Nigella Lawson says she has to tell US TV companies not to "airbrush my sticking out stomach"
The celebrity chef warned a broadcaster not to remove her “sticking-out stomach” in its advertising
Nigella Lawson has revealed she previously asked US television companies not to airbrush out her “sticking-out stomach”.
The TV chef’s comments came in response to a tweet from The Good Place star Jameela Jamil hitting back at criticism of her campaign against the photo-editing practice.
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In the post, Lawson called out the “hatred of fat” and the assumption that everyone would prefer to look thinner.
Her tweet was quickly followed by messages of support.
Lawson has previously spoken out against airbrushing, revealing in a 2013 blog that she had told US broadcaster ABC they weren’t permitted to shrink her size in billboards for talent show The Taste.
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“I could see them wincing when they saw my tummy bulging out of my dress. And when I say bulging, I don't mean huge. I just mean you could see the roundness. It was a tummy,” she later told radio show The Splendid Table about the experience.
“I really didn't want to become what I'm not. I'm all for taking exercise so that I can eat as much as I can without getting too huge, but nevertheless, I didn't want to be turned into a plastic creation. As human beings, we are flawed, and it would make me more anxious to hide my flaws than to reveal them.”
She added: “[Airbrushing] is just the habit, I suppose, in promotional materials -- particularly in America, where there's a very idealised form of what one should be. Young, blonde and thin are the three words that come up in my head – none of which I am.”
Jamil has said she wants to “put airbrushing in the bin”, previously telling BBC 100 Women that such photo editing is “a disgusting tool that has been weaponised, predominantly against women, and is responsible for so many more problems than we realise because we are blinded by the media, our culture and our society.”
