The current cover of NME features a naked photo of Beth Ditto. Last week a celebrity gossip magazine also put the same image on the cover, juxtaposed with a series of way-too-thin women with fake breasts in bikinis, and an exclusive titled Mel B’s Amazing Diet Secret.
The actual article about Beth is quite positive, and essentially has a you go girlattitude. This, however, is one page in a big glossy parade of articles that say exactly the opposite, including extremely harsh criticism of assorted Z list celebrities I’ve never even heard of, with photographs.
Beth is someone I know in real life so my reaction to this is stronger than it would be normally – toxic body image messages from mainstream culture normally have no traction in my brain. I simply do not care what anyone thinks of how I look – good, bad, or indifferent.
Beauty is a social construct, and the ideal is different depending on where and when you live. I grew up poor and mutilated in a western consumer culture at the end of a censorious century. This taught me many important lessons, not least of which is the fact that the only opinion that matters about my appearance is my own. I’m not healthy or beautiful by any objective standard, but my body is amazing, and I love it, no matter what.
The reaction to the NME cover is irritating in part because Beth is smoking hot. People want to know her, in all meanings of the word. It is not necessary to conform to mainstream standards to be sexy and desirable. In fact, the opposite is often true.
Thinking otherwise is just a sham, and people should get over it.