Reading an article in the Daily Mail yesterday about Gail Porter's decision to recreate her famous naked portrait initially filled me with gladness for the previously alopecia stricken star. No woman can have failed to be moved by Gail's hair loss ordeal or cheered by her recent hair regrowth. However, I was saddened to read some comments that she made about her weight earlier in the year.
Gail claimed to have been unhappy, at 5ft 4in, to have "ballooned to 9 stone" and was glad to be back down to 8 stone. The issue I have with this statement is the use of the word ballooned in reference to a healthy weight. At 9 stone Gail would have been a very healthy mid range BMI of 21.5, whereas at 8 stone she borders on underweight at a BMI of 18.9.
It appears that Gail Porter, and millions of other women, consider themselves failures unless they are able to maintain very low body weights. Even the nation's sweetheart, Cheryl Cole, has admitted to weeping when she found herself 9 and a half stone at 5ft 3in. This is another healthy BMI of 23.4, a weight which she described as "fat" but which a doctor would not describe as overweight.
What is wrong with being slim, you may cry? After all, don't we have an obesity epidemic on our hands? There is nothing at all wrong with slimness, as long as it is a healthy weight. But this constant promotion of very low weights is likely to be fueling the obesity problem. The media is preaching to us that we should be maintaining low weights that for the average woman, without personal trainers and chefs at her disposal, will find unachievable.
Even middle age is now no hiding place as the super thin body of 47 year old Elle Mcpherson is presented as the target for which we should all aim, or we will be chided for letting ourselves go. Borderline starvation should never be presented as an acceptable life choice and if you already feel a failure at a curvy size 10 the temptation is there to comfort yourself with more food.
Recent years have seen attempts to bring a more healthy range of female body types into fashion and the media, with stars like Mad Men's Christina Hendricks and Chanel model Crystal Renn being celebrated. However, Renn has recently found herself the victim of aggressive photoshopping to streamline her curves, a clear sign that we are still a long way from accepting a truly healthy range of body types in the media.
