FEATURE:
The Importance of Promoting Body Positivity
IN THIS PHOTO: Jorja Smith/PHOTO CREDIT: Petros/Net-A-Porter
Why Recent Words from Kate Winslet Can Be Applied to the Music Industry
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A conversation that…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Winslet attends the UK premiere of Lee, at the Odeon Luxe/PHOTO CREDIT: James Manning/PA
has been ongoing for years, I wonder whether body positivity and promoting real body sizes and shapes is as encouraged and celebrated in music as it should be. When we think of women having to conform to a particular shape and size for roles and to be seen as popular and appealing, you go to acting and Hollywood. In terms of films and women cast in starring roles, you feel there is still a bias towards women who are thinner and more toned. Perhaps an ideal in terms of body size. How often do we get films where women with fuller figures are in the spotlight? It makes me think about the music industry and how there is still prejudice around body image. How women are often judged on their size and figure and there is this unconscious bias and desire for a particular look. Thinner seen as desirable. Things have shifted since decades past, though I think we are a long way from seeing discriminated ended and women of all sizes embraced. In a recent interview, Kate Winslet spoke about here experienced on a film set and why women should celebrate realistic body shapes:
“Actress Kate Winslet has told the BBC that women should celebrate "being a real [body] shape" after being told on a recent film set to sit up straighter to hide her belly rolls.
Speaking about her upcoming film Lee on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Winslet said it was her job to be like her character - the fashion model turned acclaimed World War Two photographer Elizabeth `Lee' Miller.
"She wasn’t lifting weights or doing Pilates. She was eating cheese, bread and drinking wine, and not making a big deal of it. So of course, her body would be soft," Winslet said.
She said women should celebrate “being a real shape, being soft and maybe having a few extra rolls”.
The actress says a 'conversation is needed' about labelling women
“We’re so used to perhaps not necessarily seeing that and enjoying it. The instinct weirdly is to see it and criticise it," she said. “It’s interesting how much people do like labels for women."
Winslet said the topic is a conversation that needs to be had.
“Life is too short,” she added. “I don’t want to look back and go 'why did I worry about that thing' and so guess what - I don’t worry anymore.”
Winslet, 48, has been a champion for women and has openly spoken out against body shaming in the past.
Winslet plays war photojournalist Elizabeth `Lee' Miller, during World War Two
In a recent interview with Harper's Bazaar UK, Winslet, external spoke of being told to sit up straighter to hide her “belly rolls” while on set filming Lee”.
How long will it take until Hollywood evolves and improves. That we are no longer in a position where actors like Kate Winslet are encouraged to hide any rolls or any of their body because it is seen as unglamorous or too much. This sizeism and misogyny that does not apply to men in the same way. Even if there is still prejudice there, there are examples where men with larger or real figures are not subjected to the same negative focus and degradation. Like they should be ashamed. It is good Winslet has spoken out, as it will hopefully lead to more conversation about the way women are judged. A clear misogyny and sexism in Hollywood that should end! The music industry doesn’t seem much better. Artists such as Lizzo have come out in recent years to share her experiences of body-shaming. How she has had to deal with so many nasty, vile and cruel comments about her body. We should be highlighting women with real body shapes. Not keep this decades-long narrative that there is an ideal look and size. Think about all the music videos and magazine covers from the 1990s and 2000s. How there was this over-sexualisation of women. When women have agency and are controlling their image then that is empowering. However, these women still are of a particular size. Very sexy, for sure, but bodies that are thinner and more conventionally desirable. Women who are fuller and curvier subjected to so much judgment and misogyny. Body-shaming and any discrimination against women’s bodies has no place in music. It still happens. There are articles like this that show artists like Lizzo and Adele are among the artists who make listeners feel most positive about their bodies. How songs by Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus are really inspiring body-positivity anthems. However, if you take some of this with a pinch of salt, it is clear how body positivity has come out of a long tradition of artists, especially women, being negatively judged and subjected to negativity if they have real body shapes.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kesha/PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Morris/WireImage
Last year, Jorja Smith was the subject of body-shaming comments. It was an eye-opening and shocking moment when it showed how far we haven’t come! How women are still open and vulnerable to being shamed and abused because of their bodies. Lizzo has experienced continued body-shaming. CMAT has also been subjected to body-shaming. Whilst some call it fat-shaming, I think that ‘fat’ is an term that should be phased out. It suggests these women are overweight or unhealthy. In fact, they have perfectly healthy bodies and are not unhealthily overweight. Even if they were, then being attacked because of that is incredibly destructive and dangerous. The effect that has on their mental health. Kesha recently experienced body-shaming, though she has hit back. Rather than it running her or making her quit, it has actually made her feel more confident. It should not be down to women to speak out and ask for change! The industry needs to change. Women of all sizes need to be equal. Real body shapes featured and celebrated more. Anyone body-shaming should be blocked on social media. It is a form of misogyny that should not be tolerated in the modern age. Christina Aguilera has spoken about how music bosses said they preferred her when she was younger and skinnier – not fans of her ‘thicker’ look. It is such Stone Age and appalling language to use towards a woman. I realise that men in the industry experience it. Billie Eilish has experienced body-shaming through her career, but she came under attack for suggesting men do not experience it in the same way. Maybe tone-deaf, there is some truth to say men do not experience it as much.
IN THIS PHOTO: Christina Aguilera/PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Winter
Think back to Hollywood and how women are denied roles because of their figure. How there is this body-shaming. Air-brushed to an inch of their life. Those with fuller figures not as prominently on covers and applauded on the red carpet as much as other women. Angel Nkomo, Latto and Tones and I have also recently opened up about their body-shaming experiences. I really hate that women still have to endure so much abuse. Sexual assault, trolling, misogyny of various forms. In 2024, we should not have to highlight so many alarming cases of women being targeted and judged. Body-shaming is running alongside body positivity. There are many women in the industry promoting bodies of all shapes, though you wonder whether labels, bosses and the industry in general will ever make a real effort to shake their discriminations and age-old prejudices. It is disgusting that women cannot be who they are and made to feel confident and sexy in their own skin! The sort of comments that they are subjected to constantly. The narrative needs to change. In the same way Kate Winslet is speaking out in Hollywood, we have incredible women speaking out in music. Incredible men and non-binary artists like Sam Smith highlighting an ill and disturbingly regressive attitude that is causing so much harm to so many artists. Instead of putting down and shaming women like CMAT, Lizzo and Christina Aguilera, they should be seen as role models. How inspiring they are! This idea that there is an ideal shape. Anything else seen as abnormal or unappealing. It creates this stigma that is going to see so many women leave the industry. It sets a toxic example and will make those coming into the industry think twice about a career if they think they will be body-shamed. Women with real and fuller shapes should be…
RESPECTED and admired!