Should we be celebrating female models ‘choosing’ to pose naked in magazines?

It’s difficult to see how objectification can be empowering, writes Harriet Hall

It often feels like a week can’t go by without a celebrity posing naked – in a magazine or on social media – and everyone entering into a debate about whether choosing to pose nude in the public domain is antifeminist or simply just their “choice” and thus, by extension, an inherently feminist act.

It’s enough to make first-wave feminists roll in their graves.

This week model Emily Ratajkowski discussed in an interview how sick she is of the media talking about her appearance instead of what she is saying or doing – in particular, her protest at the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and several red tops criticising her for not wearing a bra underneath her top. It’s a valid point, we’ve seen countless examples of women’s appearance being weaponised to tear them down, however conventionally attractive they are deemed to be. The same infuriating criticism is simply not levelled at men.