Kate Moss sporting a bulge

Poor Kate Moss. The gal puts on a little bit of weight and everyone thinks she's pregnant. This situation nicely encapsulates the research about the meanings of fat and pregnancy I've been doing for the past few years. Women can never be 'in between' as it were: they are either 'fat' or 'pregnant'. A belly is only acceptable when it is flat or pregnant; a little pudge is no good.

Of her changing shape, Kate Moss told New York Magazine:

"I am a woman now! It’s true. No, honestly, I’ve never worn a bra in my life. Ever! It’s so awful, even my friends are phoning me up and saying “Are you pregnant?” And I’m like, “No! I just put on a couple of pounds, and they went in the right place.” Isn’t that weird? And how perfect for lingerie."

Sources: http://nymag.com/fashion/09/spring/54319/index1.html
http://www.babble.com.au/2009/02/16/bun-in-the-oven/

Maggie Gyllenhaal: the new face of Agent Provocateur

Maggie Gyllenhaal, one of my favourite celebrities, has just signed to become the new face of saucy British lingerie company, Agent Provocateur. Replacing Kate Moss, Gyllenhaal will appear in the next ad campaign starting in September of this year. Maggie is, of course, gorgeous but with a more subtle sexiness in comparison to most mainstream actresses.

However, I am particularly intrigued that in every piece of copy I've read talking about her signing, everyone seems to find it necessary to mention that Maggie will be the face of AP just nine months after giving birth to her daughter Ramona. However, Kate Moss is also a mother but no one ever bothered to mention that when she was the face of AP! In fact, when the video of Kate Moss in AP lingerie was released last year, the website was so overrun it actually crashed. At 31, post-pregnancy, Kate looked not much different than she did at 14, when her unsettlingly thin body defined the term 'waif'.

One one hand, it's fantastic that a successful company such as AP thinks that mother's bodies are beautiful. After all, they do have a nice, but limited maternity range (and on the pricey side). They also previously did a campaign in which some of their real customers were featured. On the other hand, would they have chosen Maggie to be the new face if she was still holding on to a bit of her pregnancy weight? I'm highly doubtful.

Sources: http://www.agentprovocateur.com/

http://living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1150292007