Liz Cambage and the perverse need to cut powerful women down to size

hink, first, of a person you dislike – or even despise, if you’re the despising type. Now think of the cruelest thing you could say to that person, the sentence or two you know would cut to their marrow, take them out at the knees, squeeze the air from their lungs.

If you’re thinking of a woman, there’s a good chance you’re crafting an insult about her weight, imagining the look on her face when you ask her if she’s put on a few pounds during quarantine or mention the flab on the back of her arms. That’s a guaranteed gut-punch, because for many women, no matter how often we’re told our value lies in more than our appearance, we still default to a dress size or a number on a scale. We can be brilliant, successful, in the happiest relationship. But we will be felled by a mention of fat. Read More