“The women’s press rarely features people who go beyond the cover!” denounces Melha Bedia (and she is right)

“The women’s press rarely features people who go beyond the cover!” denounces Melha Bedia (and she is right)

“Even Saupiquet didn’t want me!“

On the set of “C à vous”, the comedian and actress Melha Bedia, star of the series Miskina, poor thing (on Prime), took the liberty of placing some well-felt barbs on the status of muse, beauty diktats and… The women’s press. Are we listening to it?

“Even “Lu” didn’t want me, I’m on “Saupiquet”, my friends, they are Vuitton muses. The women’s press rarely features people who go beyond the cover. How do you want me to love myself?“, quips the young woman in the France 5 talk show.

“I’m a little too overweight, I have too many snags in 2027, they’re already at the Los Angeles Olympics. I have a teething problem like Jean-Pascal Zadi“, laughs the comedian. What the actress tackles casually during this short sequence with the false air of a sketch has the merit of asking the angry questions. The women’s press is still very discriminating under the guise of glamour?

Melha Bedia’s rant: the women’s press still not inclusive at the time of the body positive movement?

It’s a real problem that the young actress and sister of Ramzy Bedia highlights. Even in the age of the body positive movement, where is the diversity on the front pages of women’s magazines? Articles and files will place greater emphasis on current social issues. But beyond the articles, the covers of the most mainstream magazines tend to be overwhelmed by aesthetic conventions…

Racialized women, fat women, women with disabilities, women of fifty, sixty, seventy years old… A universal star status exceptionally “authorizes” more “atypical” female profiles to be entitled to the front page. This is regularly observed within women’s groups, while the struggles of the people concerned, the notions of fatphobia and “ageism” – the discrimination and exclusion to which women are subject from the age of forty – seem all fully understood by most people today.

The sign of a hypocrisy that does not speak its name, between good intentions, correctly chosen words and a total lack of change in the face? The issue of the front page – the one which highlights, and puts forward – remains a symbol of this impasse, even after years of feminist upheaval, and the popularity of the mood posts of activists widely followed on social networks like Instagram .

What the young actress addresses takes us back to the reflections of Mona Chollet in her reference essay fatal beauty. The Swiss essayist talks widely about the alienation of women and the considerable responsibility of the women’s press in this regard. More or less conscious conformity to what is required of them, permanent obsession with weight (to lose), presence of the male gaze…

And to this is added the “dead end” of body positivity!

As summarized on Terrafemina by essayist Gabrielle Deydier (“We finish off the big ones well”): “People understand better what we’re talking about when we talk about fatphobia, but fatophobic reactions or speeches are still far from rare. The example of fashion speaks for itself: yes, it’s positive to offer more inclusive fashion shows, body positive models (I don’t think we’re falling into “fat washing”), but people are too trendy to believe that because they see fat people in a parade, then the problem would necessarily be solved“

So many lines still need to be moved!