Michael Gove has just revealed his favourite supermodel and a penchant for surfing brainyquotes.com all in one go. In a cabinet meeting last week, the Tory MP and levelling up secretary quoted none other than Kate Moss, invoking her controversial statement “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”, when speaking to colleagues from the Conservative party.
In the confusing metaphor, Gove was apparently using the quote to argue that the right of the Conservative party should be less reactionary and extreme. As reported in The Times, on May 1 Gove warned right-wing Tories that pursuing hard-line policies that “make us feel good about ourselves” was akin to “comfort eating”, but instead they should not satiate this hunger. “As Kate Moss once said, ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’,” he is reported to have said afterwards.
Despite the fact that he was arguing the Conservatives should be less extreme in their policies, invoking such a controversial statement was an odd thing to do. “Comfort eating” is not the same as peddling policies that target the most vulnerable in society – as the Tory government often does – and it’s offensive to suggest they are the same. Also, it’s quite telling that Gove is quoted here saying that those hard-line policies “make us feel good about ourselves” – only the Conservative party could feel good about forcing trans patients into separate rooms in hospital wards, or sending detained asylum seekers to Rwanda.
As well as this, Gove’s invocation of the quote comes in a completely different social landscape to when it was first used. In an interview with WWD in 2009, Moss relayed the controversial mantra – one she didn’t make up herself – after being asked what her motto was. There was immediate backlash, with many parts of the British and international media criticising the interview – however the quote was then appropriated for many ‘thinspo’ and ‘pro-anorexia’ blogs.
Since then, in an interview with NBC in 2018, Moss has shown regret about using the phrase. “There’s so much more diversity now, I think it’s right,” she said about the modelling industry changing. “There’s so many different sizes and colours and heights. Why would you just be a one-size model and being represented for all of these people?”