I saw this story in the Daily Mail today (I was looking for work reasons, not for pleasure), and just had to comment….
When I saw it, it was one of the lead stories on the home page. It showed a picture of two attractive women, one fat and one thin. By fat I mean perfectly normal UK size, not a size ten, but not some sort of fifty stone ‘the woman who hasn’t left her bed for ten years’ channel five documentary type fat. It was basically two ordinary women.
The headline next to it read “one is a virgin, one has had 50 lovers. Can you guess which is which? You may be surprised by the answer…”
You click through…
The fat woman has had 50 lovers!!
Surely not??
Shock horror!! You don’t have to be a size zero to enjoy a healthy sex life!! You can be a size 16 and not repulse people!!
And that’s NEWS apparently.
I mean. Really. If you need an example of why The Daily Mail is a Bad Thing, then this is perfect. This is Daily Mail at its women-hating best. Is it any wonder that women have such issues with body image when this is the kind of bullshit our minds are being filled with? The men and women reading this are supposed to be genuinely surprised are they that a women who is a stone or two heavier than average might actually be attractive and feel good about herself?
That’s all.
*fumes quietly*
And yet… have you seen how popular it claims to be with women? Maybe they read it for a joke. It’s a comic after all…
Well that’s the REALLY scary bit of course…
Yet another example of the trash the Daily Mail comes out with. Sadly I know a few people (my M-I-L) who read it. WHY???
I really don’t know. Maybe it makes people feel good about themselves to focus on all the OTHER people who are clearly responsible for all the worlds ills, like the single mums, the foriegners…
The “fat” one (not fat in my opinion) is very sexy to me in that article. As for size zero, pffft. Have you seen Christina Hendricks ? Enough said.
And your problem is what?
This world of fear and shame is real isn’t it?
* the mail mail
M2m
I mean the lady in the grey BTW. 50 lovers is too many, that turns me right off.
I’m interested that you think 50 is too many. Why does that turn you off? IS there is number which is too high? And if so, why?
I don’t know what the “number” is, but 50 is certainly above it. It’s all about context, one of my early girlfriends told me I was number 9, considering she was just 18 that was too many IMO.
I’m still not quite sure what you mean by ‘too many’ – too many for what? If you think about sex as just a natural, enjoyable part of life, then isn’t that like saying someone has had too many nice meals, or holidays, or run too many marathons?
hang on a minute Jo, don’t you write for the Daily Mail on occasion ?
Yes, I have done once (they pay shockingly well) – I was going with the ‘keep your friends close, your enemies closer’ school of thought. They did such a brutal edit job though, and I was so shocked by all the hideous comments… I’d never write for them again.
I also saw that article and restrained myself from commenting after a gush of comments earlier in the week. I fear they are going to start moderating me quite heavily – or blocking my ISP ;)
It’s so tempting to get sucked in isn’t it? You just know though that it will do no good – you’ll never change these people’s minds – they’ll just think you are a nutter :-)
Those women are all ghastly. The ‘revelations’ contained in that article say more about the low or nonexistent standards of most guys than anything else.
Ghastly eh? Perhaps you meant to leave that comment on the Mail site??
*applauds*
Link this ipost to @melaina25/ transatlanticblonde’s blog roundup tomorrow on topic of feminism:fashion, will you please? So more people can be angry/ repulsed & avoid the Daily Mail? It is sickening, truly sickening, & I am sometimes glad I don’t have daughters. Sons are hard enough without the constant size zero, bring pretty is all that matters, message being rammed home by every magazine.
Ooh, good idea, I will do!
Firstly, why should we know this personal, intimate detail about anyone? Secondly, what makes anyone else superior enough to judge whether it’s shocking or not, and thirdly, why would these women feel it’s OK to announce the number of lovers they’ve had to the world and open themselves wide to this kind of criticism, which as usual becomes petty and personal? If they had self-confidence before it will have taken a serious knock after the insulting comments that have been left. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which is just as well as there’d be a lot of lonely people in the world otherwise. We can’t all be airbrushed and liposuctioned! Live and let live. It’s their life and their decision to make.
Can I fume quietly with you Jo?
Fume away :-)
I do wonder if these women knew what they would be letting themselves in for. The comments on the Mail website in particular are normally pretty brutal and I’m sure they’ll be plenty of bitter men with axes to grind, as per usual.
That’s tooooo funny!!! I read that today too and laughed my ass off as obviously fat people like me shouldn’t be having sex!!! Typical bloody Daily Mail!!!!
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read things like that. It’s fine if you take it with a pinch of salt, but scary to think there are thousands of people reading it and taking it seriously…
Oh dear, that paper has a lot to answer for. I am pretty sure those women thought it was a jolly good idea to put themselves forward for one reason or another but the Daily Fail/Wail takes no prisoners. Its a crap article in a crap paper. Full stop.
It really doesn’t does it? Bloody Mail….
Lets make women feel bad about their weight and their sexual past- double whammy!
Thanks for posting and make sure to grab the Feminist Friday badge and check out the other posts, too!
No probs, I think the feminist friday is a fantastic idea!
That kind of crap annoys me. It is like the rags here that do ‘stories’ on celebs without makeup or celebs and their cellulite. Really? Here is a news flash: women come in all sizes, shapes, and attitudes.
Ergh I know – “Shock!! Celeb has inch of fat on thigh!!” I mean really. It is so annoying.
Heh heh, good old Daily Hate. We occasionally play a Call My Bluff type party game (I know, should probably just drink more wine/get out more/stop holding crap parties) in which you have to guess the real Daily Bird headline. Amazing how often people say, ‘Nooo way can it be THAT one’ only to find that the ‘roger the fat bird story’ is actually true. Tho the people who do guess the correct headlines are often more worrying.
That sounds like an excellent game! I may save up some good ones for a Christmas Day after dinner game special :-)
Thats the daily mail for you! And to think it was a lead story. Is that really news according to someone??!?!
It must have been a slow day. I hope….
yeah like the dotterel says I believe this rag is popular with women and I’m sure the Daily Mail aren’t daft …they give em what they want. It’s a shame of course but I think they’re just tapping into what many women feel, self loathing about their bodies
tis a great shame that articles like this keep being peddled though
It says a lot I think about how women feel about themselves and there bodies that we buy so many newspapers and magazines that criticise other women – is it to a reassurance of some kind?? It IS a shame though that the media just keep feeding into it, whatever it is.