Reactions expose naked truth
HDuff’s Women’s Health cover is, by all standards, a stunning photo — which is why I struggle to see what’s so ‘brave’ about it.
ilary Duff posed naked for a magazine cover this week and received a whole load of praise for her “bravery”. Britney Spears posted naked photos to Instagram this week and people cannot stop worrying about her “mental health”.
Two similar actions, both women choosing to show their bodies without clothes, received different reactions.
In a time when Roe v Wade could be about to be overturned in the United States, it feels almost silly to be talking about this topic but it all stems from the same root: the scrutiny over what women do with their bodies. It is 2022 and a woman can not so much as take her clothes off without someone else having a reckon about it.
Whether it is praising or shaming women for being naked, they are ways of policing what women do with their bodies.
Duff’s Women’s Health cover is, by all standards, a stunning photograph — which is why I struggle to see what’s so “brave” about it.
Here is a woman who has the privilege of wealth, health and thinness who, despite in her interview speaking candidly about how motherhood taught her to learn her body, is still on the cover of the magazine looking thin and flawless, not a gram of extra flesh or a single stretch mark in sight, perpetuating unrealistic stereotypes of post-partum bodies.
To Duff’s credit, in the interview, she did point out the glam of the photoshoot meant she was looking her absolute best on the cover.
“I’m proud of my body. I’m proud that it’s produced three children for me.
“I’ve gotten to a place of being peaceful with the changes my body has gone through,” she said.
“I also want people to know a makeup artist was there putting glow all over my body and someone put me in the most flattering position.”
On the other hand, Britney Spears has been criticised by “worried” fans after posting a series of naked photographs on Instagram, seemingly taken with a cellphone camera.
The comments have been flooding in, calling the photos “embarrassing” and expressing concern for the singer’s mental state.
The photos are admittedly grainy and low quality but surely that’s not where the concern for Spears’ mental health comes from; that could simply be solved by getting her a fancy new camera and teaching her about what Instagram filters to avoid.
Spears is choosing to post these photos. She has made no secret of the fact that her naked Instagram shoots, as grainy and low-res as they may be, are her way to reclaim her body after being held captive in her 13-year conservatorship.
And yet, despite her spelling out clearly that her photos are a means of empowerment to her, many are still choosing to ignore that.
Is it because she doesn’t care about looking perfect in them? Is it because the image is not edited to make her look flawless?
The reactions make it look like it is fine (actually, “brave”) when it’s the industry sexualising the woman’s body — when the act of photographing and showing it involves a photoshoot crew, complete with a makeup team to make it look as pleasing to the male gaze as possible.
However, when it’s the woman herself in control, when it’s her taking selfies with her cellphone, owning her own image, not worrying about making it look perfect for anybody else, suddenly we’re all very worried about her wellbeing.
I’d argue that, in a society that favours thinness and flawless skin, not giving a flying toss about looking perfect is a whole lot braver than a glam shot.
But the reality is we shouldn’t even be judging either of them.
I don’t know what is so “brave” about Duff’s nude photo and I don’t know what’s so “embarrassing” about Spears’ naked Instagram shots, but there is one thing I do know: what women choose to do with their bodies is entirely up to them.