Another day, another Daily Mail fail. Today we have an article about Claire Sweeney who has had the audacity and sheer cheek to put a few pounds on. Obviously, the Daily Mail take their duty of pissing off women up and down the country with their outdated, dangerous and misogynistic views very seriously so did the only thing they could; blasted pictures of her in a bikini on their website with the caption ‘Letting it all hang out: Claire’s tummy looked noticeably rounder as she enjoyed a day at the beach.’ Leave her the fuck alone for god’s sake. The woman is on holiday, she is probably enjoying the benefits of an all inclusive buffet and wine bar so why attack her?
‘She certainly knows how to shed the pounds. But it seems Claire Sweeney hasn’t quite cracked the secret of keeping the weight off.
Strolling down a beach in the Caribbean, the actress, who has a best-selling fitness DVD, looked very different to the toned, bronzed creature she once was.’ Just in case Claire isn’t feeling sufficiently kicked in the teeth, they manage to slip in mention of the fact that she is 39 and single. Brilliant. Let’s hang her.
I think she looks great. Ok she looks pissed off that she has cameras in her face, probably all too aware of the bashing she is going to get for not looking like a twiglet in a two piece, but her body looks beautiful.
It is articles like this that convince women that they need to diet and that there is an ideal way to look. For Claire to be torn apart for being ‘curvy’ ( media code word for fat) there is an underlying suggestion that she is ‘wrong.’ That she needs to look differently in order to be accepted by society. It is a joke that the article is titled ‘The less weeny Claire Sweeney: Yo-yo dieting star pictured with fuller figure.’ Thanks to you dickheads she will probably be back on the yo yo dieting wagon as soon as she reads the article and that is the problem. It hurts my heart that women might read this, look down at themselves and think ‘maybe i should go on a diet.’ It isn’t fair.
Just in case we aren’t perfectly clear about the expectations placed upon us as women - these images appear in two other articles today. Rosie has hers captioned with the words ‘so sexy’ and the statement; ‘ She may have starred in a big budget Hollywood movie, but there is one thing Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was born to do. Posing in sexy underwear, the stunning brunette shows she still earns her supermodel stripes in a new campaign for Victoria’s Secret. The Transformers star put her seductive pouting lips and amazing figure to use as she models the newest wares for the American lingerie giant.’ Ok we get it.
Jade ‘sizzles’ is ‘looking good’ and has an ‘incredible figure.’ It’s true; Rosie and Jade do have lovely figures but there is a massive difference between the sets of images; theirs are airbrushed to high heaven; both so glossy and wax work like whereas Claire is just relaxing on a beach. There is no flattering lighting, no clever camera angles, no photoshop, no editing, no colour filters – just her. And she still looks bloody good so lets leave her alone yeah?
