Body Image and the Feminist Agenda.
‘Fat is a Feminist Ishooo’ ran the old joke. Many a true word spoken in jest.
It is no secret that I have long believed Lynne Featherstone to be the only Liberal-Democrat worthy of being allowed anywhere near Government, so it was a disappointment this morning to read her latest offering on the subject of ‘body image’ and her reasons for supporting government intervention in the images we are allowed to compare ourselves to.
Every day people are confronted with images of the ‘perfect’ body that just don’t reflect the diverse society we live in. These unrealistic images set an impossible standard, potentially damaging self esteem and crushing confidence.
People have been confronted with idealised images since man first figured out how to paint on a cave wall. Some were daft enough to paint their dark skin with lead in an effort to conform to this idealised image – others quietly buried them and learnt the lesson. It didn’t require Government intervention.
Probably the best thing this Government has done is NOT to offer to replace all those Silicone breast implants. A salutary lesson is being absorbed out there in teenage land. But Lynne is swimming against this tide of sanity on the subject of body image. She believes:
that ‘as a government minister it is my responsibility to address them’.
She wants to see an updated Governmental control of cave paintings, presumably depicting dark skinned women for the light skinned to risk their lives roasting themselves to conform to, light skinned women for the dark skinned to continue painting themselves with lead in a similar effort, and a scattered few depicting leprosy so that some daft bint can chop off her nose to emulate.
I want to see a wider spectrum of body shapes represented in popular culture, to include all ages, all shapes, all sizes and ethnicities. This is something that we need to work with industry to achieve.
It’s not just confined to women of course, ’10% of boys said they would start taking steroids to build muscle if they were unhappy with the way they looked’. Noooo, how are we going to counter that? Are we going to insist that every Premier league football match has at least three overweight middle aged men puffing round the pitch so that teenage boys shouldn’t be confronted by a ‘relentless diet’ of images of bodily perfection? Shall we have Formula One cars adapted to hold the Paraplegic so that those in an iron lung are no longer forced to solely gaze at the snake hipped and nimble miniature men best suited to sitting astride a mobile petrol can?
Where are you planning to stop Lynne? Repainting Ruben’s idealised women in every stately home? Banning the reprinting of Victorian adverts showing women with impossibly small waists? Or is this just a back door attempt to introduce censorship into modern publishing?
What puzzles me is that you claim all these surveys show ’50% of women feel under pressure to look good at all times and 46% of women feel under pressure to lose weight’ and yet each time I turn on the Television I am confronted by acres of rolling flesh in every direction belonging to the 54% who obviously don’t feel obliged to lose weight. It would seem that the great British public is only too well equipped and dealing only too successfully with ‘the pressure to lose weight’. Is somebody forcing them to eat against their will?
All the major clothing manufacturers are stealthily increasing their idea of the ‘standard sizes’ – with the result that if you order something in a size 12 on-line it turns up fully equipped to house a family of Kosovan refugees.
I want more people to recognise that emotional qualities – character and individuality – are equally expressive of beauty as narrow, physical appearance.
That would seem to be happening very successfully already. Every time I see one of these lard mountains, male or female, they appear to be accompanied by a raft of children – suggesting that more than sufficient people of the opposite sex are overlooking their lack of compliance with ‘idealised’ beauty.
Jo Swinson MP has added her ten penn’orth. “Low self-esteem, depression and eating disorders are all increasing, along with unhealthy behaviours: half of young people have been on a diet”
Could that be something to do with the increase in Government interference in what we eat, when we eat, how we eat? The constant ‘nannying’ adverts telling us what children should have in their lunch-box, how many green vegetables we should eat every day?
I see no evidence that this Commission is looking at Governmental behaviour as the defining influence on alleged body image anxiety – merely seeking a back door route to apply Feminist censorship regulation to the Advertising industry, Health and fitness sector, Media, Youth organisations, and the Fashion and beauty sector.
Do find yourself something useful to do Lynne, there’s a good girl. Stop meddling. We elect to buy goods from manufacturers because we like the way they advertise them – if we didn’t, we wouldn’t buy. Do you really think I’m likely to buy ice-cream from the two pictured above this post? Really?
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1
January 31, 2012 at 12:52 -
More fundamentally what the fuck has any of this got to do with government… You know, empty the bins, police the streets etc..
I’m starting to bore myself with this, but the simple fact is that the majority of the issues we’re dealing with in the modern world at the moment is down to TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT…
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January 31, 2012 at 13:01 -
Leading to a form of positive discrimination,that old chestnut again.
