The photo above is of The Gossip singer Beth Ditto. After she posed for this cover, the feature director of British GQ, Alex Bilmes, called her a “porker”, ”a fat lesbian” and stated that fashion editors are “stupid” for liking her. He says that she is a poor example for young women, yet what example is he setting himself? He is encouraging that young women and others speak of people like Beth Ditto in that disgusting, sleazy manner while also further increasing the dislike of obese individuals. I can not imagine what life must be like being obese here in America. The amount of ridicule, teasing and taunting one must face. It is frightening and yet I am still surprised that he hasn’t been fired. But while Sarah Palin keeps freaking out over David Letterman’s (tasteless, foolish) joke no one is making a big deal out of Mr. Bilmes remarks. At least not here in the United States. Yes, Beth Ditto is obviously overweight but so are many other people. Shouldn’t there be room for everyone? Just because she isn’t Kate Moss doesn’t mean she shouldn’t have the equal opportunity to pose for a magazine if she wants to and how dare he think he is so above it all, that he can call people “stupid” for liking her? She’s bold and quite frankly very brave. I don’t know of anyone else her size who has posed like that. She obviously knew she would receive negative attention from her decision to pose nude and while he works on stories for GQ, she is the story in other magazines and around the world. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if she soon poses in GQ and what will he say then? Sorry, I hope but I don’t believe a man like him ever would apologize. His own ignorance wouldn’t allow it.
Should these guys be referred to as fat, out-of-shape a**holes then!?
It’s a double standard. When larger men like Seth Rogen are on the front page of magazines like Vanity Fair no one calls him “porker” or anything else that’s mean. Yet when a larger woman does she immediately gets ridiculed. It makes me so mad, I want to scream. Granted the fellows below are actually clothed but they’re also out of shape and no one ever called them fat, out-of-shape a**holes, did they? And guess what? Mr. Rimes isn’t just calling Beth Ditto a “porker” and “a fat lesbian” – he is calling all women that but he is especially calling every woman her size a “porker” and every overweight lesbian “a fat lesbian”. He’s insulting countless of people, myself included and I am disgusted by him. While Sarah Palin continues to demand that David Letterman apologize to “every young woman in America”, I feel that Mr. Himes should be pressured to apologize too. He should be ashamed of himself and his own foolish words for he will never know what it feels like to be a woman and to be called fat. He will never know the self doubt that he has created in the minds of some women that relate to Beth Ditto and he will never know what it is like to appreciate diversity and promote self-worth. He’s a disgrace and I feel that everyone should be outraged.
UPDATE 6/15/2009
Beth Ditto officially got last laugh! My whole morning was made when I discovered this t-shirt by Marc Jacobs which retails for $37.00 – TAKE THAT!
Sources: thelovemagazine.co.uk, Vanityfair.com, alloy.com, marcjacobs.com
7 Comments
June 14, 2009 at 5:23 AM
Get over yourself. Beth Ditto is massively, unhealthily overweight and the only reason fashion houses are pandering to her is to get themselves noticed by other overweight women – if you can’t see that you are kidding yourself.
June 14, 2009 at 3:43 PM
If you look back in history, Mark there was once a time where being large was fashionable. It was a sign of stature and wealth. For Beth, she feels it’s a part of her stature I’m sure and if you felt what I wrote was incorrect, then you could simply have not read it.
I’m correct, you’re wrong. She might be unhealthy but that doesn’t give anybody the right to speak of others in that manner.
June 15, 2009 at 6:46 PM
You write all these posts about how the media has negative effects on a woman’s body image but all you can talk about for yourself is how you want to lose weight and how all you can eat is salad and how you feel disgusting if you eat fast food. WEll I hate to say it, but the woman pictured above is doing all of the things that you clain as gross, to be that size she is eating all the wrong things that make you feel so bad about yourself. SO before you go writing these post, you might want to make sure that they agree with what you hold as your standards.
June 15, 2009 at 8:08 PM
Dear Ashley,
I’m sorry you feel that way but you know nothing of my personal life. How you came up with all of this is completely beyond me. I refuse to address your accusations since they’re false and that would completely take away from what I am writing of. However, I will say this: I’m not a hypocrite but I do I feel that it is a shame that you have taken the time to focus on my personal life instead of my attempt to promote a healthy body image. There will be many more posts about this subject so please keep visiting YOUAREWHOYOUWEAR just like the 362 other readers like you did just today.
My personal life is just that and I will therefore not be addressing this any further.
Thank you for your comments and concerns.
- Kate
June 22, 2009 at 1:10 AM
what’s the difference between the terms “fat lesbian” and “overweight lesbian”? Honestly. The porker insult was out of line though.
June 23, 2009 at 10:29 PM
If Beth is happy being that size, so be it! who is ANYONE to say anything about it? To all you people who think it’s ok for that man to insult her like that. You’re just as ignorant as Mr. Bilmes. Get your head out of your ass. Not everyone in the world looks like a model, get use to it.
And to Ashley…who doesn’t feel gross after eating fast food?! c’mon now. Just because Kaitlyn wants to lose weight doens’t mean she’s critizing all the over weight women in the world. Grow up and realize that Kaitlyn was getting the message out that it IS NOT OK to insult someone because of their weight.
Kaitlyn…keep up the good work babe.
July 10, 2009 at 3:46 PM
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