lynchmere

I have blogged elsewhere about my own struggles with body image so I have to declare an interest in this topic, but the latest round of Britain’s Got Talent has yet again highlighted for me the ongoing media message that there is an objective thing called ‘beauty’, and to be successful in our society you must possess it. Specifically, women must possess it - men must either possess it themselves or be associated with a woman who does.

If Susan Boyle were a 25 year old leggy blonde, the impact of her singing voice would not have been anywhere near what it was - the whole world has evinced astonishment that a middle-aged lady who does not (sorry - did not) pluck her eyebrows and has a matronly figure and a face blissfully innocent of makeup, let alone plastic surgery, can hold an audience the way she can. Paul Potts attracted comments about his uneven teeth, but being male his imperfections were more excusable.

Female beauty, in our media, is defined as young, probably blonde, flawless skin, large breasts, tiny waist and hips and long slender legs. the only female whose original figure complies with those criteria is Barbie - and she’s made of plastic, which just about says it all.

The truth is, celebrities in the media spotlight who have been ‘persuaded’ to engineer their bodies to conform to such expectations do so through punishing diet and exercise regimes, resorting to botox and the surgeon’s knife, and even then ensuring any images of them are extensively airbrushed before publication. That flawless skin isn’t nature - it’s photoshop. And if you want a body like those in the glossy mags, you must have the time, energy, willpower and money to hire a personal trainer, survive on half a carrot and two lettuce leaves a day and spent nine hours in the gym.

Ok, maybe slight exaggeration, but you get the picture. The truth is, naturally skinny women don’t have large breasts - they don’t have the frame to support them. On the other hand, if you have naturally big boobs, you also have to live with the fact that the rest of your body isn’t going to be the required size zero. I fall into the latter category and have wasted a good proportion of my life envying friends who can go braless in summer, wear backless evening dresses and break into a run comfortably without worrying about whether they put on their reinforced sports bra that day.

The other day I attended an event entitled Bustival - a celebration of buses, I hasten to add, not busts - although I did promise a few friends I would do my best to subvert the meaning, and success was evidenced by my husband’s female colleague asking him ‘How does your wife get a cleavage like that? Does she put something in her bra?’ Blissfully ignorant of the existence of ‘chicken fillets’ or even push up bras, hubby replied: ‘No - it’s all her. They’re just naturally big.’ Back came the commment: ‘Lucky cow’.

Luckily too, despite the page 3 tabloid culture, men have different tastes in women. Although, in my opinion, ‘real men’ prefer voluptuous women - well, I would think that, my skinny sisters say. My logic is that in the wild, the alpha male seeks out the female who is likely to provide him with the healthiest offspring. An ex-boyfriend’s chat up line: ‘I like women with good child-bearing hips’ demonstrates a similar choice criteria.

The truth is, human beings are all different - we’re unique, and that’s what makes life interesting. It would be truly boring if everyone looked the same, whatever the tabloid media and glossy mags try to sell us. And ’sell’ reveals the real motivation - the more we are made to believe we should be blonder, slimmer, bustier and smoother of complexion, the more money we will spend on hair dye, slimming products and services, surgery and skin care products - and the more money someone wll make - and it’s not us! Even the magazines are making money by selling us this lie.

Susan Boyle will be doing something to redress the balance if she joins the - ironically, extremely slim - ranks of famous women who resist the lure of ‘the Beauty Myth’ as Naomi Wolf calls it. We need more real women as role models for today’s teenage girls who are already being told to wax, cream, and diet themselves into misery and possible oblivion.

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