My very first posting on this blog was about the improbability of my agreeing with Ulrika Johnson. However she's just gone and blown it. She's now come out and said she's going to have surgery to reduce the size of her boobs. Surgery is a wonderful thing. People can have tumours removed, new kidneys and hearts transplanted, burns victims can have their faces reconstructed. Overall surgery is a pretty fantastic thing. However surgery for vanitys sake sticks in my craw. I just cannot see how anyone would willing put themselves in that situation for the sake of bigger/smaller boobs, or nose or lips. Be happy with what you've got, if you've got all your limbs, faculties and your health that should be good enough. Everyone is unique and there stems our beauty. Having surgery to conform to a rigid, homogenised ideal of beauty is very sad and sends out a very negative message to all young girls out there.

The research of Dr Jessica Ringrose of the Institute of Education in London has concluded that feminism should be taught in schools. The advances made in equality in the seventies are being eroded by vacuous, overtly sexual celebrities that have become the new role models for young girls. I can illustrate this with an example from my own family, my then 14 year old niece reading Jordan's autobiography! This is not a new phenomenon however as this article from 23 years ago shows.

http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/viewArticle.arc?articleId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1985-08-13-09-002&pageId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1985-08-13-09

If you can't be bothered to read the full article titled The Flirt Rock Phenomenon comes under Fire here's a brief synopsis. In essence the article is an attack on the highly sexualised pop artists whose target market are young impressionable girls. In particular Madonna is mentioned and that other well known 'tart' Sheena Easton?!!!

At the time this article was written I was approaching my 16th birthday and I was a big a Madonna fan as was possible to be. She was my role model. I do feel she helped me through those awkward teenage years. I saw her as a woman of unconventional looks who was slightly chubby, worked incredibly hard, who was sexy, strong and powerful and never a victim. As an teenager unsure of herself, this image was incredibly seductive. By the time I reached 18-19, I didn't need her anymore.

I've thought long and hard to come up with a positive role model for the teenagers/preteens of today. It was so difficult, you try it. Bad role models are ten a penny, Jordan, Paris, Lilo, Kate Moss, Wino, Naomi Campbell, I could go on and on. So far I've come up with one name - Emma Watson. She plays Hermione in the Harry Potter films. She is successful, pretty, well mannered and intelligent. Apart from her, I've drawn a blank.

As a mother to 3 daughters this does worry me. I can only hope that I can act a role model for them. The onus is on me!

I've always liked Victoria Beckham. She's always struck me as having a sense of humour and having no illusions about the extent of her good luck/talent. The flip side to this is that she comes across as very vunerable and fragile, as if she doesn't deserve such good fortune and gorgeous husband. But let's face it, only Victoria saw the possibilites way back when!

She's a pretty woman who hides behind such severe, highly tailored clothes. They age her terribly.

Please Victoria, ditch the heels and the pencil skirts and wear something comfy and fun. Let your hair go wavy and smile more. Go shopping in some Birkenstocks! There's no need to be so pristine all the time. Enjoy fashion, don't be a slave to it! It should be fun, not armour!

A few months ago I stumbled across this site. It offers professional retouching of photographs for the entertainment business. If you visit the portfolio section of the site, you will see before and after shots of people such as Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Halle Berry. If you click on the thumbnail and roll your cursor off and on the image you can see the work that has been done to each shot. Some people are naturally beautiful and need no touching up (Cate Blanchett, for example). Others need help to look so incredible and otherworldly.

This kind of thing happens to every photo in the magazines, except the paparazzi shots where they want someone to look rough! These images are unrealistic simply because they aren't real. With such an increasing emphasis placed on the physical nowadays, trying to emulate these images is impossible as the subject in the photos don't even look like that!

Visit http://www.iwanexstudio.com/

I never thought that I would ever agree with Ulrika Jonnson on anything. I've always found her irritating beyond belief but she has proved herself to be that rare thing in a 'celebrity' - sensible! Sensible isn't sexy, you won't get voted on the FHM sexiest woman list by being sensible but in the real world, the one we all live in, it's a really valuable commodity. Ulrika wrote an article recently in the Daily Mail (yes I know, I'm sorry!) in which she defends her right to be wobbly after having her fourth child just 2 months ago. How has this happened? Why is it no longer acceptable to relish the soft body babies give us? Why do new mums have to have a hard gym body within days of giving birth? Photos of Nicole Kidman two weeks after the birth of her baby show a woman who has had something 'removed', there's no evidence of a ripe, nursing, nurturing body there. Having had 3 kids, I can't imagine why anyone would want to waste any of their baby's special first weeks working out in a gym or jogging or doing anything other than soaking up the miracle you've just helped to create. It's such a special time and it shouldn't be overshadowed by some insane pressure to regain your figure.

Check out the article at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1042408/Why-Im-proud-baby-gave-figure-needs-34-I-cup-bra-says-Ulrika-Jonsson.html