Stripping off won't change how we feel about our own bodies

The stars of British daytime TV show Loose Women, including former Page 3 model Katie Price, journalist Janet Street-Porter and singer Coleen Nolan, showed off their bellies, stretch marks and cellulite in an attempt to make us all feel better about ourselves. Within days, Daily Telegraph journalist Bryony Gordon came out with the same message. Posting an online picture of herself in nothing but a bra and knickers, she said she wanted people to stop feeling the need to look perfect. The plaudits came thick and fast: "such a courageous act"; "Bryony for Prime Minister"; "legend"; "wonder woman"; "I love you"; "you're beautiful". Now a more sceptical person might say it was less about female empowerment and more about what Spectator writer James Bartholomew called "the awful rise of 'virtue signalling". This is where someone expresses an opinion publicly to show moral superiority before their large audience in return for approval. It's a shallow attempt at gaining social status within a particular group, and big companies have been doing it for years. The Dove Real Beauty campaign is the perfect example. One of the biggest of the decade, it received widespread praise, while most people missed the point that Unilever, the conglomerate that owns Dove, was simultaneously pushing products such as SlimFast and skin-whitening creams on women. It's also worth noting that in the past you actually had to do something in order to deserve praise. Now all you have to do is say you hate Photoshop, for example, and voice what a large group of people - in this case, women - deem to be acceptable, then watch the love pour in. And while the ultimate act of feminism 100 years ago amounted to throwing yourself under a horse, these days, to be a feminist, taking your clothes off is deemed enough. Men, in particular, may be feeling confused as to what it is women really want. But who could keep up? For years, feminists have fought to put an end to models stripping off on Page 3 and in Playboy, saying it 'demeaned' women, but now it seems it's OK to strip off again. That is, of course, so long as you're doing it to show off your stretch marks, wobbly tummy, cellulite and flab, and not a tiny waist and double D breasts. It is also only OK if you are doing it so other women can ogle you - but not men. Have you got the new rules of feminism yet? Because you can forget your 'choices', lest you want to face the wrath of the sisterhood. Still, even if these celebrities are showing their imperfections for genuine reasons, you have to wonder if it really makes any difference. Does it really change how we ultimately feel about ourselves? If we're to be honest about it, most women are obsessed with weight and appearance. And we are just as obsessed with the weight and appearance of other women. We pore over picture-perfect models on social media, read up on Gigi Hadid's diet in glossy magazines at the hairdressers, and gaze at the Victoria's Secret models on giant screens in Dublin Airport. We can't help ourselves. We know the standard we would like to get our own bodies to, we follow what other women are doing and then we compare notes between ours and theirs. It's like scratching an open wound. Since the time we're born, we have been conditioned - by media, or Barbie dolls or whatever it is you want to blame this week (it's been happening to women long before any of these existed) - to believe that weight and appearance matter. This conditioning goes so far beyond the latest 'real' beauty standards, that the Loose Women hosts and Gordon and any other woman who posts pictures of her lumpy bits online are just "p**sing in the wind" as a friend of mine so eloquently put it. We don't want to be lectured or patronised. We don't want to be told that they love their bodies when, truth be told, if any of them could wave a wand and magic away their cellulite or that spare tyre around their waist without resorting to surgery, they would do so - in a heartbeat. At best, most women will look at these photos and think, "Yeah, good for her - but not good enough for me. I still want to be toned and skinny". And that's as real as you're going to get.

Stripping off won't change how we feel about our own bodies

Women showing off their lumpy bits will not stop us believing we should still strive to improve ourselves, writes Niamh Horan

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