Why it matters that Jackie O spoke about her body weight.

Jackie O just surprised us all. By saying something that really shouldn’t be surprising.

How many women have you heard discussing their exact weight?

We’re guessing that you can count the answer on one hand, and that most of those women are sisters or close friends.

That’s because while it’s no big deal for men to reveal the exact number of kilograms they weigh, for whatever reason, it remains deeply taboo for women to do the same. Regardless of whether the answer is 45kg or 200kg, revelations about a woman’s weight all too often lead to body-shaming or accusations of “humblebragging”.

As a result, many women just don’t go there… at all.

That’s why it was so refreshing to hear Jackie O’Henderson, aka Jackie O, reveal her exact weight on national radio this morning.

Speaking on the KISSFM show she co-hosts with Kyle Sandilands, 40-year-old Jackie O revealed she weighs 65 kilograms.

While that figure places the 168cm star squarely in the ‘healthy’ BMI range, Jackie admitted she lacked body confidence and often covered up with bulky outerwear.

“Long coats, that’s my thing,” the mother-of-one explained.

This morning’s confession did not mark the first time Jackie has opened up about her body image.

In October, the  radio star confessed she became so self-conscious on a holiday in Fiji that she kept her dress on to wade into the resort pool.

“We went to Fiji for a week and I was not bikini ready at all,” she recalled of the incident.

“I’m so embarrassed about being in a bikini at the moment that what I do is I wear a dress [into the pool],” she said.

“I wear this netted dress as I descend, and as I get deeper I start taking [it] off so people won’t see.”

In an ideal world, we wouldn’t be surprised about a healthy woman revealing her healthy weight on national radio.

In an ideal world, the number on the scales would have no effect on our body confidence, because nobody would judge a woman for her weight — whatever it may be.

In an ideal world, it wouldn’t be ‘brave’ to talk about a very normal thing like weighing 65 kilograms.

But it is. Because for a lot of women, saying what they weigh out loud is still a really, really big deal.

So Jackie O, we’re sorry you don’t feel confident in your skin right now, but we do appreciate your honesty.

And we thank you for reminding us that women can feel insecure about their bodies, no matter what size they are.

Now… Who is prepared to reveal theirs in the comments?

Some of Jackie’s Instagram posts:

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The post-baby body selfie that made us all feel better.