nothing if not a walking cliché.

Continue reading "The New 40? I Want the Old One Back" »

How many column inches in women’s magazines are devoted to dieting every year? Enough to cross the Nullarbor? Circumnavigate the globe? Traverse the universe?

“Get your body beach ready. Now!” “Your best body. Fast.” “Your best-ever body in four weeks.” “Shrink one size in four weeks.” And my personal favourite: “Drop a dress size by Saturday!” Really?

I should issue a little disclaimer and own up to writing many vacuous and silly diet coverlines during my 15-plus years working in women’s magazines. Seven kilos in seven days? Only joking. But you get the drift.

Continue reading "Odds and magazines are stacked against diet success" »

Yesterday on The Punch, Tory argued that Karl Lagerfeld’s rather out there recent comments were right - “sort of”.

The gist of Karl nobody-wants-to-see-a-round-woman Lagerfeld’s contribution was that the fashion world was all about fantasy so it shouldn’t be criticised if it chooses to use only skinny models with protruding bones on their catwalks, or photos that are digitally altered to make a models’ waist the size of her neck. It’s all fantasy, silly. What’s the harm?

Tory’s semi-agreement seemed rather more based on personal preference and a dislike of a recent magazine’s choice of “plus size” models.

Continue reading "Counterpunch: Body image problems are far from fantasy" »

Fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld was off the mark when he said only “fat mummies” object to skinny models on the catwalk, but his point about the growing pressure to put “real” women in magazines and fashion shows wasn’t so crazy.

Ladies if you want to look at a “real” woman, stand in front of the bathroom mirror, then ask yourself “do I belong on the pages of a fashion magazine?” I’d hazard a guess the answer is “No!”

That doesn’t mean you’re not gorgeous, beautiful, very sexy even. It just means that on the odd occasion we fork out $10 for a glossy, if we’re stuck looking at people just like us we’ve done our dough.

Continue reading "Karl Lagerfeld’s right, sort of" »

When my little cousin waltzes into my room and asks me for nail polish, it doesn’t really bother me. Perhaps her decision to forego my sexy reds and vixen blacks for the playschool razzle dazzle of my fluro pinks and purples fills me with a little confidence that her safe and happy childhood is very much intact.

Then there are the other times, when she waltzes in my room wearing blue eye shadow and shiny pink lip gloss, and asks me for help in adding more artificial crap to her face.

Those are the times I know we have a colouring-outside-the-lines situation – and not just because she misses the outline of her lips.

Continue reading "Lambs dressed up as mutton" »

So Fat-shionistas (their word, not mine) have come together for the launch of Full Figured Fashion Week in New York, and larger women all over Manhattan are excitedly gathering in anticipation of clothing that is actually on trend and made in big-girl-friendly sizes.

It seems too good to be true after the recent too-small-clothing debate, with UK Vogue Editor Alexandra Shulman calling for designers to up their sample sizes.

Five years in the making, the event organizer Gwen De Voe is hoping to get the attention of fashion designers globally.

“The main objective is to show the consumers and buyers that there are other designers out there.”

She’s expecting 1500 people to attend including retail buyers and plus sized customers all looking for a solution to their what to wear dilemmas.

Continue reading "Fatshionistas are hip, but can they fit into the dress?" »