Here’s to Tilly Ramsay, the one making Strictly worth watching this year. Turns out she isn’t just a dab hand at the paso doble, but a bit of an internet hero to boot.
Ramsay, 19, admonished DJ Steve Allen this week after he took to the air on his early morning LBC radio show to proffer his take on her body.
“She’s a chubby little thing, isn’t she?” Allen snarled. “Have you noticed? Probably her dad’s cooking I should imagine.”
Wildean wit, no? Fortunately, Tilly seems to be a chip off the old block. Like her chef pa Gordon (who credits her with helping him land 27.2 million TikTok followers), Ramsay the younger likes to have her say; unlike her pa, it’s not all furious F-words.
Instead, in a touching but to-the-point Instagram, the dancer reminded the world to “please remember that words can hurt”. Gloriously, though, she’s also as steely as a paring knife: “Being called out on a national radio station by a 67-year-old man is a step too far,” her post reads. “I draw the line at commenting on my appearance.”
Eagle-eyed readers will have clocked that I’m not a young girl, but I don’t think one has to be to find this kind of thing inspiring, and not just because Allen’s comments are unnecessary, inherently creepy and dull (though all three they are). Besides, these things affect men and women alike — look at actor Jonah Hill, who earlier this week railed against “years of public mockery” that had exacerbated his “childhood insecurities”. In his post, Hill wrote: “I kindly ask that you not comment on my body. Good or bad, I want to politely let you know it’s not helpful and doesn’t feel good.”
Instagram has quite literally built its business on things being impossibly picture perfect, and though lately there’s been an uptick in carefully-managed mental health posts, it’s often hard to stomach such stuff from the artfully airbrushed lot posing in Bali with a “I might look happy in this picture, but…” line.
By contrast, Tilly’s dashed off iPhone note — or what looks like one — seems to have struck a chord for the simple sincerity of it.
Honesty; too little of that about online.
What do you think of the way Tilly Ramsay responded to Steve Allen’s comments? Let us know in the comments below.
