Napoleon Complex: Pressure to Be Thin in Hollywood is Exacerbated by Short Actors
I blame the pressure for actresses and leading ladies to be unnaturally thin in Hollywood directly on Hollywood's little leading men. Many A-list male actors in Hollywood are short. Though the words "short" and "tall" are relative I suppose. So let's rely on facts: there are more male actors under 5'9″ than over 5'9″ and this is why there is so much pressure on female actors to be teeny tiny and unhealthily thin in Hollywood.
Think about it, if an actress is 5'7″ tall, how on earth is she going to get a role as the leading lady when Tom Cruise is the same exact height? Though men generally are built with a larger frame and bone structure than women, this isn't always the case. Some men are very slight in stature, but the camera tends to help men look meatier (and thus "manlier") on screen and hinder women in the same way, because in our society, skinny is sought after over healthy. So a woman with a larger bone structure, at a healthy weight for her height, is going to appear to be the same size as a man who is the same height as she is on screen and seen as "big" even if this is not the case in real life. Thus, she will not be considered for the role or she'll be considered too heavy and asked to lose weight as to appear smaller than the shorty actor she is cast next to.
Related:The 10 craziest things women do to lose weight
However if the same healthy 5'7″ tall actress is cast with a taller actor such as Vince Vaughn (6'4″), Jason Segel (6'4″), Ben Affleck (6'2″), Will Smith (6'2″), or Hugh Jackman (6'2-1/2″) she would appear smaller, more feminine and ladylike next to her leading man because naturally, she would be.
Of course this is 100% based on my own theory, but it's a logical one and I'd like to think that regular women will read this and realize that the skinny Hollywood "norm" pressure can be blamed fully on short men with Napoleon complexes who can only feel strong, confident and heroic on the big screen, and female actors who are just trying to keep their jobs. And rather than trying to fit some idealized feminine cookie cutter mold, we can see where the absurdity lies and note that if our jobs were based on our size, the motivation to keep said job would add extreme pressure to fit said mold.
- By Maegan Tintari
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