Stop fat-shaming Tziporah Malkah

YES, she was once a model engaged to a billionaire, but that doesn’t mean we should delight in fat-shaming Tziporah Malkah.

OPINION

SINCE being pushed back into the public eye last year after a paparazzo snapped her out the front of her house in a sheet, the fat- shaming of Tziporah Malkah has been off the charts.

It’s in sneaky sentences in every article written about her. It’s in headlines saying one thing and meaning another. It’s in snarky comments by her fellow jungle mates when they complain about her not wearing a bra, and in the unflattering photos being shared around.

The narrative around her re-entry into public life is all in language that would never be levelled at one of her contemporaries, should they decide it’s time to enter the jungle.

If Elle Macpherson was braless in the jungle, do you think for a second there would be complaints about her attire, or headlines about not moving on from her former partners? Those nasty trolls on twitter complaining would be making GIFS to swoon over at bedtime.

Tziporah Malkah’s story delights the schadenfreude in so many because they see her as a tall poppy chopped down, and even better, the tall model poppy chopped down and now, shock horror, fat. Everyone’s worst nightmare, so how delicious to see it in someone who previously ‘had it all’.

What they don’t see is that she’s actually a woman who should be celebrated.

As Kate Fischer, she was the prized object. The billionaire’s fiancee, the movie star, the charismatic beauty who grew up with the privilege of influential parents who flew in the upper echelons of our political society.

Tziporah, then known as Kate Fischer, was engaged to James Packer in the 90s.

She gave up most of her successful modelling and acting career to be the future Mrs James Packer. After finding the relationship wasn’t what she wanted, she broke up with Packer, choosing to live life over spending his billions, and went to LA where we didn’t hear from her again for ten or so years.

When she came back to Australia, she was so broke and so out of favour with the rich and famous she wasn’t even able to bunk in any of their many spare rooms. Now Tziporah, she found herself with depression and living in a homeless shelter in Melbourne for two years.

That’s a space many, many people haven’t been able to get out of. And, I’m willing to bet not many who’ve had such a steep fall — from Packer to pauper.

Instead of selling her story to 60 Minutes or Women’s Weekly, Tziporah chose a different path. A path out of the limelight, in an aged care facility. She’s studying to be a nurse, and caring for patients with dementia.

After being outed by Women’s Day in her new life (and deciding to raise her profile via a number of media appearances since), she told Jonathan Moran she decided to go into the jungle at a crossroads in her life — and to be able to raise money for homeless women.

“There’s many many reasons. Firstly, to raise money for my charity of course, to house homeless women. I’m also doing it because I’ve never been in an environment where you all have to be team players but you want to win.”

There’s a lot more to Tziporah Malkah than her weight. Picture: Network Ten/Nigel Wright.

She was probably offered more money to appear on the show than she earns in a year as an aged care worker, so why wouldn’t she take the opportunity?

There’s nothing she can do now that would ‘shame’ her more in society. Remember, she’s been photographed getting the mail covered in a sheet.

In The Project interview with Carrie Bickmore, we saw a woman who’s lived through hell and somehow made it through.

What we’re seeing from her on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here is a woman who’s a team player, who’s lived a lot of life, who’s open and kind and willing to share where she’s been completely as herself.

Since being in the jungle, she’s been getting tasks and camera angles designed to exploit her weight, and she pulls through it all with a smile and a bravery I don’t know many of us who could muster.

She’s obviously an incredibly strong woman who’s pulled herself out of the roughest of times. We should be celebrating her, not wanting to pull her down again. She’s resilience personified.

That said: not completely sure how Steve Price can be ‘one of her favourite people’, but no one’s perfect, are they?

OK — we are questioning her choice of ‘favourite people’, but if Tziporah Malkah doesn’t want to wear a bra, as long as she’s comfortable, who cares? Picture: Channel 10

Melanie Tait tweets @melanietait