I HONESTLY THINK September 2014 | Page 87

PRETTY REALLY DOES HURT

Even in the last two months critics have been discussing Tara Erraught and her recent performance in the comic opera Der Rosenkavalier. Critics, male critics might I add, stated that she was “dumpy”, “stocky” and a “chubby bundle of puppy fat”.

opera review should be critiquing the singing ability of the performers or am I missing the point? What gives these males the right to make these derogatory comments about her looks? Would they have criticised Pavarotti in the same way? Probably not because he was a man and that’s a whole different story apparently, which is ridiculous.

Celebrities are always criticised for their weight. Weekly the covers of magazines publish stories either criticising celebs for putting on a few pounds or slating them for being too skinny. They can’t win. No matter what else is happening in their lives, their appearance will always make the front cover. In my opinion skinny celebrities are bad role models for young people. Role models chosen for their looks give young people the message that looks are their most important asset, which I feel is wrong.Role models should be chosen for their achievements. Kate Moss, who according to Rader Programs is 30% below her BMI ideal weight, once said “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” and that is exactly what

Tara Erraught in Der Rosenkavalier

Photo: Alastair Muir via The Telegraph

Strangely enough, many of the reviews barely mentioned her singing. Odd considering an

is wrong with society today. She is unhealthily underweight and with comments like that, she is openly encouraging others to be the same.

An investigation also by Rader Programs has indicated that mannequins in shops used to be more or less based onthe measurement of real women with a hip measurement of 34 inches. However, in the 90s, the hips of real

women had expanded to 37 inches with mannequins decreasing to a tiny 31 inches.

All this is doing is making women feel self-conscious about their bodies and encouraging them to develop unhealthy thoughts about body image and what beauty is.To most people, being skinny means being beautiful and with 75% of women considering themselves overweight when in reality only 25% are, something needs to be done. [Rader Programs statistics]

Until the media do more to encourage realistic ideals of beauty, which I think will in time change society’s ideas about beauty, the problem will merely continue getting worse, affecting more and more females as well as males.

KATE MOSS

Laura hodgkins