The Princess and her Bea

God forbid the day comes where a picture of my backside in a bathing suit hits mainstream newspapers and the morning TV circuit – I may be a body image specialist but should anyone ever circle my cellulite in white football game marker or call me The Dutchess of Pork, I fear a heavy dose of Xanax shall be required.

Lately, all we’re hearing is about how fat J. Love Hewitt is; how bumpy Mischa Barton’s bum is; how Priscilla Presley is a gargantuan, mean, awful monster (um, no, she was snapped while pregnant in a sweatshirt). So I guess I shouldn’t be in any way shocked that Princess Beatrice, daughter of Fergie, the Duchess of York, has been annointed the newest recipient of low-blow body image attacks.

UK columnist Allison Pearson recently laid into the lovely Bea. And it wasn’t so much a simple comment on the girl herself as it was an obnoxious, woman-hating teardown of her body. Accompanying a pic (scroll down for the horribly offensive image) of the smiling young woman emerging from the ocean in a bathing suit with her boyfriend, the Daily Mail columnist snarked, "Can't someone buy the poor girl a sarong? For her sake, as well as ours...I fear that Bea is in danger of combining her mother's toe-curling excesses with her dad's physique. Can someone please have a kindly word with her before it all goes pear-shaped?"

What the hell is wrong with this woman? The same woman, I might add, who gained international success with the release of her book, I Don’t Know How She Does It (which, if memory serves, had a smidge to do with female empowerment. Obviously, fake.) What is with the woman-on-woman hatred? I maybe – maybe – could comprehend such a shitstorm a bit more if the ignorance came from a man, but Pearson has a woman’s body and, unless she’s one of the few who simply never has struggled with her weight and snapped right back after birth, she should have the common knowledge to shut the eff up and not target any young woman with such a crude comment. Young girls have enough to worry about…and body image is likely at the top of their lists…without having such snide remarks plastered across headlines or making their way across the pond to the Today Show. (PS Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford talked about this today...check out this link and listen up about halfway-through.)

Admittedly, I love Fergie’s response:

"Don't criticise my daughter. Big mistake. This woman... I would like to go to her family and look at the size of her derriere." (Check out the Daily Mom post for more on how mothers can protect their daughters here.) Fergie's words remind me of a civilized momma bear swiping its claw just close enough to the enemy to show she means business but not quite close enough to draw blood. And good for Fergie for pointing out the fact that Pearson has a family herself. She’s a mother…but her maternal instincts seem to have evaporated along with the sea salt on Bea’s bathing suit.

Pearson is not the first – and, sadly, won’t be the last – to make a Perez Hilton-esque comment about Bea’s bod. The Daily Mail's Amanda Platell has written about Beatrice's figure succumbing to "the curse of the mummy gene". The Sunday Mirror’s Fiona McIntosh said: "Here's a tip: try putting down the biscuit tin, love." And, in perhaps the most appalling display of misogyny and ignorance, The Times's Janice Turner said, "Heck, she's 19 now, old enough to handle the... bitchery. And if she can't, she'd better... succumb to a fashionable food disorder like her late aunt."

I can’t/won’t/have no idea if it’s even possible to dignify that last comment, but it definitely speaks to society’s bigotry towards anyone with a bigger-than-size 2 physique…and the light-hearted way people toss the word “anorexia” about. Like it’s a cute trend to dabble in.

I read that Fergie's spokeswoman said Bea is holding up well, and that “Of course Beatrice was upset, but she's bouncing back. She knows it comes with the territory." Uhh…what territory would that be? Oh, the territory of being a woman?? (I know the spokeswoman was referring to being a celebrity/royalty, but just because you were born into the public eye doesn’t mean you should be forced to contend with having your body picked apart and criticized by millions and, eventually, blogged about by people like me.)

Oh, and if you're significantly riled up and want to shoot off an email: allison.pearson@dailymail.co.uk

Comments

God! That's just... HORRIBLE! Comments like that are enough to trigger disordered eating, and having struggled with anorexia and bulimia for ten years, I'm appalled that an adult would make remarks like that about a teenager simply for the sake of a few laughs. In my opinion, she should be fired.

