Sabina Ventriglia
Editor of ESVIE
It’s the New Year and one of the most common resolutions out there is the promise to join a gym, eat healthy or lose weight.
If it wasn’t bad enough the rest of the year that we have this pressure to keep in shape, then why does it seem to triple at the turn of a year…
We sit back and watch our favourite personalities publicly scrutinize themselves to the media… and if they’re not doing it themselves, the media will happily take over and do it for them.
It’s bad enough that we feel constant pressure to keep trim when we’re comparing ourselves to these airbrushed sorts (and even though we know that, it doesn’t stop us dreaming to look like it). So when you have the likes of Imogen Thomas tweeting that she needs to lose 3 ounces, it does make us feel like maybe we’re not taking our weight loss seriously enough!? With a body like that, it’s just making those that might actually need to shed a few pounds, feel bad, while ultimately making herself feel better because let’s face it, she’s going to get told she “doesn’t need to lose weight” or that she has a “beautiful figure” because she has… and she knows she’s not a ten ton Tessy. So results in her literally getting the praise she set out to receive from the www. Well done.
Imogen's Twitter updates last year...
Don’t get me wrong, picture diaries are very handy when wanting to see a change in your shape or size when sticking to a healthy eating and workout plan. But if you REALLY have a issue or hang up about your body, you certainly would NOT post it on Twitter, LEAST of all when you have nearly 235,000 followers! Which leads me to think that this is purely an attention seeking ploy to get herself in the papers. Again. Well done.
Her last tweet said:
“I’m sorry if my ‘weight photo’ made ppl angry. I didn’t mean to- I have some body issues. Hope u all have a lovely day xxx” @Imogen_Thomas
I’m sorry Imogen, but if you have “issues” as you say, and they really were issues, you’d be keeping them to yourself. You can see that your weight updates are bothering people, so the simple answer here, is, stop doing them. You really don’t need to prove anything to the public. They can see your gorgeous, without you pushing for compliments.
Now please stop posting naked pictures of yourself, because we’re struggling to come to terms with the fact that your hot and we’re, well…not (right now).
Attention seeking I’m afraid. She wouldn’t have been in the press otherwise over christmas! Hence why she felt the need to constantly post pictures of herself in onesies and when she was drunk! Ridiculous.
In the name of balanced journalism could I offer an alternative view? I have stood on both sides of this argument so I feel able to interpret the subtext here. Firstly SabinaVentriglia Make Up Artist you ARE hot! Hotness is more than a still snapshot of a person. Its an attitude and an inner confidence. As a human race we are designed to want to be athletic and lean in appearance to hunt and survive. Our society moves much faster than human evolution can adapt to. Post war we had access to food in abundance and ‘dined out’ quite literally on our cheap and plentiful supply. We have realised that our modern sedentary lifestyle and plentiful food means we are unhealthier than ever before. This brings us to the current day. A battle to lose weight and feel healthy that for me lasted 14 years so I took the celebrity approach, I enlisted a trainer and decided to conquer the demons. I too have used social media to document my journey because, maybe misguidedly, you feel that with each milestone achieved, someone is taking inspiration and solace from the fact that it can be done with a lot of hard work and persistence. Most importantly from friends, family and hell even the man on the street gives you the boost you need when you are alone, menstrual and craving a huge galaxy bar! I was never a ten ton tessy but BMI figures meant I was refused life insurance after my baby was born, which is quite a wake-up call. On an even more base level, women don’t buy magazines with less than airbrushed images in them, and the population loves a fat celebrity….to ridicule. Women are amazing and we should stick together especially on the weight issue and not create a divide between the perceived skinnies and not-so-skinnies. Imogen seems to be following the old fashioned workouts and healthy balanced diet programme which I am a massive champion of. The key to my loss of 3.5 stones is to not feel angry about the subject of weight and losing it, don’t resent the ‘losers’ because you will be one, one day . Its an extremely liberating feeling!
A great angle there Rebecca. And agree with you. This post wasn’t about ridiculing her need to lose weight or how she is doing it, it was more about the constant public updates and almost naked images in the attempt to be noticed for it. She is beautiful and have always said so… hell, if I had a body like that! :) But good to see this has got the debate juices flowing. I’ve also recently lost a stone that I have worked hard to achieve. It doesn’t mean I need to post pictures on twitter of me in my french knickers! Haha.x
Debates are great and sharpen the mind! Well her Twitter feeds are part of the ‘free press’ we are privileged to have here; its a mixed blessing but there is a wide divide between freedom of expression and wanting to know what she looks like in her pants. I think a majority of her followers want to see these pics and unfortunately she is thriving on that. I think that so much hatred was thrown her way following the court cases, that she is trying hard to gain public favour. If she was my best buddy I would probably hug her and tell her that she needs to gain validity for herself and get some counselling. The public are not a great forum for raising one’s self esteem. I follow her on Twitter which is unusual as I know nothing about her really but I’m overwhelmed by how fragile she is but willing to repeatedly put herself up for scrutiny. She seems a very genuine and sweet girl with a great supportive family. I think she should take up farming and live in a remote part of Wales :)