Body shape plays no part in being a 'real woman'

I'm an absolute cheese-fiend, and spent Christmas gorging on the stuff. This year I decided I was going to give Veganuary a go, and have spent the month so far abstaining from animal products.

So far so good, I thought. My digestive system was starting to settle after feeling a bit mixed up and I was feeling good for cutting out all that saturated fat and enjoying more vegetables.

As I stripped myself free of every ounce of extra clothing that might make me appear heavier, I stepped up and looked down.

No weight lost since Christmas. Nothing.

I felt pretty glum really, as I had hopes of actually fitting into clothes from Topshop.

But then again, I haven't been to the gym for ages and sometimes, I opt for the lift over the stairs.

I'm the only person to blame.

Every day, news feeds are filled with weight-related articles. A quick squizz on a popular entertainment news site showed half a dozen stories with headlines that do nothing but make you pinch your own podge and feel awkward.

Kelly Brook's 'slim shapely legs and enviably trim waistline'. Example's wife Erin 'shows off her abs in a bikini just four weeks after giving birth'. Someone else showed off her toned legs, there was yet another toned bikini body. Another post-baby figure.

And there, nestled at the bottom, was a story that showed a woman who was around my size – a 16 – or maybe bigger, dressed in 50s attire and posing for the camera.

'Real women' screamed the headline. The article was about 'transforming real women into glamorous pin-ups'.

Sitting here as I type this with my podgy belly, bit of what Alan Partridge would call a 'fat back' and the odd few stretch marks, I don't feel any more or less of a real woman than my size eight colleague sitting beside me.

As a nation, we've always been a little bit obsessed with female body image. Every January a new celebrity brings out a fitness DVD and the gym gets super busy. Flawless, beautiful toned arms, legs and whatever else can possibly be toned shine down at us from their lofty perch atop an advertising board, perfectly tanned and telling us what perfume to buy.

I sit in the pub drinking a beer and eating Walkers Ready Salted. Who's more 'real' – a slender clothes horse parading down a catwalk, or me?

Well, I've got a real problem with the term 'real women'. Being a woman is not about our body shape and it's not about how feminine we look, act or dress. It's not the difference between an athletic body shape and having big boobs and hips.

Gender identity is a far more complex subject.

At the end of last year, transgender teenager Leelah Alcorn committed suicide after her parents refused to allow her to live as a woman. In her heart, she screamed out online, she identified as one.

Being a woman is not a look, a physical presence, a name or even a vagina. It's about what you feel in your heart.

Sadly for us, if gossip sites don't have other people's bodies to criticise, then what will they have to discuss?

REAL issues, perhaps.