Thursday, July 17, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Could Helen Mirren bikini start a revolution?
This week, Dame Helen Mirren, 62, showed that she's confident but not obsessed about her body. Other women should take note, says Joan Smith
When Dame Helen Mirren packed a bikini for this year's summer holiday, she probably didn't imagine that several million women would soon be looking at her in wonder - and with a little bit of envy.
Shading her eyes with her hand, Mirren looks so self-assured that it's hard to believe most women's anguished holiday dilemma - should I take the bikini or stick to a flattering one-piece? - has even crossed her mind.
Some women are only in their forties when they decide to play safe and cover up on the beach. In the photograph published yesterday, Mirren has wisely avoided a thong, but there's no denying that she's gone for an eye-catching bright red ensemble with low-slung bikini briefs that show off her enviably flat stomach.
As she approaches her 63rd birthday next week, Mirren looks like a real woman: curvy, voluptuous and proud of it.
It's a reminder of the days before size zero and other fashion crimes against humanity, when actresses and models weren't expected to starve themselves in an attempt to look like boys with surgically enhanced breasts. We're so used to the Victoria Beckhams of this world that we've forgotten what a natural, healthy female body looks like.
That's one of many reasons why Mirren is such a showstopper. Another is that we've been taught to fear ageing as though it's a disease.
When the first pictures of Mirren on holiday appeared yesterday, with more following on the internet, many women quite a lot younger than the actress couldn't help poring over them and trying to work out her secret.
Has she discovered some magic formula that exempts her from the rules that apply to almost everyone else? How has she managed to avoid the critical self-scrutiny most of us subject ourselves to at ever-earlier ages?
Even women, whose careers depend on their appearance, feel the need to put themselves down in interviews, pointing out their cellulite and crows' feet, while allowing their photographs to be air-brushed into an impossible state of perfection. Keira Knightley is typical of a generation of young actresses whose success is as closely linked to a slender, catwalk image as their acting ability.
Meanwhile, magazine articles advise us to get Botox at 30 and cosmetic surgery at 40, and TV programmes press home the message that women who don't go for facelifts are slackers - they are nothing more than failures in the never-ending battle to keep age at bay.
At the same time, older women are warned about putting men off with displays of wrinkled cleavage; even Marks & Spencer recently found itself under fire for producing clothes that were too low-cut for its older clientele to wear.
So it's not surprising that so many women give up, dreading beach holidays and gravitating towards swimsuits designed to flatter the older woman - no high legs, and plenty of support for sagging breasts.
They would no more wear a bikini than go clubbing in Ibiza, but that's because they've been told they have only a few choices: give in to the inevitable ravages of age, embrace surgery, or work out as obsessively as Madonna. Sadly, Madonna isn't so much a role model these days as a warning about narcissism and spending too much time in the gym.
Then Mirren comes along, challenging the misogynistic message of a youth-obsessed culture. Accompanied by her husband, the film director Taylor Hackford, she's happy to head for the beach with tousled white hair, no make-up, and a body that isn't perfect but pretty damned good for her age.
The temptation, of course, is to dismiss her as an exception, a woman who's won an Oscar and four Baftas, and is used to being on show. After all, she's been doing it for more than four decades, ever since she played Cleopatra for the National Youth Theatre in 1965, and there's no doubt that success, fame and an absence of financial anxiety would work wonders for most women.
But there's more to it than that: everything about Mirren, from the clothes she wears to the roles she chooses, says that this is a woman who knows and likes herself.
Actresses in their fifties and sixties often complain about being offered frumpy "character" parts while their male contemporaries - wrinkly old Clint Eastwood and Jack Nicholson, for instance - are vain enough to expect to go on playing romantic leads well into their seventies.
But Mirren positively relished the opportunity to play a woman 20 years older than herself, confident that she could transform herself into the Queen. She looked stunning when she received her Oscar, restored to her natural beauty and displaying her usual impeccable dress sense.
