We don't want you to lose weight, we just want you to be
healthy. By weighing less.
-- Jill, from Knocked Up
I've sung the praises of girls in guy comedies before, but last night's rerun of Knocked Up reminded me of Kristen Wiig's first standout role. Early in the movie Hollywood execs Jack (Alan Tudyck) and Jill (Wiig) passive-aggressively bully Alison to lose weight -- without technically asking her to lose weight. They keep telling her they want her to be 'healthy' and 'tight'. It's a small scene, but an effectively pointed commentary on how mercilessly Hollywood hounds women about their weight, all the while veiling that fact with concerns about 'health'.
It came at an apropos time. After being horrifically airbrushed, model Filippa Hamilton announced that she was fired for weighing too much -- at 120 pounds for a five-foot-ten frame. As if that weren't bad enough, Christian Laboutin and Karl Lagerfeld have joined in the fray, respectively accusing Barbie of having fat ankles and suggesting that those who hate rail-thin models are just 'fat'.
Thanks for the pysch lesson, Karl.
It's infuriating. People like Lagerfeld can make insulting, degrading remarks about women, in public, with no social repercussions. Any other group would at least get the benefit of a wholesale defense (i.e. 'you can't say that about gay people/black people/whatever').
And if the CEO of any other business had made the remark that Lagerfeld (or Laboutin, or Lauren) did, he would be asked to step down and probably get sued. Enter the fashion/Hollywood defense: these industries can claim that appearance is part and parcel of the business, hence their divine right to control the weight of their stars.
Still, I don't see male actors getting told how to look. They might bulk up or down for a boxing or superhero role, but they are not subject to the random, frivolous commands that actresses are -- such as when director Michael Bay demanded that Megan Fox gain weight to look more voluptuous. And I know for a fact that men's clothing (unlike women's) does reflect the fact that average male has, for example, a gut.
How can we doubt the power of public chastisement when Tyra Banks is the latest woman to fall victim to the 'I don't care what people think -- oh yeah, I really do' trap? Now she's proudly showing a figure that looks downright skeletal to me. Before her it was Jennifer Love Hewitt. And Drew Barrymore. And countless other actresses that have gone from normal to 'healthy' because of one critical remark in public. And that's exactly what they say, that they've gotten 'healthy', parroting what agents, directors, producers, and other women have told them.
It's all the more frustrating because even if women try to flex their purchasing power, there's not a single designer that reflects normal women -- how can they when standard industry fit models are size 6?
My only answer is that these practices deserve some serious public humiliation. But I can't think of anything apart from the scene from Knocked Up. Does any other forum give these jerks their just desserts? If not, will someone do something? Tina Fey? Jon Stewart? Anyone?