I was hoping you would discuss this issue today! I saw it on the Today Show and all I could think was "I can't wait to hear what Leslie has to say about this!"
It's such a shame that another woman would attack such a beautiful lady about her healthy physique. ugh!

i left a comment on that awful womans site, i doubt it will make it through the moderator, though.

Arrgh--those comments truly are inexcusable. Who the hell do these people think they are?

Meanness for the sake of meanness is beyond me. I hope there is some serious backlash over this.

I love that you have the email address right there.

First, that picture of her in the bikini? Um, HOT. That womans got some awesome curves.

Second, take a look at the statement RIGHT BELOW her tear-down of Bea: the "hallelujah" about eating chocolate every day.

...so, what, regular people are allowed to indulge but just because someone might get a photograph of them they should automatically be expected to nibble on rabbit food all day?

(Am now sufficiently riled up. That email address sure does look tempting now!)

People are awful. She's a beautiful healthy young WOMAN. Um...women have hips. That's part of the deal. Just because we're conditioned to think women should look like prepubescent boys and hips are only okay if the bones are protruding doesn't mean that it's right. And clearly her young man isn't complaining (despite being a "hapless American"--but let's not go there).

I tried to watch the Today show clip, but I couldn't quite decide what side of the issue Hoda and Kathie Lee were taking. There was a little double talk. Particularly from Kathie Lee. And as I'm not a Kathie Lee fan I had to stop about halfway through her talking because she was making me crazy.

So here's a young woman who appears to be sensible, kind, and to have a good head on her shoulders. She's also gorgeous. She's not falling out of limousines drunk and flashing photographers. She's not taking drugs and getting into fistfights at clubs, or making an idiot of herself on TV. As far as we know, she's never had a quickie marriage,followed by an even quicker divorce, or berated someone else in public. Her only "crime" is not being skinny. Well, off with her head! How dare she?

We are seriously screwed up!

It just makes me so sad when I see things like this! She is a completely normal woman! I'm glad that she's out there wearing a bikini proving you don't have to be a size 0 to do it. I agree with Emme int the clip they weren't necessarily defending her but I did like at least that Hoda said I wear size 8 and 10 and am 5'9 and 145 lbs. when they were saying Bea was a size 10. It's rare for people to admit their weight. I'll admit myself that when I went to renew my driver's license and the poor man politely asked if I was still 120 lb. (and I swear he would not have blinked an eyelash if I said I still was), which was my 16 year old huge growth spurt size, and at 5'9" not one my womanly body would ever keep, I could not make myself say 175 and instead said 150. I guess I'm still not entirely comfortable even though I carry my weight well, with such a high number. I did not like, however, Kathie Lee saying you'll never see me in a bathing suit showing her own body image issues and how some are never satisfied.

All I can say is... ridiculous that anyone in the media would suggest an eating disorder to cure this supposed 'ailment'. My body looks ALOT like Bea's and I've gotta say, I felt pretty hot in my bikini last weekend.

That's just sick...

Horrible! What was said about this young women was disgusting enough, but to bring the late Princess Diana in to it was inexcusable and outright disrespectful!

It's really upsetting how the media degrades the female body.

What a beautiful hourglass shape! As to how Allison Pearson can attack another woman that way, all I'll say is that we're now all talking about Allison Pearson and paying attention to her and that, to me, is the goal of much snarky writing.

In all honesty, Bea looks better in a bikini than I do. Sure, she's got hips but she's got the chest to balance it out & a totally flat stomach. So if she's villified then what hope do the rest of us have? What kind of world acclaims Nicole Richie in all her excess and hates on this poor girl for nothing that she did but merely something that she is.

And this is probably me just being in a bad mood but I though Hoda's comment about her size and weight was rather catty - more like "I'M a size 10 and she's clearly BIGGER than me."

