The Beckham documentary about David and Victoria Beckham has taken the world by storm. In the first five days of its release, it had a staggering 12.5 million views and quickly rose to the number one top TV program on Netflix. Understandably, lifting the curtain on one of the world’s most famous families with a deep dive into scandals, affairs, and career controversies makes for seriously compelling viewing.
But one of the main focuses after the show? Victoria Beckham’s diet. Google searches for “Victoria Beckham diet” have exploded by 669% following the release of the documentary. This is despite the fact that the series never once mentions or alludes to her diet, weight, body shape, or size. This analysis was carried out by fitness company Mirafit, while bulk.com found that searches for “Victoria Beckham workout” skyrocketed by 747% just hours after the doc's release.
Of course, the media has been quick to pick up on this rising interest and has responded by populating their sites with content around her diet and weight. “Victoria Beckham’s healthy diet: How she maintains her incredible figure,” reads one headline, while another wrote: “Victoria Beckham diet tip is easy morning ritual she swears by for weight loss.”
These are just two of many new articles covering her diet and weight that have appeared since the documentary first aired.
We rarely hear the voices of the women who choose to stay after an affair, especially in the mainstream media.
I think it’s important to reiterate that there was no reference to her body shape or size or what she eats within the documentary. What does this tell us? Our collective obsession with women’s bodies shows no sign of waning.
And let me emphasize: women’s bodies. We haven’t seen any significant rise in demand for details of her husband’s diet. In fact, if you search “David Beckham diet,” the majority of news stories that appear are actually those written about his wife rather than him.
It's a tale as old as time. Women are reduced to their body, and their worth is dependent on their appearance, despite the fact that they are multifaceted human beings with so many more interesting elements to their lives and personalities. Victoria was one fifth of the Spice Girls, one of the most iconic girl bands of all time that garnered 100 awards, including the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, which is a lifetime achievement award (previous winners include Elton John, The Beatles, and Queen).
After leaving the band, she went on to create her own fashion house, which quickly became a critically acclaimed clothing brand—she won Designer Brand of the Year at the 2011 British Fashion Awards—and its success saw her branching out into cosmetics. On top of all of this, Victoria has raised four children: Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz, and Harper.
But when it comes to what we deem newsworthy, these aspects of her life pale in comparison to how Beckham famously avoids carbs (sticking to only grilled fish and steamed vegetables) and how she does two hours of exercise every morning.
It’s not our fault, though, that we’re fascinated by her body “secrets." We’ve grown up in a society dominated by diet culture and an all-consuming preoccupation with thinness. Our parents, our grandparents, and even our great-grandparents were taught to fear fatness and glorify thinness. We’ve all been conditioned to believe that thinness is the best thing that a human can achieve—and the frenzied interest around Beckham’s weight and how she manages it shows that this false belief is still very much alive and thriving.
So it’s not a surprise, but it’s still a really sad phenomenon to continue to witness, because how we look really is the least interesting thing about us.
I hope for a world in which women are valued and praised for what they do, what they achieve, and the mark they leave on the world rather than their waist size.
