Carol Vorderman Says She Was Branded ‘Mutton Dressed As Lamb’ Twenty Years Ago – Has Anything Changed?

'Carol Vorderman, 58, shows off her impressive curves in skintight leather trousers'; 'Carol Vorderman is feeling herself in leather trousers as she shows off new hair'; 'Carol Vorderman shows off sexy makeover in skintight leather trousers'.

These are just three of the headlines recently written about Countdown legend Carol Vorderman, who, after having her hair cut, was 'feeling herself' and decided to upload some photos to Twitter from a mini-photoshoot. It went down a treat with the tabloids. The presenter was praised for her sexy trouser choice, and only The Sun mentioned her age in the headline.

But Carol (and her age) wasn’t always treated this positively by the media. Recently, while chatting on This Morning, the presenter spoke candidly about the scrutiny her famous, twice Rear Of The Year award-winning, figure has faced. When asked by daytime duo Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes if she had ever experienced ageism, she replied, ‘Most of my life, let’s be fair. Twenty years ago I wore a blue dress to the BAFTAs which was above the knee, I was 39. That became a massive story, programmes were made about it.’

‘Not about the dress,’ she added. ‘[But] it became about should a woman aged 39 wear a dress above the knee? I was called mutton dressed as lamb. Would you call a 39 year-old today mutton dressed as lamb because she wore a dress above the knee? Of course you wouldn’t! That’s just nonsense.’

‘Mutton dressed as lamb’{ =nofollow}is a vile, sexist term - and one we have all heard someone (male or female) sneer at a woman who has committed the heinous crime of wearing what she damn well likes. It's a phrase which implies that only young women are allowed to dress how they please, which is, of course, ridiculous.

Thankfully, Carol’s right - we don’t see the phrase in print that often anymore. Attitudes towards women aging, within the last twenty years, have indeed started to shift. Even if Jennifer Lopez - who recently turned 50 - recently had a lawyer complain because she was ‘performing naked’ in Egypt{ =nofollow}, nobody else actually seemed to mind that she was showing off her toned body in a leotard (according to the tabloids, she’s just ‘showing off her incredible figure’). As Carol said, nowadays, there’s no way J Lo would be called ‘mutton dressed as lamb’, the same way most celebrities of a similar age wouldn’t. At 51, now Celine Dion is lauded for her high fashion, wacky ensembles.

But of course, there is a long way to go; sexism and ageism still prevail. While the phrase ‘mutton dressed as lamb’ might not be used, women are sometimes still subject to vitriol for wearing ‘younger’ clothes. Earlier this year, in a column by ex-Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman supermodel, Helena Christensen was attacked in the Daily Mail for wearing a bustier at the age of 50. Bebe Rexha recently revealed that a male exec called her too old to be sexy. (Reader: she is 29-years-old.)Helen Mirren recently told Grazia about how infuriating ageism can be in the beauty industry{ =nofollow}, saying, ‘It’s extremely annoying to women of my generation and others following mine to have beauty products sold on a 15-year-old face.’

Whether 39 or 58, Carol should be able to wear what she pleases (just like any other woman) - but, in an ideal world, her age wouldn’t be mentioned in a headline at all. Because why is it so shocking that she looks amazing at 58?