Six months later, the size zero debate, as it's been labelled, is still in full swing. Albeit, with a twist. Recently, it seems that celebrities are falling over themselves in an effort to show how unhealthy the size zero obsession has become – from Victoria Beckham (queen of the super-skinnies) banning size zero models from her fashion show, to ex-pop star and ex-model Louise Redknapp recently filming a documentary called "The Truth About Size Zero".
Victoria Beckham
I watched Louise's documentary last week on TV and it aroused two surprising reactions from me. Firstly, it made me want to lose weight which, I gather, was not the intended reaction. And secondly, it made me want to throw my shoe at the TV for glamourising the whole process. More about both of these issues in a sec.
The background to the documentary is that Louise used to be pop star and then became a model, once voted "Sexiest Woman of the Decade" by FHM magazine. She is a US size 4 (UK size 8). In an effort to show how dangerous the size zero obsession is, she decided to make a documentary in which she would attempt to drop two dress sizes, from a US 4 to a US 0, in four weeks.
At the beginning of the documentary, she had the obligatory health check so the doctor could say that she was in perfect health and to urge her not to undertake this crash diet. But, because Louise really feels so strongly about this issue, she ignored the doctor's warnings and went for it.
Over the next four weeks, we watched Louise eating lots of salads, working out like a maniac, getting a bit grumpy and tired, and eventually achieving her goal and slinking into a size zero dress. Then she threw the dress in the bin and went out for a slap up meal with her mates.
Was that the truth about size zero? Bollocks.
Watching that programme made me want to lose weight. I'm going on holiday in two months' time, so thoughts of diet and exercise and bikinis are foremost in my mind. I found myself watching this programme and making notes of what Louise was eating to help her lose weight quickly. And that's not because I'm messed up in the head or have low self-esteem or a poor body image. It's because Louise made it look so easy. Ok, so she couldn't have a big plate of pasta for dinner with her husband and child. Instead, she had what looked like a really bloody tasty salad. And it made me think "Shit, I could eat salad for a month if it meant I dropped two dress sizes!" And I'm not the only one who felt the same way. Listening to the radio on my way into work the next day, the station was flooded with calls from girls saying the same thing – "if Louise showed she could drop from a 4 to a 0 in four weeks, then surely I could drop from a 10 to a 6 in the same amount of time?"
Rather than showing how dangerous this kind of crash dieting is, Louise merely demonstrated that it is ultimately achievable.
And that was the overwhelming message that I came away with – that if you starve yourself and exercise like a demon for a month, you can easily drop two dress sizes. Sure, you might not sleep well and you might argue with your nearest and dearest a bit because you're hungry, but it's only for a month! And then you'll be fine! And skinny!
There were other major problems with the documentary also. Louise had "before" and "after" photos taken to show the difference in her size (and there was a big difference, which was surprising considering she was a petite size 4 to begin with). During the "after" photoshoot the photographer commented that Louise was looking fantastic. Then he must have quickly remembered that this was a documentary about the dangers of starving yourself to become a size zero and said "But how do you feel?" to which she replied "Awful" as she beamed at the camera. No further remark was made about the photographer's comment.
During the documentary Louise also trained at Barry's Bootcamp and had personal sessions with big Barry himself – the man responsible for sculpting the skinny bodies of people such as Teri Hatcher and Katie Holmes. This bit shocked me because when Louise told him she wanted to become a size zero, he looked her up and down and said "Ok, let's do it." He didn't even bat an eyelid. He didn't once look at this beautiful slim, healthy girl and ask "But why do you want to be a size zero?" To him, it was just business. And at the end – during her last workout session with Barry when she looked like she was ready to drop dead from exhaustion, he congratulated her and told her she looked fantastic. What kind of fucked up message is that to send out to people?
But what really, really annoyed me about this programme is that at the end, Louise said that she spent two months carefully reintroducing normal food back into her diet (the doc told her that if she suddenly started eating normally again, it would really mess up her body) and that now she's "loving her curves" once again.
Now, in my opinion, the following women have curvy figures:
All are beautiful women, with perfectly proportioned, curvy figures.
This is what Louise Redknapp looks like:
I'm sorry, but I don't see any curves. She's got a gorgeous, slim figure. But she's not curvy.
Now, the problem I have with people calling a woman with a slim, size 4 four figure "curvy" is that it doesn't portray a very positive image for those of us who are more like the four ladies above. I'm a US size 10, and I have curves. But, if a size 4 is considered curvy, then what does that make me? Fat?
What about women who are bigger than me? What about someone who, for example, is a size 12 (i.e., Marilyn Monroe)? Would she be considered fat by today's standards? Sadly, within the fashion and film industry, the answer is probably "yes".
The problem with Louise's documentary, and the reason that it seems to have had absolutely the wrong effect on women who feel that they should lose weight is that Louise only made vague hints at the bad side of crash dieting to become size zero. She didn't even touch on the ugly side.
There was a very similar documentary shown at the beginning of February in which a journalist, Dawn Porter, who is a UK size 12, which is a US size 8, did the same thing – starved herself and exercised constantly - to try to drop to a size zero in eight weeks.
Dawn Porter in Hollywood
Dawn did everything that Louise did – medical checkup, ridiculously low-calorie diet, Barry's Bootcamp, etc. – but Dawn showed the really ugly side of crash dieting. This programme was made in a similar vein to Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me, which showed him puking out his car window after wolfing down two Big Macs. Similarily, whilst in LA Dawn heard that a lot of models and skinny girls were drinking some concoction made of water, maple syrup and cayenne pepper. Dawn got some of this, knocked it back and proceeded to dry heave and retch as her stomach tried to reject the vile liquid.
