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Beauty

03rd Jun 2021

Opinion: Kate Winslet’s attitude towards her body is exactly what we need more of in media

Ellen Fitzpatrick

How Kate Winslet sees herself is the most refreshing thing I’ve heard all year.

With the world going into a frenzy over Mare of Easttown, and really anything Kate Winslet has ever done, it is so important that we start adopting her attitude towards our own bodies.

If you’ve been living under a rock the last while, let me catch you up. The world is in awe of Kate Winslet and her performance on Mare of Easttown, she is the gift that keeps on giving.

But it’s not just her acting skills we need to be obsessing over, Kate’s view of her own body is something us women need to thrive for and look at ourselves the way she does.

The actress candidly told the New York Times that after filming a sex scene in the show, the director assured Kate that he would airbrush a “bulgy bit of belly” out of the shot.

Winslet instinctively told him, “Don’t you dare,” and this is something us ladies can’t sit and ignore.

In the interview, Kate also said that she rejected a number of promotional posters as her face had been edited.

“They were like, ‘Kate, you really can’t,’ and I’m like, ‘Guys, I know how many lines I have by the side of my eye, please put them all back.'”

I think we can all agree that when it comes to Kate Winslet, not much (if any) editing would be needed, but nonetheless, the way she not only embraced her own body and acknowledged that a moving, ageing body was normal, she also stood her own ground.

This is something every single woman reading this should be thriving for, ultimately knowing that this is what a normal, healthy, functioning body looks like, and that each one is beautiful.

Kate went on to say: “Listen, I hope that in playing Mare as a middle-aged woman – I will be 46 in October – I guess that’s why people have connected with this character in the way they have done because there are clearly no filters.

“She’s a fully functioning flawed woman with a body and a face that moves in a way that is synonymous with her age and her life and where she comes from. I think we’re starved of that a bit.”

For a middle aged woman to be so vocal and proud of the skin she’s in is almost unheard of, but why? Why do we assume we need to look a certain way to be deemed beautiful? And why do we not talk about it more?

If we were meant to stay young looking, our bodies would naturally stay like that. Our attitudes need to change, to be more open and accepting.

Of course this is easier said than done, but it always seems to be the case that we accept others no matter how they look but when it comes to ourselves, we’re so much more harsh about our appearances.

People age, bodies don’t always look like they did when we were 20. They stretch, the fluctuate, they wrinkle and they get bumpy. If they didn’t do this, that would be something to worry about.

Everything on your body serves a purpose, to keep you warm, to keep your organs safe, to keep sweat out of your eyes, nothing is unintentional.

Think about everything your body is capable of, everything you can put it through. We can have babies, we can climb mountains, we can run marathons. If our bodies can support us through any of these, we should give it some love and appreciation in return.

If we remember this, one little imperfection won’t even phase us.