So there are many things I covet about Tamara Ecclestone: her house, her cars, her shoe collection, her wardrobe, her year round tan, fundraising efforts for the Great Ormond Street Hospital, long brown hair and oh yes the fact that she doesn't have to work. After seeing these photos however I would say that the one thing I do not covet is the bod (or the tattoos for that matter).
(I will admit though that I do covet the Herve Leger pastel number she uploaded on Twitter)
I mean it's not atrocious by any means BUT let's be honest if I had unlimited access to Harrods I would make every effort to make sure that, that access was truly unlimited. And by this I mean that I could fit into everything and would look fabulous in everything. More than that I would feel like I had a responsibility, in fact I already do. I'm going to go out on a limb here and speak totally frankly about a subject that is near and dear to my heart, fitness. We all read the magazines and we read impossibly thin actresses claim 'I eat anything' or 'I don't work out- I do activities that I enjoy'. To an extent I'm sure they're right they probably do eat anything that their chef prepares for them.... and their chef only prepares foods that are nutritionally balanced and low in fat and calories. And they probably do only do activities they enjoy.... like trampolining, yoga, pole dancing, zumba... or any of the other fun but costly ways to keep slim. And yes it annoys me that they can't just be honest and say 'to tell you the truth, I don't drink and I don't eat gluten, lactose- or anything that doesn't take slightly like dirt or cardboard.... and I work my butt off'. But when it comes to weight, nobody is ever honest. The old adage is 'you can't get something for nothing' but when it comes to staying slim we all seem to want to believe it's true, and when we're not trying to buy into the fallacy we're perpetuating it by lying to people about what we actually do to keep looking the way we do. Why do we do it? Because it's embarrassing. That's my theory at least. Nobody wants to admit 'listen I spend an hour a day on cardio or weights, I count every calorie I eat and then I spend hours agonizing about what I mistakenly put into my body'... because to admit you have that much time on your hands is shameful. And now we come full circle back to Tamara Ecclestone. She DOES have that much time on her hands she literally could spend every moment perfecting herself into a lean, mean, clothes wearing machine. That's why I am personally offended by the fact that she clearly doesn't. I don't expect her to spend ALL day but a few hours a day wouldn't hurt. When people far less fortunate than you are scrapping minutes together to try and be the best they can be, whether it be hitting the gym at 5 am before the kids are up or forgoing dinner with the boyfriend to hit the yoga studio basically everyone else is sacrificing and with arguably less incentive. Then here comes a girl with the time, with the incentive (by which I mean she gets photographed- and if that isn't incentive enough I don't know what is...) and with the means and what does she do... she turns her thighs into a breeding ground for cellulite. And that my friends is something that I am personally outraged by, and in my opinion everyone else should be too.
Which brings me to my final point. Today I was watching E News and Giuliana Rancic was bemoaning the fact that Kate Middleton is streamlining at a massive rate (to put it nicely). I'm going to gloss over the fact that couldn't get any more ironic that Guiliana commenting on someone being 'too skinny' and point out my issue with this. We don't want our celebrities to look like us. Why would we? We buy celebrity magazines, watch E News and read blogs like PerezHilton and JustJared to salivate over not the mundane details of their lives but what they look like doing it. We want to be inspired and we want to aspire. We want to see images of Victoria Beckham walking through an airport because it's something different from our own lived experience. We want these people to be 'perfect' but mostly to be different from us because in that difference lies hope and possibility. If we looked like that maybe we'd have that romance or if we buy that dress maybe we'll also share that glow. I'm not saying I'm not concerned with Kate's weight loss but I'm just saying that although E News might flash all the images of vintage Kate in Ugg boots and extra flesh that it wants across the screen in the long run just like we want to see every other celebrity looking their 'best' the current story will fade and what will be left is how fabulous she looks in all of her new garb.
