This is such a well-meant article, I feel kinda bad criticising it, but criticise it I must.
Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone thinks all women should aspire to be size 14. She wants women like Christina Hendricks to be role models, promoting the curvy, hourglass figure. She wants airbrushed magazine pictures to carry warnings, as the images may lead to mental health problems, eating disorders and low self-esteem in women and men.
It's such a lovely idea that we should all just be content with the shape we are, without feeling pressured by the media to look a certain way. It really, truly is, and I'm all for it. But I don't think Ms Featherstone is taking into account that dress size and body shape are two different things. I'm a size 14. I've got an hourglass figure. But not everyone at size 14 does - some people are apple-shaped. Some are pear. If I dropped a dress size I wouldn't suddenly become a scrawny stick insect.
Conversely, I have friends who are tiny - size 8s and 6s, and if they went up to a size 14, they wouldn't look curvacious, they'd look overweight. And some of them simply do not gain weight anyway, no matter how they live - are they going to be singled out as too thin, and thus contributing towards everyone else's personal misery? Then there's the fact that everyone carries weight in different areas of their bodies. If I gain weight, it all goes on my stomach and thighs. So as well-intentioned as Ms Featherstone's comments are a little ... misguided?
I'd love to see more "real models" being used in the media. I completely agree that the myth of the unattainable celebrity body does terrible things to peoples' self-esteem and self-perception. As someone who struggles with their weight constantly and can be incredibly unhappy with what I see in the mirror, I find the whole Hollywood beauty ideal disheartening, frustrating, and upsetting. But making a blanket declaration that all women should be a size 14 is no better than the Hollywood myth that all women should be size zeroes. Different people have different body types. End of story. Yes, we should all be healthy. But health and dress size are not the same thing at all. Christina Hendricks may be a size 14, but she's also quite obviously toned and healthy. If you put me next to her, I'd look a lot bigger than her. Instead of telling us we should all be one size or another, how about telling us we should be whatever makes us happy and healthy?
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