British actress Nicola Thorp blasts sexist interview questions: 'Magazines like this constantly reduce women to what they eat'
When British activist and actress Nicola Thorp answered sexist interview questions from an unnamed magazine, she didn’t get mad; she got creative.
Thorp answered every question, no matter how invasive or inappropriate, and then she posted the entire thing on social media, with the magazine’s name removed. The unnamed publication sought info on Thorp’s exact height, weight and diet. The interviewer also wanted to know her body insecurities and how she boosts her body confidence — questions not unlike those regularly featured in some magazines not too long ago.
An open response to an interview I was asked to do last week.
Magazines like this constantly reduce women to what they eat. I am not a dress size. I am not a number on a scale. I am done with a media that profits from the insecurities of women.
Wonder if they’ll print it? pic.twitter.com/aXy3d1DyCR
— Nicola Thorp (@nicolathorp_) November 28, 2018
Apparently, the unnamed magazine didn’t get Thorp’s humor. She later informed followers that she’d been asked to remove her post.
UPDATE: the magazine have requested that I delete my tweet. The PR company got in touch and asked me to “be a dear and take it down please”…
BE A DEAR!!!
Despite the fact I haven’t actually named any of them.
— Nicola Thorp (@nicolathorp_) November 29, 2018
Magazine staff should have known that Thorp wouldn’t simply “be a dear” and answer such questions. In 2016, she famously “ignited a British rebellion,” as the New York Times put it, after she refused to comply with an office dress code that required women to wear heels. Her experience of being sent home without pay from her temporary office job for wearing flats drove more than 150,000 people to sign a petition calling for an end to such policies. A government report issued in January 2017 formally confirmed them as sexist and illegal.
Of course, Thorp’s response was getting a lot of love on social media.
You’re a hero. I’ve spent my whole life feeling like I wasn’t good enough and that was largely due to mags and TV with their representation. I am ALL for beautiful strong women but when only a handful of women as a whole fit into that category in the media, it excludes too many.
— ✨n i c✨ (@vanityvause) November 28, 2018
We need to vote with our wallets. Magazines/outlets that assume that WE have an all-consuming interest in other women’s calorie consumption and dress sizes don’t deserve our money. I’m interested in Ruth Bader Ginsbergs exercise regimen and that’s IT.
— Dr. Ann Olivarius (@AnnOlivarius) November 29, 2018
This is partly why I have never bought many women’s/fashion mags. I’m built for comfort, not size 8 fashion.
— Carol Elena M (@CarolEMartin19) November 29, 2018
Thank you for posting this. This is a really useful reminder of the type of things to say, when people question me on my weight/size/diet etc. This has also really highlighted to me that I am more than my weight/size/diet etc
— nataliecapon (@nataliecapon1) November 28, 2018
👏👏👏👏👏👏we need more people in the public eye like yourselves to stand up to these magazines like you have. I’m so sick of seeing front covers ripping women apart for how they look. Don’t buy them anymore, its no better than bullying the way they pick apart womens images!
— Allison L (@dali_leveridge) November 28, 2018
— Single Scalpel (@SingleScalpel) November 29, 2018
Good grief and they wonder why today’s teenagers are so low in self esteem, Bravo Nicola brilliant response
— Joan Jones (@JoanJon83295831) November 29, 2018
Thank you. For reminding me that I am more than the things they reduce women too in magazines. You are brave for challenging it x
— zoe iqbal (@zoeIqbal) November 28, 2018
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