Dawn also tried to get to the root of the problem, to find out why size zero is increasingly touted as the ideal size for women. She delivers doughnuts to Nicole Richie's house, and tries to deliver a piece of cake to Victoria Beckham's Madrid mansion. She wheels a designer dress-wearing skeleton into the offices of one of the top modelling agencies and tries to get an interview with Dawn Riva, head of the British Fashion Council to find out why the UK hasn't banned unhealthy models.
I think the most memorable part of Dawn's documentary was when she went for Christmas dinner at home, about halfway through her diet. This is her diary entry from that day:
"Woke up about 8am, the house stank of food. Aunty was preparing half a pig and toast for breakfast. I shoved past and got some melon out of the fruit bowl. I had to sort my attitude out - I didn't want to be so moody and horrible but I just couldn't help it.
We opened presents and I worked hard to ignore all the smoked salmon and champagne that was floating around. I hated every second of it.
At lunch time I had a small slice of turkey and some steamed veg. It was rubbish. When everyone else made their way through cheese, pudding, coffee, chocolate, I sat in front of the telly on my own feeling like life was pointless. I was so down, I just wanted Christmas to be over.
I have hated the last few weeks. Everyone is so bloody happy and I feel the worst of my life. From my view point every body is being hysterical and needs to calm down."
Watching Dawn eat a sliver of turkey and a measly portion of veg (which she didn't even finish) whilst every one else's plates were heaped with delicious food showed how utterly ridiculous this whole diet was.
Dawn and her skeleton
What's more interesting is that Dawn admitted that as she started losing weight, she quickly became obsessed with it. In fact, she was thrilled with the amount of weight that she was losing, with the fact that her stomach was flat, and she was excited about losing more weight. There were some days where she ate less than 250 calories in the day. Pretty soon, all she could think about was food.
At the end of the programme, Dawn didn't make it to a size zero. I think she slimmed down to a size 2. Again, I think this showed the dangers of the whole size zero culture, more so than Louise's documentary. This showed that, despite starving herself and exercising like crazy and being sick and irrational and depressed, etc. for eight weeks, she still didn't lose those last few pounds. It was like her body's way of saying "STOP! FOR GOD'S SAKE PLEASE STOP!" It definitely had a bigger impact on my mindset and made me determined to stick to a healthy eating plan (which I am doing) and exercising regularly (which I am doing) rather than obsessively, and that I don't actually need to lose weight, but only need to tone up to be confident in my bikini.
What's interesting is that during her diet, Dawn went on a date with a guy that she had dated a few times before. Previously, they'd always had a great time, but this time she couldn't relax, she talked about food obsessively and was on edge for the whole date. Afterwards, her date said that she'd been awful company, really aggressive and a completely different person from when they'd dated previously.
I think a lot of men don't understand why women seem to be on an eternal quest to be slim. They think "But men don't like skinny women? Why bother?" But that's not why we do it. During her diet, Dawn said that men didn't find her sexy, but women kept telling her she looked fantastic. And that's what kept her going.
As we discussed in my previous blog, women are bombarded with images of "beauty" from all angles – in advertisements, in magazines, on television, etc. And all these images of beauty come in the shape of slim, toned women. Celebrities get slammed for being too skinny, but god help them if they put on weight. Tyra Banks got slammed for putting on weight after she gave up modelling, despite the fact that she still looks gorgeous. And we've all heard about or seen that rant about how she may have put on weight but she's happy with her body and she loves her mama, etc. And I say "Kudos to you, Tyra!"
But…
And there's always a but…
But, Tyra spent about five minutes talking about how the newspapers claimed that she'd put on 40 pounds when she'd only actually put on about ten. So, despite the fact that she seemed to be giving the two fingers to the media and their dodgy photo angles, she was still sending out the "I didn't put on that much weight! I'm not that fat!" message.
Not only that, but I was watching the first episode of season 7 (I think) of America's Next Top Model the other day in which they were choosing the ten or thirteen or however many models for the remainder of the show. There was one girl, I can't remember her name, who was painfully thin. Her hipbones and ribs were practically poking through her skin. Even the judges grilled her (no pun intended) about whether or not she was anorexic. She said she was trying to bulk up but was finding it difficult. The judges said that she didn't look healthy, and that no agency would book her because she was too thin. However, she still made it through the next two rounds.
What message does that send out?
The whole Hollywood culture of size zero is still shrouded in mystery, with suddenly-skinny celebs swearing that they're "naturally lanky" and that's how they dropped three stone in three weeks. Still nobody's talking about the fact that half the people in Hollywood are munching on Clenbuterol, a medication made for horses with breathing problems. The pill kills your appetite and melts away fat whilst retaining muscle. Some people have reported weight loss of 10 to 15 pounds in two weeks. The side effects, however, are that it can bloody well kill you. It raises your blood pressure and heart rate, putting you at major risk of heart attack.
All in all, I don't see the size zero problem disappearing (oh, puntastic!) any time soon. On the one hand, we're being told that size zero automatically equals unhealthy, but there are plenty of healthy women out there who are naturally a size zero. That can't be doing their self esteem any favours. At the same time, the fact that designer dresses only go up to a UK size 10, which is a US size 6, sends out the message that anyone bigger than this doesn't deserve to wear nice clothes.
Personally, I've stopped buying magazines like Heat which shriek about how skinny Nicole Richie is, whilst at the same time doing a five page spread on the latest celeb to gain three pounds (complete with arrows pointing out the wobbly bits). Magazines like that do nothing to reinforce a positive body image, and in fact just end up confusing you. I've stopped watching those "DANGER! DANGER!!! CELEBS WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE!!!" programmes on E! I make sure to eat healthily and exercise regularly and it seems to be working for me. I'm just glad I don't live in LA.
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