Equal opportunity bullying
A while ago I wrote about how it wasn't just women who get low-level bullying from newspapers and magazines - James Corden was slagged off for daring to be overweight and be seen in public without a t-shirt (meaningless or otherwise), and commenter Thomas on the post 'I'm disappointed rather than angry' points out how the Mail took the piss out of Eamonn Holmes for going to a bakery and buying cakes.
Today there's another example that reminds us that it's not just people who are deemed too chubby who feel the force of this quest for perfection in celebrity images - if you're seen as being too thin, then that's just as much reason to make fun of you. Black or white, thin or fat, male or female, they don't discriminate - well actually, they do, of course; but the point is, they'll pick on anyone. Essentially, we're back in the playground trying to find something to make fun of.
So here comes an article about radio presenter Johnny Vaughan:
Apparently he looked 'a shadow of his former self' and 'skinny and dishevelled'. Are you ready for the picture that shows the true extent of this horror? Shield your children's eyes from this awfulness:
Oh. Is that it? It just looks like, well, some normal enough-looking man, in his 40s, who's lost his hair a bit, who hasn't shaved, and doesn't appear horrifically skinny to me. But of course the main thing you want from a radio presenter is for them to be clean shaven:
Cringe-making: Vaughan even appears unshaven in a cheesy new ad campaign with co-host Lisa Snowdon for Belvita breakfast biscuits
Imagine that! Unshaven in a TV advert! Horrors! Clearly it's the beginning of the end for Vaughan, who might as well be put to sleep immediately, to spare us having to watch his further decline.
So it's not just women who get teased and picked on by these magazines and newspapers; and not just for being overweight - people who don't really appear to be unhealthily underweight, yet who look slightly different from how they might have looked several years ago, are fair game as well. But if you look at the comments, even the readers are bemused as to what they're meant to be thinking about all this, with many disagreeing that there's anything wrong with the picture at all. I guess that's the only positive to take out of it.
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August 17th, 2010 - 12:49
ugh.
i remember once walking into a newsagent to be faced with heat magazine. on one half of the page they had a pic of a hollywood actress looking thin with the caption – 2 months ago = too skinny, on the other half of the page, a pic of the same actress with the caption ‘today = bloated’
i felt sick. women are forever ‘wrong’ in their body, we are forever being told we need to live up to a different body ideal, ever being tricked into thinking we’re ‘ok’ then being told we need to look different again. it makes me feel really sad that this is now happening to men too. we need to stop it happening to men and women.
August 17th, 2010 - 12:58
I’ve got to say, he doesn’t look great…
But maybe it is a positive thing that men are being scrutinised more, in a way. Shows some changes to how masculinity is perceived and how men view themselves/each other? I am not into tabloid gawping and criticising of people’s bodies, but the fact they are being more indiscriminate in their targets could have a positive element to it. See also http://www.marksimpson.com
August 17th, 2010 - 16:54
He doesn’t look ever so great, but it might just be an unflattering picture. I mean, I’m sure one could take photographs of me out and about looking like ten tons of sweaty arse, but it wouldn’t necessarily mean anything.
August 18th, 2010 - 12:20
I agree that I’m fed up of women being picked apart while men get off scott free, but I think it’s time everyone just grew up.
All these magazines telling people they are too thin one day and too fat another day are doing nothing for their (physical and mental) health, as they yoyo diet to try to find a weight that will please everyone. But just the weight isn’t enough – it’s got to be distributed in the right way too. And once you’ve managed that, heaven forbid you go out walking your dog in trackie bottoms and a hoodie, without any make up on.
August 17th, 2010 - 13:23
Thanks for not linking to them. The Mail’s online strategy appears to be to put up offensive bullshit that gets the comments going and lots of click throughs, which is why they would run with this story – man doesn’t shave and loses a little weight. I wonder if they have a go at him for smoking?
August 17th, 2010 - 13:48
I agree with you for the most part, but as I recall it, most of the attacks on Corden were related to his sudden ubiquity allied with his appearing to have no great discernible talent; much as is the case with Justin Lee Collins.
However attacking people for their physical difference from an imagined norm is seldom defensible (as a short, bald, glasses wearer I’m well aware of that – many TV & film idiots look similar to me) I am, however, fully in favour of attacking leaders and members of racist, or apparently racist parties – from Hitler to say, Griffin – for exactly that reason.
August 17th, 2010 - 15:40
Johnny Vaughan gave my cat a sausage once
August 17th, 2010 - 16:52
A whole sausage? The lucky beast. I’m sure he was your cat’s favourite person in the whole world for several minutes.
August 18th, 2010 - 08:07
Several minutes? You don’t know much about cats do you? He would have been the cat’s favorite person for exactly as long as it took to eat the sausage.
August 18th, 2010 - 12:27
Plus two to three minutes of hanging around hoping there might be another sausage in the offing, don’t forget.
August 17th, 2010 - 18:03
Surely the story is just less an attack on Johnny Vaughan, more a rubbish angle on the press kit from the biscuit company? I’ve always assumed that any article that mentions a company and product name together is a glorified ad, unless it’s accompanied by words such as ‘product recall’.
August 18th, 2010 - 12:10
I’m quite cynical about this too – the Mail and Star both mention the radio show.
August 18th, 2010 - 13:03
“Cringe-making: Vaughan even appears unshaven in a cheesy new ad campaign with co-host Lisa Snowdon for Belvita breakfast biscuits”
The colon in the above is superfluous.
He just looks hung-over to me.
August 20th, 2010 - 13:13
Fat or thin, it’s still nothing compared to what happens when you work in the sex trade and are newsworthy – say goodbye to your gender, for you are forever more, “dead prostitute”