SUSANNA REID:
Why you can be a feminist and on a diet
AS SoMeone who doesn’t find it easy to maintain a healthy weight (thanks to a weakness for custard creams), I work hard to stay in shape.
and I’ve always been thrilled when someone notices. the words: ‘You look amazing, have you lost weight?’ are music to my ears. apparently, this now makes me part of the problem of size discrimination in our society.
talking about weight at all — even your own — has become increasingly tricky, especially if you dare to say that you would quite like to lose a few pounds.
the fast-growing body positivity movement encourages women to feel happy with their bodies, whatever their size or shape. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a breath of fresh air — so many of us, especially young girls, could do with the self-esteem boost — but it has reached the point where, instead of learning to feel good about ourselves and worry less about our appearance, women are being scared into silence.
a recent survey found that a quarter of young women are too scared to discuss dieting because they fear being branded ‘anti-feminist’.
apparently, as feminists, we are not supposed to be concerned about our weight. oh, how I wish this were true.
Meanwhile, one of Britain’s top ballet dancers said that the effects of fat-shaming are so damaging that it should be treated like racism. She’s backed up by 100 academics, who say weight-based prejudice is rife. the nhS, they claim, leaves the overweight feeling stigmatised and shamed.
there’s no doubt there is terrible fat-shaming from some quarters. It’s something I often argue about with Piers on Good Morning Britain — he agrees with american comedian Bill Maher, who says ‘shame is the first step in reform’, whereas I reject that notion because feeling bad can drive comfort eating.
Yet Jeremy Clarkson wants to harness fat-shaming to prevent obesity in children. he wrote over the weekend: ‘I would urge the thin and the good-looking to step up their fat attacks. Blow out your cheeks when passing us in the street. Because if we, the grown-ups, stop being fat, then it’s likely our children will stop being fat as well.’
But surely anyone who’s ever tried to lose weight knows this approach is nonsense. there’s nothing positive about being humiliated for your size. take it from me — my weight has been a talking point in the Press and on social media, and I’ve always been honest about the fact I find it hard to maintain the shape you see on tV. emotional eating is part of the problem, as it often is for those who struggle with their weight. I am guilty of eating at times of stress or to reward myself for hard work.
But there’s a difference between Clarkson making jokes about commenting on other people’s weight, and health professionals being able to give sensible advice.
I’m grateful to the doctor who told me that my weight was getting out of control in 2018, that my Body Mass Index was heading towards ‘overweight’.
Plenty of campaigners would say that he ‘fat-shamed’ me. nonsense. It was the medical opinion of someone with my best interests at heart. I gave up snacking and alcohol and lost a stone and a half. I was proud of my achievement and still am, even as I inch up the scales again.
So, am I part of the problem? I don’t believe so. I think it’s important to speak openly about the ways we stay healthy.
one person who has been incredibly candid about their weight this week is the bright and brilliant Miriam Margolyes, who tackled the issue in Miriam’s Big Fat adventure on BBC2.
She says of herself that she is fat, but not proud. Yet her own reasons for carrying extra weight are straightforward. ‘Food brings me great joy,’ she says, ‘and I eat rather too much of it.’
her deep compassion when she meets a young woman who describes her binge-eating as ‘self-harm’ is matched by her transparent pride when a young man loses weight and improves his mental health.
I wish more people were this caring and genuine. I wish we could find a way to support each other without being cruel.
But banning all talk of diets doesn’t help anyone.