Me, flash the flesh? Not on your telly!
THERE'S bits of me even I don't like to look at. So I gave a resounding "No," to the invitation to strip off and go naked for a Channel 4 filming of the "How To Look Good Naked" TV series.
"You can strip off completely, or just down to your undies or bare a little," said Andy Merry, programme researcher who told me: "One lady who had never let her husband see her naked, in goodness knows how many years, felt so liberated she couldn't wait to get home and bare all to him."
Really. Well, not on your nelly. Imagine seeing myself on the telly, wobbly bits and flabby bits. It doesn't bear thinking about.
"It's a very positive experience," insisted Andy, who explained the filming by a fella, would take place in a big blue tent outside of House of Fraser in the MetroCentre today (until 8pm if you rush).
He said: "We have invited women along to talk to our female producer who will chat to them about body image, what they like, what they want to change and ask them to show parts of their body. Some have done it completely naked."
How embarrassing. "Not at all," said Andy. Well, he isn't stripping off. He enthused: "It's about celebrating the female body and it's all done very tastefully and you feel very liberated, just fantastic."
I'll take your word for it. Although I do take my hat off to all the women who have taken part today in the "flash some flesh" invite, as part of Channel 4's quest to build up a nationwide profile of how British women feel about their bodies and issues surrounding their bodies.
We already know. We women all have hang-ups – big bums, pot bellies, mummy tummies, saggy chests or, like one friend, enormous boobs.
She quipped: "I thought rubbing my chest was going to be a two man job but it would need three – one to lift, one to separate and one to rub. It would have made three men very happy and kept them in work for a week."
She's a star. And of course I agree with stylist to the stars, Gok Wan, the How To Look Good Naked presenter, when he says: "Too many women allow themselves to be intimidated by images in the media, celebrities or even that bird who lives two doors down who you think looks fabulous." So what do we do?
Gok said: "I try and make women spend at least an hour a day celebrating being a woman, whether that's a pampering bath, going for a quick shopping trip or spending time with a loved one.
"Feeling sexy, glamorous and womanly should not be alien to any woman. Sexiness comes from playing up to the strengths that every woman's got, so go for it girlfriends!
"But every woman needs a good reality check and 10-carat honesty is better than any diamond. Looking good naked is all about your confidence and the confidence to be comfortable in your own skin."
I think it's great that this fashion and body image series shows women of all shapes and sizes how to look great with their clothes on and off. And I'm so glad I'm not one.
While I'm all for celebrating our uniqueness, I think it's sad that so many go to such lengths, resorting to cosmetic surgery that's painful to the body and the pocket, in their search to be perfect.
Too much emphasis is put on looking good when what really matters is what's on the inside. Let's celebrate that. The highly acclaimed How To Look Good Naked series returns for a second run on Channel 4 from May 1 for eight weeks at 8pm.
And to give you a titter: "They keep telling us to get in touch with our bodies. Mine isn't all that communicative but I heard from it the other day after I said, "Body, how'd you like to go to the six o'clock class in vigorous toning?"
Clear as a bell my body said. "Listen fatty... do it and die."
CD to raise funds for new children's hospice
THESE haunting bitter sweet words of country and Western singer Beth Nielsen Chapman, written in memory of her late husband, are on the CD single "I Find Your Love."
The Chin Up charity which helps children and young people suffering from progressive or terminal illness, wants to raise funds to build an independent hospice in the region and has just released this beautiful CD.
It's on sale at 4 from.chin-up-charity.org.uk.
Beth wrote: I'll catch your smile on someone's face Your whisper in the wind's embrace Through diamond stars and songs and dreams I find your love in everything
The sun, the sky, the rolling sea All conspire to comfort me From sorrow's edge life's beauty seems To find your love in everything
I've come to trust the hope it brings To find your love in everything Even as I fall apart, Even through my shattered heart I'll catch your smile on someone's face .....amazing grace
There's always hope
THERE are Job's comforters everywhere when you are down and out.
Picking up the pieces of his life after his wife left him, one friend, like Job in the Bible, wants vindication.
But, like a lot of people he didn't know that Job did end up vindicated and with more than he could ever have imagined.
Heartened, he asked me to pass the story on for others at the end of their tether with: "Somehow, some way you'll get the message across."
So, here goes, in Latin: "dum spiro, spero," or in plain English: "As long as I breathe I hope."
This video strip could save a life
AT first I thought it was a pornographic video. I couldn't believe what had come in an email.
"Watch this and help save a life", it said – and there was a half-naked woman pole dancing and then stripping in a darkened nightclub.
So I switched off. Then with a woman colleague I watched it to the end when the stripper bared her only breast.
This powerful image has stayed with me and reminds me of friends and young women I know who have lost a breast to cancer.
One friend – a young woman of 26 – is valiantly fighting the disease which so frighteningly has soared among young women.
The devastating fact is the increase among women aged 20 to 34 has risen by a terrifying 52 per cent in the last 30 years and the incidence has gone up 80 per cent.
Each year 41,000 people are diagnosed in the UK, and survival rates are dramatically increased with early detection.
That's why I salute the makers of the video AMV who have partnered up with the charity Against Breast Cancer and Gorgeous Productions to make a film that aims to raise awareness in younger women and encourage them to check their breasts more regularly.
The 85-second film is part of a wider campaign which includes press and online presence.
The film is a poignant warning that women should check themselves regularly.
Selda and Shaheed at AMV BBDO, the creative agency who so cleverly came up with the video comment: "Having both lost close family members to breast cancer, this project means a great deal to us. We hope this film will encourage young women to check their breasts more often."
Of course there's been mixed reaction since the film broke nationally in cinemas from February 11.
But anything that gets a woman to check regularly. especially the young, is to be applauded.
How did they do it? The actual woman who has lost a breast is not the dancer. Her breast was superimposed on to the dancer. And the woman who was the dancer agreed to do it because she had an aunt who had died from breast cancer.
Interestingly, a recent survey showed that it was often young women's partners who first alerted them to a lump.
To view the video go to http://www.aabc.org.uk
Email to a friend
Print this page- Sunderland’s astonishing rise even surprising Martin O’Neill
- Sunderland striker Campbell fresh to face Middlesbrough
- Derby train wrecked
- Martin O’Neill defends David Meyler after criticism from Tony Pulis
- Middlesbrough 1 Sunderland 2 (aet): O’Neill relieved to avoid shoot-out lottery as Sessegnon wins it
- Sunderland striker Campbell fresh to face Middlesbrough
- Sunderland’s astonishing rise even surprising Martin O’Neill
- Middlesbrough 1 Sunderland 2 (aet): O’Neill relieved to avoid shoot-out lottery as Sessegnon wins it
- Martin O’Neill defends David Meyler after criticism from Tony Pulis
- Kieran Richardson says there is plenty more to come from James McClean
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Sunderland
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -3 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South west
