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You Call This Curvy?
Posted on Jan 20th 2010 3:00PM by Ashley NegliaFiled Under: Celebs & Entertainment
Our writer Ashley Neglia weighs in on the controversial "T Magazine" blog post on thin actresses sporting more curves at Sunday's Golden Globe Awards.
Even before I flipped the channel to the Golden Globes on Sunday night, I knew that watching the rail-thin celebrities slink along the red carpet would ruin the bowl of whipped topping I had been happily enjoying. Even though it was fat free and topped with frozen cherries, I just felt wrong consuming my chemically-sweetened treat when I knew that most of the women parading across my flat-screen had probably been subsisting on little more than half a tray of ice cubes in the past several hours -- possibly even days.
Don't get me wrong. I do not sympathize with these women. Most of them clear more money in one year than I will ever see in a lifetime, and they get paid to look "good," which in showbiz terms means finding the perfect accessory for your clavicle. This leads me to my current beef. Yes, I'm looking at you, "New York Times."
A January 18th post that appeared on the Times Magazine Blog made me wonder whether the author was wearing her glasses, contacts or was otherwise suffering from a bout of blurred vision while composing her piece about the Golden Globes. Case in point:
Maybe it's just me, but I could have sworn that some of the ladies who showed up at the Golden Globes on Sunday had put on a little weight. It's almost criminal to name names, because the very actresses whose body-mass indexes have been the subject of endless tabloid speculation are the very ones now sporting sexier curves. You could definitely see the difference if you concentrated solely on the upper arms. Instead of a Barbie-doll circumference, there was suddenly, amazingly, a womanly roundness to their frames. More Marilyn than Twiggy, that's for sure.
I like that the author tried to soften the blow of her accusations by invoking Marilyn Monroe's name and tossing in that these women are "sporting sexier curves." However, the word she uses to entitle the piece and ultimately describe these women awkwardly stands out like Pat Robertson in a third world country: roundness.
Arguably, there are some actresses in Hollywood who are round -- quite round in some cases. Some of them were even in attendance at the Golden Globes, including winner Mo'Nique. However, the actresses this author refers to are Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson and Courteney Cox Arquette. Still with me? Great.
Now, call me crazy, but when looking at pictures of these women, the first word that I think of is not round. Instead, my kooky mind produces words like half-starved, emaciated, can sleep inside an envelope. These words apply. Round is just an insult -- not only to these celebrities, but to America. Confused? Don't be. Let me explain.
Every day we're bombarded by images of celebrities that have achieved (and I use that word very loosely) a level of thinness that would leave most of us near-dead. In fact, if we ever had a shortage of high school biology skeletons, I'd argue that you could cart almost any one of these women into the classroom as a stand-in and -- provided she shaved her head and/or wore a skullcap -- no one would be the wiser.
It's no secret that much of Hollywood deserves to be on an episode of "Intervention" for eating disorders. People whose BMI dips below 18 are already considered underweight. The women targeted in this blog are either already underweight -- at 5-foot, 6-inches tall and a reported 110 pounds, Jennifer Aniston's BMI is 17.8 -- or are dangerously close to teetering below the line of health -- Kate Hudson's BMI is approximately 18.6.
Calling these women round should offend you. It implies that these women can -- and should -- be thinner. Even if Jen, Kate and Courteney did slip up by eating half a wedge of cantaloupe and an entire packet of Certs before the awards, they are still gaunt. Granted, I expect my celebrities to be thin -- mostly because I think they should forfeit some of life's luxuries (like milkshakes and pie) to some extent for being paid so much to do so little -- but I don't want them passing out on the red carpet. That's just depressing. Who would be left for Ricky Gervais to make fun of or, for that matter, stop me from devouring my entire container of Shop Rite whipped topping?
Click on the gallery below to see more celebrities on the red carpet.
The Kardashian sisters are the queens of sexy curves. Find out how Kim gets her fabulous figure.
