While Lizzie Miller's tidy tummy bulge may have drawn loud applause, it's hard to imagine it represents the beginning of a new curve in the beauty world, writes FIONOLA MEREDITH
AT FIRST glance, there's nothing especially eye-catching about the small picture of 20-year-old model Lizzie Miller, featured on page 194 of the latest edition of Glamourmagazine in the US. Long, slim, honey-coloured limbs, blonde hair, dazzling white smile: all present and correct. Then you notice that Miller has a very small, discreet roll of stomach fat, and – if you get out your magnifying glass – the merest suggestion of a few silvery-coloured stretchmarks. They may seem inconsequential, but the appearance of these few minor imperfections in an airbrush-heavy publication like Glamourhas caused outpourings of joy, appreciation and relief. It has exposed the uncomfortable disconnect between the apparently flawless goddesses that strut and pose in its pages, and the real, shame-laden relationship many women have with their own bodies.
“I catch myself scouring photos in magazines hoping to catch a hint of roll or stretchmark on models or celebrities, only to be disgusted by my behaviour,” confesses one reader, adding, “I adore this photo and just wish that other magazines would come to their senses and use real models.”
Miller herself believes that "the world is hungry to see pictures of normal women . . . and women are really looking for a little bit more authenticity and a little bit less artifice in every part of their lives." In the media, Miller's minute abdominal bulge has been feted as "the wobbly bits that shook the world", with much talk of "redefining beauty" and a new spirit of "plus-size acceptance". Of course, Glamouritself has been quick to make the most of this wave of good feeling, claiming an improbable place as a champion of "all kinds of beauty".
It may have been a tiny picture tucked away in the nether reaches of the magazine, but editor Cindi Leive insists, "I'd loved this photo at first sight myself . . . The fact that we are all so ecstatic about Lizzie's little tummy speaks volumes about women wanting to see themselves – and their bodies – reflected in the pages of the glossies. To that end, Glamourhas done a very generous, altruistic thing for the female population." Leive says that the deluge of e-mails she received were full of "joy at seeing a woman's body with all the curves and quirks and rolls found in nature".
But why are women so pathetically grateful for the appearance of such a minimal overspill of flab? Compared to the pregnancy-ravaged wastelands of abdominal flesh that many of us keep under our jumpers, Miller’s neat little stomach may have more in common with her airbrushed model counterparts than with the “real life women” she is said to represent. As one sceptical blogger notes grimly, “I need to show these people what a belly really looks like”, while another says poignantly, “I’d be happy to just have her tiny ‘wobbly bit’ instead of this huge jelly belly I currently possess”.
Miller herself, a US size 12, which translates as size 16 here, is categorised as a “plus size” model, but remarkably was regarded as too large to model plus-size clothing lines.
One website that has done much to break down the secrecy around our shameful stomachs is theshapeofamother.com, where women can post images of their wobbly, scarred tummies, complete with lop-sided belly buttons and slack skin. These are the real “real women”.
Nonetheless, it's hard to imagine any of them appearing in the pages of Glamour, whatever its self-congratulatory salute to an expanded notion of female beauty. Despite the roars of approval, perhaps Lizzie Miller's discreet, inoffensive roll of flesh is about as much reality as we can take.