Hey, did anybody glace at the "story" above the bit about Beatrice? The Miley Cyrus bit? (old "news" Allison, us Americans talked about that weeks ago) Funny how one second she's asking to protect our young girls from these "X-rated virgins" but then goes on to bash the figure of a beautiful young woman (then to Hallelujah! a chocolate study). It seems to me we should be protecting our young girls from women like her who perpetuate the body image stereotypes that are so damaging.

Okay, I'm off my box again.

Never mind Beatrice's weight; someone ought to be helping her with her posture.

ugh,this just makes me so sick!

and charlotte, I also thought Hoda and Kathie Lee were being a bit snarky, especially with the comment like "oh well, not that picture. We didn't see that one in the makeup room"

There are so many things in that post to respond to, that I can't even get them straight in my head.

Let me just say, Rock on Fergie, shut up everyone else, and I'm glad I'm not famous.

I hate most of all how women are ridiculed for looking like, well, women! We have hips and thighs and shoulders! And we come in all shapes and sizes! Bea is beautiful and young and I hope she doesn't have all the problems with her body that Fergie went through.

Admittedly, I haven't yet listened to the Today Show bit (computer glitches) but I think it's interesting that some of you were put-off by the "Well, I'm a size 10 and I don't look like that" comment while others were happy she was being open and honest. I will be brave and admit, when I first heard about this whole Bea story, I read she is a size 10 and (similarly to when I read the new plus-sized ANTM winner is a size 10) and thought, "Hmm, I'm a size 10...is that what my body looks like?" Because truthfully, I often have a skewed view of my bod. But you know what, yesterday I got fitted for a bridesmaids dress in a size 6 that had to be taken in in the tummy...yet I wore size 10 Express jeans to the fitting...and wore a size 12 pair of black pants the last time I was on the Today Show. Size is completely arbitrary and numbers really mean nothing in this case, IMO.

The only reason one woman would say such cruel things about another woman is because she's got serious body image problems of her own and the other woman has something she doesn't. Which, in this case, I would say is awesome self-confidence and some truly rockin' curves. I mean, honestly. This girl's got an absolutely beautiful hourglass shape, and I would give my left arm to have a body like hers. I only wish I could be a "pear" shape; I've got an apple body type and I have to stay really thin to look good, and it's NOT fun. I get the "Oh my God you look like a model, I wish I looked like you" thing a lot, but I would rather have those womanly curves any day!!

I think some of the size 10 misunderstanding may be that Bea is said to be a British size 10 (I'm guessing, since she is English and most of this was reported in English mags), which is approximately the equivalent to a US 14 or so.

Bea has a lot of self-confidence to wear that bikini. I don't see ANYTHING wrong with her body, but I don't think the swim suit is flattering to her shape. And ditto to everyone here who is appalled at the comments of the venal, nasty women of the British press.

If there really is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women...then hopefully there is another special place, slightly worse, for women who actively harm other women.

These women have reserved seats, if so.

V.

allison pearson looks like a drag queen. please tell me i'm not the only one who's noticed this.

Ok, so my question is how on earth did you manage to listen to horrible Kathy Lee to get to the meat of that video? Her double-speak chatter about poor Bea was I think even worse than that British harpy that started this whole thing. At least Pearson had the balls to just say it (not that I'm backing her up), instead of dancing around the issue with weirdly phrased faux-supportive commentary, while telling Hoda her body's just weird. Kathy Lee is one of those women who I imagine compulsively undermines the self-esteem of every woman around her and has been at it for so many years she doesn't even now it's happening anymore. Props to Hoda for just flat out saying how tall she is and how much she weighs and basically saying sizes 8 & 10 are normal and that Bea was thinner than the average American. Bea's got a gorgeous curvy figure, and should be able to go to the beach in peace. Kathy, dear, go hide in your sarong, the rest of us will be splashing at the beach party.

The only reason one woman would say such cruel things about another woman is because she's got serious body image problems of her own and the other woman has something she doesn't.