Kate Winslet is famously outspoken about the media's false portrayal of women's faces and bodies. When GQ photoshopped her on a 2003 cover, she publicly stated that "The retouching is excessive. I do not look like that and more importantly, I don't desire to look like that. I actually have a Polaroid that the photographer gave me on the day of the shoot...I can tell you they've reduced the size of my legs by about a third. For my money, it looks pretty good the way it was taken."
It's been over a decade since then, but little has changed when it comes to the digital manipulation of images we see in magazines and advertisements, which in turn contributes to the pressure for women to look a certain way. Winslet again spoke out against it in her new Harper's Bazaar U.K. cover story.
"There’s a big part of me—now, more than ever before—that feels a sense of responsibility for how other women view themselves," the actress told the magazine. "Take having the baby, for instance. Have I actively been on a diet to lose my baby weight? No, I haven’t. I genuinely bloody haven’t. I so didn’t want to be one of those, ‘Oh, wow, she’s back in shape after 12 weeks’ women. When I read things like that I just think, ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, that’s actually impossible.'"
Winslet continued, "I want to keep my health and my sanity and be well-fed and happy. My body will never go back to what it was, and I wouldn't expect it to after three babies."
We're glad someone is taking a stand, especially because we see new mothers in our own lives who have absorbed the message that dropping pregnancy pounds is of the utmost importance. It's a little bit disappointing, though, that the same interview opens with a superficial description of Winslet's apparently poreless face. Mixed message received. (Haper's Bazaar U.K.)
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