Weighing Women Isn’t Entertainment

Footage of Victoria Beckham being weighed on live tv, two months after giving birth

There wouldn’t be a Spice Girl-loving millennial that doesn’t remember Victoria Beckham being weighed on live television back in the 90s.

It was a late night show and the (male) presenter at the time probably thought he was being hilarious – playing up to the intense media scrutiny Victoria Beckham was attracting at the time over her weight. The subsequent media coverage was intense and ubiquitous.

I remember watching it and not thinking too much of it, aside from “wow she is so tiny for someone who had a baby a couple of months ago”.

But flash forward 25 years, and a newly released Netflix documentary on Victoria Beckham has brought this crass moment in time back into the public domain.

And honestly, I am appalled that something like this made it onto prime-time television to begin with.

(Not to mention my nonchalant reaction at the time.)

Today, as a mother of two young daughters, I shudder at the thought of them watching something like that and thinking it’s normal or okay to have their bodies critiqued so openly.

But the brutal truth is this obsession with policing women’s bodies isn’t new. From ’90s heroin chic magazine covers glorifying impossibly thin models to the endless parade of “fitspo” social media influencers cashing in on women’s insecurities today, the female body has always been fair game for commentary.

Every generation has faced it, and every generation has suffered for it.

Especially children. Alarmingly research from Eating Disorders Victoria show that 27% of eating disorder cases in Australia are among those aged 10-19 - and this has nearly doubled since 2012.

We already know that young women are particularly vulnerable to throw-away comments about their weight or unrealistic body images they are served up on social media, but to think kids as young as 10 are now worried about "their weight" is truly horrifying. 

Personally I have seen the crushing effect a comment made about a young girl's body can have on her for years afterwards, and hell, I have lived it myself. (And I can assure you no 24-year-old mum of a newborn likes to be told “wow you really haven’t lost your baby weight yet have you”)

I’ve witnessed a lifetime of insecurities borne from “fatty” comments and have had long and meaningful conversations with relatives over the years who themselves have carried lifelong complexes from humiliating comments thrown “in jest” by family or friends.

And the consequences can be even more far reaching with revelations recently that young girls are using ChatGPT as a source of weight-loss motivation - prompting the AI tool to send through motivational statements, such as “you’re not dying, you’re improving”.

Over the last few years I've adopted a fairly staunch “no one is ever to comment on my girls’ weight ever” rule, especially in front of them. Never in front of them.

But I’m certainly far from perfect and often catch myself in front of my daughters slipping into “Argh I need to lose five kilos before Christmas” or “Gotta get holiday fit” talk more often than I’d like to admit. 

It’s a vicious cycle, and breaking it is hard.

If there’s one silver lining to this resurfaced Victoria Beckham moment, it’s that she’s finally spoken openly about her lifelong battle with eating disorders fueled by this unhealthy fixation on her body. 

That honesty is powerful.

It forces us to reflect on our own habits, how we talk about food and bodies around our kids, how we challenge casual body shaming, and how we empower our daughters to set boundaries on the way others talk about their appearance.

And that can only be a good thing.

Victoria Beckham’s new Netflix documentary launched earlier this month