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.

In the same interview, EmRata, as she is known on Instagram, said that “as long as the decision is my choice, then it’s the right choice”. Hmm.

This week also saw Kate Hudson flip the bird to anyone who questioned her right to pose naked on the cover of InStyle, saying, “people can say whatever they want, but I like being naked. Always have!” Fair enough.

Singer and TV presenter Rochelle Humes posed nude on the cover of Women’s Health, saying, “stretch marks and all, here I am”. Not a single stretch mark was visible to the naked eye.

It’s a strange sort of juxtaposition: seeing influential women get their kit off while simultaneously discussing feminism, so soon after we successfully campaigned to abolish the shameful “tradition” of page three. It’s almost as if we’ve fallen into a trap of the patriarchy’s making…

You see, by using the word “choice” to explain away the act of posing naked for the male gaze, we don’t actually circumvent the male gaze at all: we sate it. And do we really need impossibly beautiful women to pose nude in the name of body confidence? Because, I am pretty confident that my body looked better to me before I scrolled past that silky smooth, tight-abbed, pert-breasted image of whichever so-called influencer I happen to follow.

It’s unquestionably positive to see feminism being discussed in all its guises. It is not one coherent movement; there are varying focuses and priorities, within which the ultimate goal is for the simple demand of equality. And yet one wonders how helpful or, moreover, how important the fight to pose butt naked in a magazine really is?

It’s difficult to see how objectification can be empowering. After all, is a choice made within patriarchal confines really much of a choice at all?

Yours,

Harriet Hall

Lifestyle editor