Mail Online Body Shame Hypocrisy

The Daily Mail pressed its New And Honestly Very Wonderful pundit Sarah “Vain” Vine into additional service yesterday to pen “Oh Becky, beauty isn't everything: How tragic that a young woman as inspirational as Rebecca Adlington would swap it all for model looks”, not that they’re trying to flog papers on the back of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, oh no.

Spot the double standards

“There's not normally much to be gained from watching I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!” observes the woman otherwise known as Mrs Michael “Oiky” Gove. So what’s she doing watching it, then? Simples. The Mail wants everybody to know about the apparent unhappiness of former double Olympic champion Becky Adlington, who has previously been sniped at over her appearance.

This insecurity has been heightened by the presence on IACGMOOH of one Amy Willerton. Who she? Who cares? She’s just another of those skinny-women-with-ample-chests who are, by common consent of those who decide the specification of the supposed “ideal woman”, supposed to have the “Pwhoar factor”. So Mail Online has lots of photos of her in a bikini.

Yes, the same hacks that are playing the why-oh-why side of the field in pretending to sympathise with Ms Adlington – trying to cash in on her deserved popularity and her appealing straightforwardness – are also playing the other side by promoting the more basic lechery over her fellow jungle inmates. And nowhere can this be seen to better effect than to look at Ms Vine’s article online.

Opposite on the “sidebar of shame” is “Battle of the babes: Amy Willerton has some competition as Lucy Pargeter and Annabel Giles both strip to swimwear for jungle shower ... The 21-year-old model has sported several different bikinis in the shower over the past week, but Lucy, 36, and Annabel, 54, have both jumped in the shower wearing swimwear and looking fabulous”.

While the next item is “'What the hell is she doing in there?' I'm A Celebrity fans vent their fury as Rebecca Adlington is exempt from SECOND Bush Tucker Trial for unknown medical issue” with a trawl through the Twitter feeds of hostile viewers. And in case anyone was wondering, elsewhere on the sidebar there is, yes, don’t worry, another item about Kim Sodding Kardashian.

I get what Sarah Vine is trying – not very well – to get across, and would not be at all surprised in the near future to see poor Becky Adlington vanish for a few weeks, only to reappear with new nose and boobs. It’s a part of sleb culture. Whether it is a good or bad thing is for others to decide. But for the Mail to pretend sympathy for the double Olympic champion is just coming it. They couldn’t give a stuff.

It is, as usual, all about selling clicks and copy. No change there, then.