Grazia column: Hoyer on Hawkins-Gate posted from the mag's most recent issue . .

Can't anyone keep their clothes on anymore?
Fashion journalist and broadcaster Melissa Hoyer ponders the popularity of getting naked . . .

Naked backlash . . .

The whole Jen Hawkins thing (or more endearingly, Hawkins-Gate) is perplexing.
Having happily met and interviewed the model a number of times and even shared drinks with her at a Gold Coast night club opening (yep, we shared the high life) I don't understand why she felt the need to do that much-hyped magazine shoot.
Jen isn't anywhere near that age - 40-plus - where some women in the spotlight may want to say "I am happy with my body, warts and all', and prove it with such a risky shoot.
There no sagging, post-baby breasts or enlarged nipples; no stretch marks; no sun-provoked age spots; no thinning hair, no tuck-shop arms or even a pot belly - rewarding achievements for those who have them, by the way.)
It's a body of a bloody attractive twentysomething but one which - say those who know about such beauty things - may have already fallen prey to a bit of odd facial enhancement.
I have always found Jennifer Hawkins an extremely amiable, affable, if not a simple young woman - not in the stupid sense - but more in an uncomplicated kind of way - who is also very very self-deprecating.
Indeed, just after her Miss Universe win, she seemed self-conscious and nearly embarrassed by the fame and the prosperity) that came with it.
So the motive of posing naked, at this stage, mystifies even more.
The rationale of the cover shoot was about 'raising awareness', but of what? Awareness of the face that none of us look like tat?
Even Jen had to admit by the week's end that the 'cause' behind her shoot had been lost in the uproar.
Amid that uproar, however, among fashion commentators and bloggers alike, are claims Jen has become much more demanding in recent times for the jobs she is contractually required to do.
So, while those outside the industry may but the lie that is a 'natural' shoot, those within know the creative control she still would have had over it.
Burgeoning fame breeds the need and desire for perfection.
Huge contracts - like Jen has - give people a self-assurance and a confidence that a young woman working in retail earning $40,000 a year will find hard to attain.
By some accounts she has serious self-belief these days. But has she contributed to the body image debate? No.
While the UK's Daily Mail recently touted '2010 as the year that curves will come of age and the the next issue of V Magazine is packed with larger models, it won't be the way of the future.
You can be sure that at the Golden Globes and the Oscars, toned starlets will be wearing body-slimming garments. And as a woman with a seven-year post-baby belly, I won't be chucking away my tummy-holding Spanx . . . . .