Think on it ,what they are actually saying is ,you are so off the scale repulsive we have to force you on others by law.
That’s good for self esteem,not.
Should lawmakers stay away from the issue maybe people who are not film stars or models might realise that there is a lot more to offer the world than your “arse”. -
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January 31, 2012 at 13:13 -
Oh dear Lynne has just proved that none of the Lib Dems should be allowed in parliament, let alone anywhere near government.
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January 31, 2012 at 13:33 -
99% of the MPs have proved that they can’t organise a piss up in a brewery so she’s not alone.
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January 31, 2012 at 13:35 -
“Every day people are confronted with images of the ‘perfect’ body that just don’t reflect the diverse society we live in. These unrealistic images set an impossible standard, potentially damaging self esteem and crushing confidence.”
For balance, there ought to be more pictures of John Prescott & Cathy Ashton, to boost the population’s self esteem and raise confidence.
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January 31, 2012 at 13:50 -
If you’re going to post pictures of my midriff on holiday, that’s the last time I fly over to shatter the airstrip at your local airport, Mme Raccoon!
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January 31, 2012 at 14:07 -
Poor Lynne.
So we now know that if we ask a fat person if they’d prefer to look like the modified image of some waif model they’re likely to say yes. Ditto for those with uneven/missing/discoloured teeth, receding hair, lumps and bumps not fitting the media norm of the moment. Amazing.
All it shows me is that if you ask a lot of people a lot of leading questions you’re likely to get your prejudices confirmed. Wrapping it all up in govt weaselspeak doesn’t make it an issue nor will it reduce the sale of cream slices.
We might just as well take issue with depression in Ford Focus drivers caused by looking at Lamborginis.
Are there any stats on the numbers of fat people clinically diagnosed with depression brought on specifically by looking at magazines? -
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January 31, 2012 at 14:30 -
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January 31, 2012 at 14:35 -
Hi is it ok if I post this on my Graunwatch site? with full credit and a link to this blog of course?
QRG
@Notorious_QRG -
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January 31, 2012 at 15:52 -
Most women are lovely – but not the ones in the picture.
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January 31, 2012 at 17:40 -
I suggest studying the society envisioned by Kurt Vonnegut in his 1961 story “Harrison Bergeron” and the duties of Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, to ensure that all ARE equal . By forcing people considered to be ‘too attractive ‘ to wear ugly masks and clothing – fixing weights to the fit & strong, distorting glasses to the literate – and distraction noise makers to those who try to think coherently.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_BergeronThe film hardly does justice to the concept – but the approach of the teacher in this clip – desperately trying to reduce her students marks – is eerily realistic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmEOI5zwFMM -
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January 31, 2012 at 19:49 -
“Every day people are confronted with images of the ‘perfect’ body that just don’t reflect the diverse society we live in.”
Luckily, these same people also coexist in ‘the diverse society we live in’ so are exposed to all the other body images as well.
MPs, wind your fucking necks in and maybe focus on your ‘Great Reform Bill’ or some of the other bollocks you lied about in order to get elected. That way you might keep your overpaid, overprivileged, unaccountable fucking noses out of stuff that has nothing to do with you.
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January 31, 2012 at 21:12 -
With regard to the female form, as my wise old father advised me, “Beauty is only a light-switch away, son”.
That simple mantra has served me well for a lifetime (although not without the occasional early-morning daylight eye-shock, I’ll admit). -
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January 31, 2012 at 21:54 -
Didn’t chairman Mao start this ‘everybody dress the same and look the same’ idea?
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February 1, 2012 at 10:17 -
Did anyone see the photo of Smartie Sandwiches supposedly found in some child’s lunch box? What a fun Mum she must be. I wished I’d thought of that.
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February 1, 2012 at 10:40 -
Taken to the farcical extreme. Who is going to ensure young mens magazines & websites reflect the average socialist yeti woman as standard rather than the girls who go to the gym & eat healthily.
I suggest the government create a quango to promote & enforce young men to be attracted to feminist yeti beasts in order to promote positive discrimination surely a world where a women with a mustache is not subject of a young mans masturbatory regime is a cruel and discriminatory world.
Advertising is really selling sex or sexual attractiveness and the idealized images are created to appeal to the highest number of persons. Imagine a world where Diane Abbott sells underwear or Harriet Harperson was a model.
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