JENNI MURRAY: Why pop stars like Dua Lipa, Taylor Swift and Beyonce could be endangering women’s mental health by dancing around half-naked

Thank you Keren Woodward, singer and star of the all-female 80s pop group Bananarama, for saying what I’ve been dying to express for a while. I was a little reserved in case people thought I had become a puritanical old fart, which, I assure you, is not the case.

But this week Keren said: ‘I don’t understand what some singers are wearing these days.’ I’d say the problem isn’t necessarily what they wear, but what they don’t wear.

“I have friends who have teenage daughters and these girls already have terrible body image and insecurities,” she continued, “and I don’t think having a woman like that on stage helps with that.”

Keren is absolutely right. Everyone from Dua Lipa, who recently announced she would be headlining Glastonbury, to the brilliant Oscar nominee Florence Pugh, seems to feel like they always have to appear half-naked in public. Likewise, Beyonce, one of the best-selling music artists of all time, is adored by young girls and women.

They love her music, just like they think megastar Taylor Swift’s songs touch their hearts and souls. But why do such talented, successful and powerful women feel the need to appear on stage virtually naked in jewel-encrusted leotards or, in Beyonce’s case, naked except for strategically placed jewelry astride a horse?

When Beyonce unveiled the artwork for her new album this week, I was thrilled to see her clothes back on… until I noticed the back of her leather pants had been cut away to expose her bum – why?

These stars must have worked extremely hard for the bodies they like to show off. There are no bingo wings, no bloated bellies, no swollen ankles. They must exercise every day and have expert chefs who prepare nutritious, healthy meals. Very different from the teenage fan who has to eat her way through school lunch, may have a bit of puppy fat and the only exercise she gets is copying a TikTok dance in her bedroom. No wonder so many girls have body problems and more young people than ever are receiving treatment for eating disorders, according to the NHS.

I have friends whose girls simply stopped eating and lifting weights to achieve the strong, handsome arms of their idols.

The sad reality is that far from being inspiring, many of today’s female pop stars are a danger to the mental health of young people.

Then there is the risk that girls run themselves by copying the outfits. Like Keren, I have friends whose teenage daughters spend hours listening to the music of the women they adore and do their best to look and dance like them. They hope Mom doesn’t notice when they sneak out in the requisite barely-there clothing.

Nothing can be more disturbing to a parent than seeing their little girl go out dressed like a porn star, unaware of the dangers this can bring.

In the 1980s, Bananarama’s heyday, and even into the 2000s, if reruns of the old Top Of The Pops on BBC 4 are to be believed, it wasn’t about showing the flesh.

Keren says they are proud of becoming pin-ups without being overtly sexy: “We became sex symbols in donkey jackets. We had no stylists or make-up artists. That wouldn’t happen now.’

Keren Woodward, singer and star of the all-female ’80s pop group Bananarama, said: ‘I don’t understand what some singers are wearing these days’

But why wouldn’t that happen now? Since the turn of the century, we seem to have lost the sense that talent matters above all. Think of Annie Lennox or Debbie Harry; major stars appreciated for their beautiful voices and idiosyncratic sense of style, who always came across as intelligent and thoughtful in interviews.

For me, as a feminist, journalist, interviewer and cultural commentator, it felt like women were achieving something because of what we had fought for.

Women were valued for the quality of our minds, not primarily for the size of our breasts – or how willing we were to show them.

Of course, it’s not just pop stars who only appear in essentials. On every red carpet, be it the Oscars or the Baftas, there are always a number of beautiful, famous women who appear to be wearing as little as possible.

Beyonce unveiled the artwork for her new album this week

They love Beyoncé’s music, just like they think megastar Taylor Swift’s songs touch their hearts and souls

Sometimes the dresses are sheer and sheer and leave nothing to the imagination, or the cut is so tight that large, full breasts struggle to break free.

I have no doubt that this is a result of the proliferation of porn, an arena where women perform almost exclusively for the delight of men.

But it’s the hugely talented, half-naked, ripped women radiating sex and suggestiveness that bother me the most. Why don’t they consider the impact on their impressionable young fans? And the impact on women as a whole.

We have worked so hard to be seen as the intellectual equals of men. Please don’t blame us for being seen as nothing more than glorified strippers.

A fitting farewell for Charlie

Derek Thompson as Charlie Fairhead in the BBC’s Casualty

Once I needed it, I hadn’t seen BBC’s Casualty in a while. But on Saturday I couldn’t miss the departure, after 38 years, of Charlie Fairhead. I was so relieved that he was saved from being stabbed in the chest and left for retirement in a yellow VW Beetle, the same car he had arrived in all those years ago. A happy ending for once.

• Let’s not make too much of a fuss about Dame Laura Kenny leaving cycling ‘in the interests of her children’. She said she just didn’t want to do all that training anymore. Her husband, Sir Jason Kenny, quit in 2022 to become a coach. Now the children will have father and mother to take care of them.

“This is not PepsiCo, your former employer. This is the BBC!’ All my adult life I have willingly paid the licensing fee, knowing it would give me wonderful programs without any hint of the influence of the commercial world.

Yes, the BBC is short of money – always has been. But successive DGs have fallen out with governments when the Charter came up for renewal and received an increase.

Who will be willing to pay the license fee if they know the BBC is no better than its commercial rivals? I won’t and it will break my heart.

• I have always longed to play an instrument and there is evidence that learning piano would keep my brain sharp. But a teen horror story still scares me. A neighbor offered me free lessons. One day I had to practice scales when she came up, and I still tried to figure out Little Donkey. She came down and hit me on the knuckles with a ruler and told me to do a scale. I left feeling like my creativity had been crushed. Do I dare to try again?