Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford has shared his tender take on body shaming and his experience with body acceptance.
The stalwart rocker recently sat down with A Gay And A Nongay podcast, where he offered his advice to those that feel that the don’t meet the body standards that permeate through LGBTQ+ culture.
“I think that the whole body shaming and imaging is just as prevalent in the straight world as it is in the gay world. You always have to have somebody with a six-pack on [on the cover of] a gay mag, and that’s wrong,” he mused. “You always have to have some beautiful, slim, gorgeous woman on [the cover of] a straight magazine or whatever. It’s just mad that we’re still at that place. Just push by that, ’cause it’s fluff — it really is fluff. It has no relevance whatsoever.”
Halford went on to give kudos to those that keep up a fitness routine, but emphasised the importance of treating oneself with kindness.
“If you’re a person who wants to keep fit — and I’ve got some really fit straight friends — I admire that; I admire your conviction to doing these great things for yourself and for your body, because it does have a knock-on effect,” he continued. “But in terms of the level of it being superficial and not really, really being important, yeah, we need to look at that differently. And over the years, it’s gotten a little better, for girls who are plus size, for example, and there’s a whole broader acceptance, as there should be.
“Look, this is your body. Be proud of it. Be proud of the way you look, the way you are, ’cause you’re a beautiful person. It’s not what the outside is about; it’s the inside that matters — [what you have] in your heart and in your mind.”
Halford is critical of the harsh aesthetic standards prevalent of media, musing: “I’m all for pushing back at that kind of theory,” Halford added. “And especially over here [in the U.S.]. I mean, you look at some of the newscasters; they’re like movies stars — they’ve gotta look like a movie star. And I’m, like, ‘What is that all about?’ So it varies from place to place.”
Rob Halford talks body acceptance on A Gay And A Nongay podcast:
On September 29th, Rob Halford unveiled his debut tell-all memoir, Confess.
