Gert Verhulst finds it scandalous that so much controversy has arisen about the TV appearance of his belly. “Then I thought: yes, now you should change my name for Eva Jinek.”
The Flemish media millionaire Gert Verhulst has a television soap in which he exposes himself completely. Literal. Well, except for a Speedo. In one of the scenes he walks down a flight of stairs in revealing swimsuits. A rather impertinent roll of fat dangles above his swimming trunks. Not much going on, you might think, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Gert or Eve
Gert talks about it in the talk show Jinek: “It has caused quite a stir in Flanders. There was a newspaper columnist who wrote that it was a crime against humanity for me to appear on TV like that. In a respected newspaper. Then I thought: yes, now you should change my name by Eva Jinek. Then the whole country would be too small.”
Initially, hostess Eva reacts with a laugh. “You were actually treated sexist, Gert?”
Gert seriously: “Yes. I talked to the editor-in-chief about it and he said: ‘Yes, but you can still say things like this about men.’”
Conscious choice
Table guest Winfried Baijens: “It might be good to have experienced this, right?”
Gert: “Yes, but it was a conscious choice to show me like this on TV.”
Winfried: “So what was the criticism?”
Gert: “Yes, that it was ugly.”
Winfried: “Hmm.”
Gert: “There is no one here who directly denies that, like: ‘No, it’s not too bad!’”
“Is this serious?”
Eva: “No, it’s very good of you, Gert. It is emancipating and brave.”
Gert: “It really was a very conscious choice. There was so real criticism from a certain angle and that really got me…”
Then Eva takes a more serious tone: “But Gert, do you really mean serious criticism? Are you really serious about this?”
Gert: “Body shaming, yes. And then I thought: now you should change my name in that article to that of a woman.”
‘I understand that’
Eva understandingly: “Yes, I understand you think that, yes.”
Rob Kemps whisperer Antoinnette Scheulderman: “Yes, you are right.”
Eva: “You said it was a conscious choice. What did you want to raise?”
Gert: “Yes, nobody likes to be on TV, of course. However? And yet, when you’ve done that, you think: pooh. It’s a kind of liberation.”
