Almost two years ago, I posed for Bryan Adams in a one piece swimsuit for a Body Confidence campaign, encouraging women to be proud of their physique, no matter what shape they were in.
It was extremely weird (and somewhat humbling) to see my un-retouched photo (along with the other brave Loose Women) blown up as a billboard in shopping centres and on traffic roundabouts.
Like all women, I am 90 per cent happy, but as the years roll by, I sometimes pull up sagging bits of stomach or chin and wish they were in a different place.
I posed for Bryan Adams in a one piece swimsuit for a Body Confidence campaign in 2017, encouraging women to be proud of their physique, no matter what shape they were in
To many people, I embody confidence but I don't have to strip off for a living and can choose clothes which camouflage the dodgy bits. My body is a bit like an iceberg - two thirds hidden.
I cannot imagine what life is like for top athletes and sportswomen, filmed every day doing their job in extreme close-up.
Two years ago, Serena Williams won the Australian Open when pregnant with her daughter Olympia, who is now one, and cute as anything. That was an astonishing achievement.
Now, she's back to try and add the title to the 23 Grand Slams she's already scored- and, being Serena- making headlines for a heap of reasons nothing to do with hitting a ball.
At the Australian Open this week, Serena Williams sported a skin tight green body suit especially made by Nike, which drew a mixture of admiration and outright nastiness online
Ever since she gave birth, Serena has been trying to lose weight and get her body back to its pre-pregnancy shape. To do what she does, she has to be super-fit, there's no denying that.
But once you've had a baby, it's hard to get the flat stomach and firm midriff that retouched photos in fashion magazines try to persuade us is the female norm.
This week, she sported a skin tight green body suit especially made by Nike, which drew a mixture of admiration and outright nastiness online.
She teamed it with black fishnet tights. Some people thought she looked like a member of the Green Power Ranger Troupe, others, that the outfit was 'unsuitable' and 'inappropriate' for tennis.
Some people thought she looked like a member of the Green Power Ranger Troupe, others, that the outfit was 'unsuitable' and 'inappropriate' for tennis
Is Serena sexualising a sport which once insisted that ladies wore white skirts with big knickers underneath?
Hard to say - women's tennis outfits have certainly got tighter and more revealing, and the result can be very unforgiving.
Serena's outfit left nothing to the imagination in the area of her stomach. The picture she posted on Instagram was a flattering picture at full stretch, but other images emphasised her slightly wobbly bits. Does she care?
Serena has form when it comes to controversial outfits. After the birth, she wore a black skin tight cat suit to the French Open, which was banned but claimed it was necessary to help prevent blood clots.
Two years ago, Serena Williams won the Australian Open when pregnant with her daughter Olympia, who is now one, and cute as anything. They are pictured together last November
For the US Open she wore a one-shouldered black body suit with a net tutu.
Earlier this year, she wore a pale pink skin tight dress to compete in the Hopman Cup in Perth - the colour and the cut were extremely unflattering and somewhat of a distraction from her game.
She has a lucrative endorsement deal with Nike and says that they are creating outfits which make a 'powerful statement for mothers that are trying to get back and get fit'.
Serena is serving at over 100 miles and hour - hers is a game of sheer power and brute force. Whatever she wears needs to be able to tolerate that but where do the tutus come in?
After the birth, Serena wore a black skin tight cat suit to the French Open in Paris last June, which was banned - but she claimed it was necessary to help prevent blood clots
Some of her outfits veer more towards fancy dress and costume than sportswear, but her attitude is, 'I'm making a political statement about female empowerment not flaunting my gender'.
She has the huge hair, glittering nails and stance of a woman who seeks to implant an indelible image on your brain. Once seen, never forgotten - it's all about branding.
Gymnastics is another sport which has attracted criticism for the sexualisation of the routines and highly revealing outfits, often worn by very young girls.
This week, 21-year-old Katelyn Ohashi achieved a score of a perfect 10 in a college competition in the USA - a show-stopping floor routine with a triple jump which ended in a power drop into splits. Ouch! There was much twerking and grinding throughout, more in keeping with something you might see at a lap-dancing club.
Some of Serena's outfits veer more towards fancy dress and costume than sportswear. She is pictured during the US Open women's singles final in New York last September
If I had a young daughter, I would worry that this sport is becoming too focused on innuendo and faux-seduction and emphasising routines which are physically uncomfortable to say the very least.
It's a dilemma as more women want to push the limits and achieve perfect scores- but - after Katelyn's triumph - can they do that without inflicting the splits on themselves?
As for taking sex into the mainstream, millions of women have taken up pole dancing and claim it is a highly respectable way of keeping fit - aficionados are campaigning to have it included in the Olympics, and it was officially recognised as a sport and given 'observer status' by the prestigious Global Association of International Sports Federations back in 2017.
Is our discomfort with Serena down to her shape and size? Have we been brainwashed into thinking only one shape is acceptable, whereas in the real world, things are very different?
This week, Katelyn Ohashi, 21, achieved a score of a perfect 10 in a college competition in the USA - a show-stopping floor routine with a triple jump which ended in a power drop into splits
Serena's website sells her clothing range for larger women and to her credit, they are modelled on women who reflect her shape and size.
After leading department stores dropped her clothing, she has continued with it online. She has revealed in interviews that when she took time out with injury, she took a course and qualified as a nail technician. She also studied fashion at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.
Serena's take on fashion might not be mine or yours, but is it any less valid than the gender-fluid creations by Craig Green and Charles Jeffrey Loverboy shown at Men's Fashion Week in London?
If men are wearing shocking pink sequinned cropped trousers with matching tops, Serena's Green Power Ranger outfit is pretty tame. I'd rather be entertained by Power Woman than spend an hour watching a stick thin misery from the Balkans or a Soviet state, that's for sure.
https://textbacklinkexchanges.com/category/the-sun-world/
https://textbacklinkexchanges.com/janet-street-porter-weve-no-right-to-judge-serena-williams/
News Pictures JANET STREET-PORTER: We've no right to judge Serena Williams
You don’t have to pack away your bikini just because you’re the wrong side of 20. These body-beautiful stars reveal their secrets to staying in shape and prove you can smoulder in a two-piece, whatever your age. Read on and be bikini inspired!
TEENS
Hayden Panettiere
Size: 8
Age: 18
Height: 5ft 1in
Weight: 8st
To achieve her kick-ass figure, Hayden – who plays cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes – follows the ‘quartering’ rule. She eats only a quarter of the food on her plate, then waits 20 minutes before deciding whether she needs to eat again.
Hayden says: “I don’t have a model’s body, but I’m not one of those crazy girls who thinks that they’re fat. I’m OK with what I have.”
Nicollette says: “I don’t like diets – I see it, I eat it! I believe in eating healthily with lots of protein, vegetables and carbs to give you energy.”
kim cattrall
Size: 10-12
Age: 52
Height: 5ft 8in
Weight: 9st 4lb
SATC star Kim swears by gym sessions with Russian kettle bells (traditional cast-iron weights) and the South Beach Diet to give her the body she wants. To avoid overeating, Kim has a radical diet trick – squirting lemon juice on her leftovers – so she won’t carry on picking.
Kim says: “I am no super-thin Hollywood actress. I am built for men who like women to look like women.”
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/01/16/12/8597632-6598291-image-a-10_1547641141751.jpg
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий