JENNI MURRAY: Why pop stars like Dua Lipa, Taylor Swift and Beyonce could be putting women’s mental health at risk by strutting 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 say for some time. I had been a little reluctant in case people thought I had become an old puritan duddy, which I assure you is not the case.

But this week, Keren said: “I can’t understand what some singers are wearing these days.” I would say the problem is not necessarily what they wear but what they don’t wear.

“I have friends who have teenage daughters and those girls already have terrible body images and insecurities,” she continued, “and I don’t think that kind of woman on stage helps that.”

Keren is absolutely right. Everyone from Dua Lipa, who recently announced she would headline Glastonbury, to brilliant Oscar nominee Florence Pugh, seems to think you should always appear in public half-naked. Likewise, Beyoncé, one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, is adored by young girls and women.

They love her music just as 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 virtually naked on stage in jewel-encrusted leotards or, in Beyoncé’s case, naked except for strategically placed jewelry astride a horse ?

When Beyoncé revealed the artwork for her new album this week, I was pleased to see that she had put her clothes back on…until I noticed that the back of her leather pants had been cut away to expose his butt – why?

These stars had to work extremely hard for the bodies they love to show off. There are no bingo wings, no bloated bellies, no big ankles. They need to exercise every day and have expert chefs prepare healthy and nutritious meals. Unlike the teenage fan who has to eat until school lunches are over, she might have a little puppy fat and the only exercise she does is copy a TikTok dance in her bedroom. It’s no wonder so many girls have physical problems and, according to the NHS, more young people than ever before are receiving treatment for eating disorders.

I have friends whose daughters simply stopped eating and lifting weights to get the strong, beautiful arms of their idols.

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

Then there’s the risk girls take in copying outfits. Like Keren, I have friends whose teenage daughters spend hours listening to the music of the women they adore, doing their best to sound like them and dance like them. They hope mom won’t notice if they sneak out in the required discreet outfit.

Nothing can be more distressing for a parent than seeing their little girl go out dressed like a porn star, unaware of the dangers that might lure her in.

In the 80s, the heyday of Bananarama, 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 flesh.

Keren says they are proud to have become pin-ups without being overtly sexy: “We have become sex symbols in donkey jackets. We had no stylists or makeup artists. That wouldn’t happen now.

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

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

Women were valued for the quality of their minds, not primarily for the size of their breasts – or their willingness to show them off.

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

Sometimes the dresses are sheer and leave nothing to the imagination, or the fit is so tight that a large, generous bust has difficulty breaking free.

I am convinced that this is due to the proliferation of porn, a field in which women perform almost exclusively for the pleasure of men.

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

We have worked so hard to be considered the intellectual equals of men. Please don’t allow us to be seen as just glorified strippers.

A fitting farewell for Charlie

Once I needed to watch it, I hadn’t watched the BBC’s Casualty for 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 a stab wound to the chest and retired in a yellow VW Beetle, the same car he had arrived in all those years ago. For once, a happy ending.

• Let’s not overstate the fact that Dame Laura Kenny is quitting cycling “for the sake of her children”. She said she just didn’t want to do all that training anymore. Her husband, Sir Jason Kenny, resigned to become coach in 2022. Now the children will have mum and dad to look after them.

“This is not PepsiCo, your former employer. It’s the BBC!’ Throughout my adult life, I willingly paid the license fee, knowing that it would give me beautiful programs without any trace of the influence of the commercial world.

Yes, the BBC is short of money – it always has been. But successive DGs argued with governments when the Charter was renewed and obtained an increase.

Who would be prepared to pay the license fee when we know that the BBC is no better than its commercial rivals? I won’t and it would break my heart.

• I’ve always wanted to play an instrument and some suggest that learning the piano would keep my brain in working order. But a teen horror story always turns me off. A neighbor offered me free lessons. One day I had to practice the scales while she was going upstairs, but I tried to spot Little Donkey. She came down, hit me on the knuckles with a ruler and told me I should do some scales. I left feeling like my creativity had been crushed. Would I dare to try again?