Yesterday Mirren demonstrated once again that she has confidence in bucketloads - in her private as well as her public life - and that's worth more to a woman than any amount of surgical intervention. (It's also true that she goes to the gym and doesn't eat too much - but then so does anyone with a degree of common sense.)
In an age when women are used to being judged solely - and often quite cruelly - on their appearance, Mirren's sense of self is multifaceted. Clearly her appearance matters to her, or she wouldn't have chosen that striking bikini, but it isn't her whole life as it is for so many women who are in the public eye.
The late Diana, Princess of Wales is said to have pored over photographs the morning after a public appearance, desperately needing approbation, but it's easy to imagine Mirren shrugging off an unflattering image of herself.
Her professional achievements are as important to her as her looks; probably more so, in fact, and her radiant appearance is a reflection of a firm sense of identity. She has always been clear about not wanting children and her strong relationship with Hackford, whom she married 11 years ago after they had been together since 1986, no doubt contributes to her sense of well?being.
It is possible, of course, that some women felt daunted by Mirren's assured pose on that beach in Puglia. But in an age when glum, scrawny, two-dimensional models and pop stars are offered as role models, others will have cheered this rare image of a happy, confident older woman.
Faces and bodies change as we get older, but not always and inevitably for the worse. That's why Mirren's red bikini is more than just a swimsuit - for women, it's a revolution.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Helen Mirren in a bikini: Is it shocking to be sexy at 60?
Dame Helen Mirren has hit the headlines for looking shapely on the beach at the age of 62. Times writers discuss whether the sight of a mature woman in her swimwear should really result in such a brou-ha-ha
Her age is irrelevant
Excuse me, but is there some controversy attaching to this photo? If so, I can't see what it might be. I've fancied Helen Mirren for as long as I can remember. I fancied her in Prime Suspect, I fancied her in Calendar Girls, and dammit if I didn't fancy her (a bit) in The Queen.
And guess what? I fancy her now. Put it this way, I spent a lot longer studying this shot than having to produce a mere 200 words would normally justify. She's gorgeous. Her age is an utter irrelevance. I bet most men, and probably a lot of women, feel the same way. That Helen Mirren is fanciable is a given, a truism, a tautology, like saying Elvis was a good singer or Albert Einstein was clever. She's also smart and subversive, flirty and funny, all of which of course add to the appeal.
I've had the good fortune to interview her, not once but twice, the second time last year, and as I wrote then, she's not “sexy for 62” but “sexy, full stop”.
I'm going to put in for a third interview, any excuse will do, and this time I'll ask if we can do it on the beach.
Robert Crampton
Fruity and vibrant
One could discuss for ever the causes, and implications, of Helen Mirren's continuing hotness. You could be all “Russian genes” this, and “No children” that, and “Does this mean old biddies can be sexy?” the other.
But this would be - and you know this, if you consider it for a second - a punch in the face of joy. You don't need to analyse Mirren. You don't need to break her down. One does not analyse Nature's most fabulous outrages. Would you run tests on the cherry blossom of Japan? Catalogue the socio-political ramifications of a sunset? Search out data on a heron knifing into the lake?
When I look at Helen Mirren, thighing her way into the warm sea, I feel a surge in me - a huge, joyous surge, as big as if I were eating a pancake. Fabulous Mirren, I think. Still non-collapsible and fruity. Vibrant in a century of dolorous decay. As cheering as a mongrel in the front seat of a convertible - or a child, twirling in new yellow shoes.
When you look at these pictures, say to yourself, “It is 10.30am on Thursday, July 17, 2008, and I am looking at Helen Mirren's awesome, deathless tits and ass. The world is beautiful.”
Caitlin Moran
An unsettling image
Scanning a newsstand on the way to work yesterday, I felt faintly revolted. “The Queen in a bikini”, said the strapline, next to a paparazzi shot focusing on a generously-stocked bikini top.
