It was only a few days ago that I wrote about Jennifer Love Hewitt and Tyra Banks and the perplexing way celebs who are larger than size 8 declare they love their bodies and then lose lots of weight and post for air-brushed photos. Confusing, no? And today I’m bringing to you another part of the toxic relationship between celebrities, body image and the media that is even more extraordinary.
When I first saw the pictures of 40 year old UK TV weather presenter and new mother Clare Nasir working out in public, I was momentarily stumped. The outfit she chose to wear for the occasion must be seen to be believed and even then you won’t believe it.
Even though this is what many women would look like under their clothes, it’s still surprising to see it in the media. So should it be cause for celebration? Should Clare Nasir be applauded for being so comfortable with her body that she was happy to wear workout clothes smaller than many women’s underwear? In public?
Accompanied by a fitness trainer and positioned in a park in North London earlier this week, she sweated her way through a series of stomach crunches before moving on to a spot of box-ercise and skipping.
And – shock, horror – guess what happened? A paparazzi photographer was passing, captured the unfolding scene and then pinged the ensuing pictures across the world.
First, there are those who praise Miss Nasir for her lack of self-consciousness, asking what has the world come to when a woman can’t pop into the park for a bit of a workout without the world passing judgment on her post-baby body?
Next is the polar opposite view – that Miss Nasir must have temporarily lost her marbles. No woman in her right mind, they say, would go to the gym in such a revealing outfit, let alone out in public.
Last but not least comes an army of cynics. They question how someone like Miss Nasir – an intelligent woman with a degree in maths and an abundance of media savvy – could be caught out in such an embarrassing way.
Boxing
Might it not be the case, they suggest, that she knows full-well that any ‘pain’ she suffers as a result of the pictures will be more than compensated by financial gain?
My bet is that once again the joke is on us. Sure, it’s her body, she has the right to do with it whatever she chooses. But we have to be aware that celebrities do use their bodies and their weight loss (which is often greatly exaggerated with digital alteration to make the story more ‘compelling’) to mess with our minds.
In The Beauty Myth back in the 90s, feminist author Naomi Wolf made a strong case for the way beauty companies make us feel inadequate about ourselves so that we’ll be more likely to buy their products. In the 2000s, it seems that celebrities are turning their flesh into currency in order to boost their profiles and make money off our insecurities. And that makes my head hurt.
So what do you think? A well thought out manipulation of the media or was Clare Nasir simply choosing to exercise in a bikini in a park in London?
Top Comments
She's too old to dress like that ... not that a young woman should go around looking like this either. Go put some clothes on, Droopy. EEW
With the huge push to accept 'curvy' and 'voluptuous' women we seem to have forgotten that it may now be statistically normal to be overweight, it is not a good thing. I'm not talking about being some diet obsessed rail thin neurotic, but I'm so sick of fat people trying to make out that being ideal (and I mean medically accepted ideal) weight for height is somehow not normal. Stop talking about your curves and call it what it is - FAT!