Oh Judith, Judith, Judith Woods. One must admire the sheer audacity of a journalist who can look at a lean, muscled, healthy 53-year-old man who’s just dragged himself through the wringer of divorce, fatherhood, and Marvel casting calls, and say with a straight face: “Repellent.”
Repellent? Really? What exactly is repellent here… the abs or the effort?
Because let’s be clear: from where I’m standing (and I suspect I speak for a great many women) Sacha Baron Cohen isn’t flaunting anything grotesque on the cover of Men’s Health. He looks fit. He looks healthy. He’s clearly spent time in rooms where “discipline,” “consistency,” and “grilled chicken” aren’t punchlines, but actual menu items. And now he’s being body-shamed… for trying too hard? Flip that headline for a moment.
Picture, if you will, a man writing: “She doesn’t realise her post-divorce Pilates physique is repellent to most men.” His obituary would be published before the ink dried on the backlash.
Let’s call this what it is: Dad-bod fundamentalism. A militant wing of couch-sympathy culture that insists men must never veer too far from the aesthetic of someone who owns three barbecue tongs and once did CrossFit for a week in 2012. Heaven forbid a bloke actually tries. Or looks good doing it.
And here’s where the argument slides straight into absurdity, like a souped-up mobility scooter at a Formula 1 track. Judith suggests that a Celine Homme polo and some Tom Ford linens would have done the job. Done the job for what, exactly? A lunch at Soho House? This isn’t The Great British Bake Off: Midlife Edition. Sacha Baron Cohen is playing Mephisto in the new Marvel film, not “Mildly Frazzled Dad #3” at the PTA. We’re talking the actual Prince of Darkness here. Lord of Hell. The guy who signs souls in blood, not pension forms. You can’t exactly show up to Satan’s boardroom in a smart-casual linen blend and hope for the best. If you’re embodying evil incarnate, abs are frankly the Marvel casting director’s minimum dress code.
Let’s zoom out. Here is a man who has made his career out of fearless, often controversial, boundary-pushing satire. And now, midlife, with a heart bruised and the cameras still rolling, he’s chosen to transform himself physically, perhaps psychologically. That’s not vanity, that’s a form of renaissance. It’s turning the page, and sculpting the margins.
And for many women, it is inspiring. Not just because of the aesthetics, though if you’re telling me those pecs don’t deserve a polite standing ovation, you’re lying… but because it shows vitality, resilience, and let’s be honest: a refusal to shuffle quietly into the khaki twilight of middle age with a reheated lasagna and a subscription to Gardeners’ World.
What we’re witnessing isn’t the tragic descent of a man into midlife madness. It’s a joyful, defiant reinvention. It’s Borat with a six-pack. Brüno with a bicep. Ali G… still probably somewhere in the garage.
So rather than tsk-tsking from the sidelines with literary pearls clutched, perhaps we might celebrate the fact that midlife doesn’t have to mean mid-shelf. That it’s okay… glorious even… to aim higher, run faster, and yes, get shredded if that’s your jam.
Because if Sacha Baron Cohen wants to look like a cartoon superhero, then by all means: sculpt, Sacha, sculpt.
And as for “repellent”? Please. Most women I know would happily be repelled in his direction.
So pump on, Baron Cohen. And may your delts, like your comedy, continue to offend all the right people.
By Claire Bullivant
That’s rich coming from someone who could pass for a man in the right clothes,seems like someone is butt hurt because they know they could never get someone like that even in a million years
I agree. Judith Woods probably never lifted anything other than the bag of cat food.
People get shamed for being this or that these days and god forbid someone get into great physical shape as their hobby to stay mentally, spiritually as well as physically well.
Shame on the author !
What a clown!