The Daily Mail received a huge backlash when it released an article body-shaming Jennifer Aniston who was photographed happily returning home from her honeymoon. The article's headline pulled no punches ...
Since I was 16 I have, on a daily basis, felt overwhelmed by the media and tabloids' sensational body shaming, so much so that such humiliating headlines are sadly accepted as the norm! Until now - it seems - judging by the furious responses from the public on social media. One of the main gripes appears to be the constant contradiction on female body image dished out by these publications ... one minute it's #bodypositive ... the next it's #whoateallthepies!
Half the time, as women, it is almost impossible to know how to feel about our bodies, especially when they are so freely used to sell products from cars to beef burgers. Women are used to incite people, to sexy up products... to appeal... As a result, our bodies have become just another commodity or product; which leads to women being treated like objects - objects which people in our society feel obliged to criticize and comment upon - just like the car she is bending over!
Even though it seems that men are slightly more objectified in today's advertising compared to the past, I still feel that the constant scrutiny is something that men just have not had to endure. When a woman's body is not selling something, we are being told about its every weight fluctuation, every hair, every scar, and every nipple! Nothing proves my theory of an imbalance more than other articles published a few months earlier by The Daily Mail, where it seemed the publication had a slightly more favourable critique of Leonardo Dicaprio's and other Men's body shape...
Witnessing this blatant contradiction myself sparked something in me. I wanted to know what normal people really think about these headlines and women's bodies in general. So in a new public opinion show; That's Your Opinion, I hit the streets of London to ask people ...
Are Women's Bodies More Criticised Than Men's?
In my opinion women's bodies are more criticised, and it seems their harshest critics are often women themselves. In part I believe we have been, as a society, nurtured by media and archaic notions of old establishment into a disrespectful mind-set regarding women. But I think that part of the mind-set may come from a slightly more unintentional place in all of us.
You see in one way or another every single person has been born from or has a woman's body. A woman's body was once a warm cosy home for all of us, her breast our 24hr restaurant...
Perhaps all our interest in, and open criticism of women's bodies merely stems from child-like notions, and taking this into consideration perhaps explains why the image of women is so successfully used to sell things! We trust our Mummies and 'Sexy' is just code for 'able to reproduce'. If my theory has any truth, in short, it may in that case be time for us as a society to collectively grow up and start respecting, appreciating and loving all women's bodies no matter what they look like!
Well, that's just my opinion! ... What's Yours?