Thank god that Kate Winslet is flying the flag for belly rolls-Emmie Harrison-West-Entertainment – Metro

Kate Winslet photographed in New York in February 2024 (Picture: John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images)

Posing for a photo, any photo, I automatically suck my stomach in.

I unconsciously push my chest out, straighten my back and deflate my lungs so there’s literally no air left in my body.

Then, I breathlessly smile – the words ‘hold your tummy in’ ringing around my head. I’m all tits and teeth, with (hopefully) an hourglass figure for the photo. And not a fleshy roll in sight.

I’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember, and sadly still tend to do it now, aged 31. 

In fact, I’m sure most women do this for fear of their stomach sticking out, or their belly and back rolls being on show, god forbid.

So to hear that Kate Winslet – yes the Kate Winslet, one of the most magical, trail-blazing, splendiferous female icons of our age – was inadvertently told to cover up her belly rolls during filming for her latest film makes me roll my eyes so much it hurts. 

In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Oscar-winning Winslet explained how the incident happened.

‘There’s a bit where Lee’s sitting on a bench in a bikini… And one of the crew came up between takes and said: “You might want to sit up straighter”.

‘”So you can’t see my belly rolls? Not on your life!”‘ Winslet replied. ‘It was deliberate, you know?’ Winslet told the magazine, ultimately refusing to cover up.

I won’t lie, when I first heard about a crew member suggesting Winslet hide her belly rolls, I felt dejected. If the actual real life Kate Winslet was subject to stupid opinions about her body, what hope did I – and millions of other women with bodies just like mine – have to fight body image injustice?

Emmie has been encouraged to cover her body throughout her life (Picture: Emmie Harrison-West)

It’s so sad but, honestly, being asked to hide my body was just part and parcel of growing up as a girl. 

We girls were told to sit up straight, with our chin up, and our stomach hidden from view by everyone – from our teachers, to family members.

Our fleshy, chubby bodies were demonised to the point of self-hatred. We were led to believe that anything other than perfect was unacceptable and alienating.

I was once told in ballet class as a child to ‘stop standing like that’ as my belly was sticking out. I couldn’t have been more than seven or eight.

As a result, I’ve worked out the most flattering angles for photos and starved myself thin in efforts to get rid of my rolls over the years. 

I’ve worn baggy clothes to hide my body, avoided crop tops, bikinis, and cut-out, figure-hugging dresses. I’ve even stopped wearing certain bras for fear of ‘back fat’ being on show, and ditched skinny jeans to avoid the ‘muffin top’.

I’ve deleted photos after scrutinising my belly rolls and refused to take my clothes off around the pool on holiday for fear of my stomach being out.

I catch myself even now asking myself: ‘Is this too tight? Too short? Too small?’

Emmie straightening her back and sucking in her stomach for a photo (Picture: Emmie Harrison-West)

It’s why, over the years, Kate Winslet has been such a role model for me. She sticks two fingers up to idealised versions of women’s bodies onscreen and fights for better representation.

On top of calling out the crew member over her belly rolls, she told Harper’s Bazaar: ‘I think people know better than to say: “You might wanna do something about those wrinkles”.’

What’s best is that Winslet posed topless for her Bazaar shoot, too. Talk about not giving a single f**k of what her body ‘should’ look like. 

It’s not the first time Winslet has flown the flag for natural, realistic, unfiltered female bodies, either. In fact, Winslet told The New York Times in another interview that we’re ‘starved of that a bit’.

In 2021, she said she rejected director Craig Zobel’s offer to edit out ‘a bulgy bit of belly’ while filming a sex scene for Mare Of Easttown.

And, in true legendary form, she sent back the poster for the series not once, but twice, ‘because it was too retouched’ and she knew how ‘many lines’ she had on her face.

Kate Winslet needs protecting at all costs (Picture: Anthony Harvey/REX/Shutterstock)

‘I do feel a huge sense of relief that women are so much more accepting of themselves and refusing to be judged,’ she told Harper’s Bazaar, adding that she sadly didn’t know ‘a single contemporary […] who grew up seeing her mother looking in the mirror and saying: “I look nice!” 

‘We waste so much time being down on ourselves and I’m just not doing it ever again.’

I, and I’m sure scores of other women, need to channel this energy every single day. Stop attacking our bodies or wrinkles in the mirror, and thinking that we need to ‘better’ ourselves for the male gaze like our mothers did. 

We need to stop deleting photos, and stop with the breathless fake smiles.

There is no ‘ideal’ way to be a woman. There is no perfect, and Winslet has once again proven that. 

Kate Winslet needs protecting at all costs while she proudly blazes the trail for women and girls everywhere – ‘bulgy’ bellies and all. 

In that case, I’ll see you by the pool in my bikini, I’ve got plenty of rolls to go around.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

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