Let’s all take a moment to appreciate the pure joy of Tziporah Malkah — formerly known as the model Kate Fischer — loving herself sick after her recent astonishing weight loss.
The Sydney-based ex-fiancee of billionaire James Packer has recently dropped 50kg from her 120kg frame, after being told by a doctor in 2017 that she was morbidly obese. She told New Idea this week that she’s now a healthy and happy size 14.
And you can see it. Behold her brandishing that selfie stick like it’s a solid gold sceptre and she’s the warrior queen of shrunk stomachs because, why the hell not?
She’s the anti-influencer. No stylist, no makeup, zero filter and zero f**ks.
But these pictures also highlight an interesting conundrum of our politically correct times — Is it still OK to flaunt weight loss when the accepted mantra is that women should love their bodies, no matter their shape and size?
The body positivity movement is certainly important, but its overwhelming message of self-acceptance ignores something crucial: If changing your body is important to you and you have the guts and grit to do it, then you should be able to celebrate that.
It’s OK to love who you are the way you are. And it’s also OK to make moves to make whoever you are better.
Tziporah looks like pride. She looks like herself. I’m not going to say she looks “raw” and “honest” because that’s often code for “hot mess” and frankly Tziporah looks healthier than when she was at her heaviest, which she says left her in “bad shape, mentally and physically”.
She dropped the weight via a combination of clean eating, long walks, sessions with a personal trainer and “hypnotic lap band surgery”.
We’re not entirely sure what that last part is but we’re hypnotised by the whole transformation and the thrill it’s giving her.
She says that before her weight loss she couldn’t walk without panting and sweating.
Now, she says, “I’m elated, I can’t stop dancing around and acting like a little kid.”
And these pictures say: “I am a 45-year-old woman who looks pretty good with her top off and I’m going to hurl myself around on a random chilly sand dune in a bra and a flappy loin cloth thing like a bonkers seaside Kate Bush because — bite me.”
And we should all be dancing right along with her.
We’ve become so achingly PC about celebrating all of the women all of the time that it can feel treacherous to applaud a woman putting in the hard work to do something good with her body that makes her feel happy and healthy.
Let’s be like Tziporah. Let’s love our bodies for what they do, but also love ourselves for what we do with our bodies — as long as it’s something that makes you feel good enough to dance madly on a scrubby hillside with next to nothing on except a selfie stick and a smile.
Alex Carlton is a freelance writer. Continue the conversation @Alex_Carlton
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