“For the love of God, please tell me they haven't papped the Queen,” I thought. “Please tell me they didn't trick me into looking at Her Majesty's knockers.” I realised, with some relief, that the body was that of Dame Helen Mirren. And what a body - one that many girls would kill for.
But that's exactly why it's still an unsettling image - though clearly not as unsettling as an elderly sovereign in a state of undress. She is old enough to be my mother. Old enough to be my grandmother, in fact. It's like one of those doctored images where the face of a fat Chinese boy is pasted on to David Beckham's half-naked body.
Yet if I'm honest, the image is not discomfiting because the face doesn't match the perfectly-toned body. It's because it dupes me into looking at a picture of a woman born just after VE Day in the same way I would look at one of Kelly Brooke.
There may be a time when I think of 62-year-old women like that - but not until some time round 2050.
Marcus Leroux
She looks fantastic
Ooh, where is your inner feminist when you need her? Blimey! Wish I looked like that, and I'm not yet 40 (just). Something has been preying on my mind since I read it in times2 a couple of weeks ago. It was Julie Walters talking about the movie of Mamma Mia!. Walters, who is 58, said of the three actresses in the leading parts, which involve getting drunk and leering at men: “We said this is probably the last time we'll ever get parts like this, where you can be a bit pretty and can actually pull a bloke. We're all knocking 60. It gets a bit ooon-seeem-illy.”
Does it? With a face full of character like Walters you ought to be able to pull all the way to your coffin: her comment sounded defensive and a little sad. I like to think Helen Mirren's picture is her answer to that. On the Daily Mail website, amid a “wow!” of comments from American women who are rightly derogatory about the “stick insects” of Hollywood, “Darren” in the UK comments thus: “She outshines some of the fat 20-somethings I see waddling around. She looks amazing.” And so, I suspect, say most of us. Inner feminist be damned. The woman looks fantastic.
Alice Miles
Arising like Aphrodite
I simply do not see what the fuss is about. Of course, Helen Mirren looks good. She is a beautiful woman, and she keeps herself in good shape, with no expense spared, I imagine, with gym, and masseur, coiffeur and beauticians. So she is well-toned - no sagging pecs, a taut midriff and magnificent boobs. She has an adult intellect. It is a bloody impertinence for paparazzi to snap her while she is bathing at her country retreat. And they might have let her clear her hair from her eyes when arising like Aphrodite from her swim.
But those who live by the sword of celebrity must expect to be persecuted by those venal swordsmen, the snappers. And I dare say that she was not displeased to be snapped. That is, after all, her metier. It is a neo-classical heresy to believe that only the young are beautiful. Of course, kittens have inchoate charm. But the most beautiful women of any generation, from Cleopatra to Marie Antoinette to Queen Alexandra have been the older women. Ripe Coxes are far, far better than green crab apples.
Helen Mirren is beautiful at 62. So where's the wonder? I could show you a woman aged 70 this year who is far more beautiful. Grow up, children. You will.
Philip Howard
Women are bullied
No sarongs for Helen, then, eh? You'll recall it was Allison Pearson who remarked, on seeing photos of Princess Beatrice in a bikini not so long ago: “Can't someone buy the poor girl a sarong? For her sake, as well as ours.” Where did she make these remarks? Fancy that, I believe it was in the Daily Mail - so at least we can award it the coveted Consistency in Swimsuit Journalism Award. Congratulations!
Think of it like Orwell's Animal Farm and chant to yourself, Thin Thighs Good, Fat Thighs Bad! Thin Thighs Good, Fat Thighs Bad! Getting the hang of it? Well done.
To really get you in the mood, you can click on the Mail's website and see, just below the Mirren story (many more snaps of her loveliness online, fellas), this one: “No pay rise for This Morning's Fern Britton after gastric band controversy.” That'll teach her, won't it?
That's what this bullying - and bullying it is - amounts to. As for me,
I hope Dame Helen's having a nice holiday. She deserves it; and many congratulations too. But not for the Daily Mail's reasons.
Erica Wagner
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/article4346108.ece
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
