Whether we like it or not, we still sadly live in a world where women are often valued for their looks. But even though we’ve still got a long (long) way to go, the fight for equality has come on leaps and bounds since as recently as the 00s, when lads' mags reigned supreme and casual sexism was rarely, if ever, called out.
One woman who triumphantly rode the wave of the era’s hot-or-not mentality was Kelly Brook, who was FHM’s sexiest woman more than any other entrant ever and was everyone and their dog’s celebrity crush from 2000 to 2015. And it’s not just men Kelly had lusting after her – in a 2007 poll her body was voted the best female body over 5,000 others.
But as most of us will be able to attest to, appeasing the male gaze can be exhausting (not to mention impossible) and we come to realise that valuing youth and beautyover intelligence, kindness and all the other messy details that make us self-actualised, powerful beings, isn't all it's cracked up to be. So Kelly’s recent honesty in regards to the emotional toll her aspirational figure had serves as a refreshing reminder that the sacrifices we make are almost always not worth it.
Looking back on her life, which she says is easy to do since she’s been photographed nearly every day of it for decades, Kelly can pinpoint the times when she was unhappy based on how slim she was.
‘I think I definitely had my moments of feeling very insecure. When you go through break-ups and things like that, it really impacts your diet, and some of my skinniest times were also some of my most miserable. The best part about getting older is that all those insecurities just fade away. You think outside yourself and are no longer as self-obsessed or self-focused. Right now, I’m not thinking about my stomach hanging over my jeans. I’m thinking about feeding this little cat that’s just walked in my door.’
It's certainly not the first time that Kelly has spoken about her changing body – having made a career from it in her twenties and early thirties, it’s almost as if people feel entitled to demand justification as to why it doesn’t look the same as it did ten, 15 years ago. As if Kelly had a responsibility to her ‘fans’ to maintain the body of teenager.
In 2020, she was surprisingly charitable when she said she ‘understood’ why faceless internet men gave their unsolicited opinions on her being ‘past it’.
‘They see me as this 40-year-old fat girl and they’re like no! I get it, it’s funny,’ she told MailOnline. ‘But people grow up, people get bigger, people change, it happens.
‘Men are like "you’re past your best", or "you were sexy once", but whatever, you’re always going to get that. When you grow up with someone you don’t want them to get older, it’s weird. And I get it, people remember me as this pin up girl.’
It’s no mean feat that Kelly – a successful broadcaster who currently co-presents one of the biggest radio shows in the country, Heart London drivetime – has seemingly cultivated such a healthy attitude toward her body image after being subject to such intense scrutiny for so many years.
The fact that she has to justify allowing herself to simply live her life and not be ruled by the number on the scales or the size label in her clothes speaks to a depressing system of valuation that we’re STILL working to dismantle.