Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Daily Mail Woman of the Year Coverage

Despite my interest in women's rights, the Harper's Bazaar Women of the Year awards are not something I pay much attention to. The fact that shoe designer Manolo Blahnik won one this year for designing shoes so uncomfortable some women have actually had toe amputations in order to wear them for me adds that aroma du patronising sham so highly prized in the fashion industry's attitude to women.

Could help noticing the Daily Fail coverage though... Apparently Yasmin Le Bon bade a terrible mistake by wearing a fur sash. "It's not a beauty pageant Yasmin!" apparently (so what the hell is Monolo Blahnik doing there?!) so Ms Le Bon was too dressed up for a serious event. Meanwhile a woman called Natalia Vodianova (it not being a beauty pageant, one assumes, it won't be full of models... She must work for Land Mine Action.... Oh no, hang on... She's a model) made a terrible mistake by showing up with unshaven legs. She won an award for being "Inspiration of the Year" - inspiration to what? Eating disorder sufferers? In fact I'd wager the most inspiring thing she's done all year is not bother shaving her legs. [Where's my award, I do that every week!]

So are you supposed to dress up or not for this event? Or is it just a case of "here comes a woman, lets criticise her appearance!". Hold on, check masthead, that'd be it...

And then to add insult to injury in the midst of this pathetic excuse to congratulate one another for the thrilling idea of sticking a few frills on a pair of shoes they have the nerve to give an award to Zaha Hadid - the incredible Iraqi architect. I hope she sends it back with F*** OFF written all over it.

7 comments:

Carravanquelo said...

Pretty harsh to Natalia Vodianova - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalia_Vodianova#Philanthropy

Cruella said...

That's fair enough if she really does put the hours in working with this organisation - in a lot of cases the celeb faces of these organisations do remarkably little. But there again is she is a big philanthropist then she too should be offended by being given an award alongside fashion designers.

Carravanquelo said...

Also a fair point, to be sure. But as we don't know either way I don't think it's fair to comment, particularly to invoke eating disorders.

Cruella said...

It's widely accepted (including by former eating disorder sufferers like myself) that images like these have a huge impact on how young women feel about their bodies. In fact "inspiration" is exactly the term that pro-ana sites use to describe images of super-thin models.

Carravanquelo said...

Oh I totally agree with that! Sorry to not be clear -- I don't think it's fair to make assumptions about eating disorders based simply on the fact she's a model, or to comment on her body when it's not relevant --the "inspiration" is for her philanthropic work.
I don't think anyone should be shamed for their bodies - even models.

Cruella said...

Oh well maybe I wasn't clear - I'm not saying she has an eating disorder or that she looks anything but great, hairy legs or not. My point is that her work is used in ways that contribute to the prevalence of eating disorders in young women. In fact if she looked awful she probably wouldn't inspire anyone to take up extreme dieting...

Ellen Burney said...

with love from me to you.

http://julystars.blogspot.com/2010/11/marie-claire-december-2010.html