The British version of Cosmopolitan has sparked fierce debate in its home country, the Independent reports.
The controversy was sparked by the presence on the cover of Kelly Thorpe, a 30-year-old blogger with 250,000 followers on Instagram, who advertises clothes for plump and writes a lot about travel, food and her family life. Posting the cover photo on her Instagram, Thorpe wrote: “I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss a topic that is often ignored - the one-dimensional understanding of the word “health”. How often it is used to humiliate. How badly fat people are treated in the name of this health".
Not everyone agreed with Thorpe and the journalists' idea that obesity is synonymous with health. Readers recalled that obesity is statistically the second leading preventable cause of death, and that it greatly increases the risk of complications from COVID-19. The criticism was joined by Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan, who said, "There is no prowess in extolling obesity in the midst of a pandemic, when overweight people are 70% more likely to get coronavirus". Nonetheless, Cosmopolitan UK claims that readers' reactions to the cover have been "overwhelmingly positive".