Blame the 'magazines' for judging women, says Mail

With a complete lack of self-awareness, sometime Mail columnist William Leith has written on a subject close the Mail's heart - the female body.

Leith was talking to a female friend:

Something, she said, is making women hate their bodies. And the problem is getting worse...

Every day, women are bombarded with the same message - you have to be more beautiful than you were the day before...

Figures must be slim, but also voluptuous. They must be worked on, but must also look natural...

This female body-hatred has got out of hand. You can see it in magazines in the newsagents. From a distance, the predominant colour is the tawny-pink of perfect female flesh. And then, inside the magazines, you get all those features about cellulite, bingo wings and muffin tops...

Something, she said, is making women hate their bodies.

Something is behind all these airbrushed breasts and jutting bottoms.

How ironic. And all the fault of those 'magazines in the newsagents'. Obviously the Mail would never comment on a woman's cellulite.

No, those articles on Fergie, Jerry Hall, Mischa Barton, Martine McCutcheon and Jennifer Lopez were all in 'magazines in the newsagents'.

And they would never write about bingo wings. Just look at the articles on Madonna, Anne Robinson and Sarah Harding to prove that. Nor would they repeatedly offer advice on how to get rid of bingo wings. Oh no.

And you would never find the Mail calling perfectly normal, healthy looking women fat and unsightly, or catching them without make-up and holding them up as a figure of fun, as they definitely haven't with Britney Spears, Leona Lewis, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Kate Winslet (Call your stylist, Kate! Oscar winner Winslet steps out with scraped-back hair and NO make-up).

So the paper and its website that is always judging women based solely on their appearance is now wondering why some women may feel pressurised about how they look.

Imagine that.