“I think it’s hatred of women that invites the criticism. I think it’s the objectification of girls and women and this hypersexualization of our society that invites the criticism. It doesn’t have anything to do with me, really, and how I look. … There was no presumption of goodwill. The conversation went straight to, ‘Oh my gosh’.”
This is Ashley Judd, still talking about people talking about her face. And while I totally loved her essay – totally loved it to the nth degree, actually – I think that maybe she just needs to back up a little bit off it now and let it settle, set, and resonate for a spell. Let it do its own talking, you know? Because to go as far as saying, “I think it’s hatred of women that invites … criticism,” I think, might be a little off-base, and while yes, some vitriolic comments made about the appearance of women are because the person or persons making the comments might very well “hate” women, I don’t think that all comments made about womens’ appearances when it comes to plastic surgery versus none are made because everyone who makes them hate women.
While Ashley definitely covered some serious ground with her bomb-ass and spot-on essay, I can tell you one thing: anyone who assumes plastic surgery on a celebrity who has easy and varied access to plastic surgery – does not necessarily assume so because they “hate women.” I don’t hate Ashley Judd. I don’t even know Ashley Judd. But when I first saw her recent photos, my first thought was, “Yup, cosmetic fillers.” And when I saw Heidi Montag’s first new face back in the day, even though she denied, denied, denied, I also assumed “plastic surgery,” but it wasn’t because I hated the girl. It was because it was commonplace at the time, it still is, and people are going to be desensitized to something that they see every f-cking day, on every f-cking magazine cover that uses Photoshop and airbrushing and features worked-over celebrities who’ve had tweaked noses, eyebrows, cheeks, and lips.
I guess I think Ashley might be a bit off-topic in saying that anyone who automatically thinks “plastic surgery” hates women, and I also think it kind of detracts from her original, positive message. It’s really ironic sometimes how people can protest so vehemently against sweeping generalizations and then in the very next breath, kind of go ahead and make them themselves.
I totally understand being proud of who you are and not wanting to allow other peoples opinions to affect how you feel about yourself and the decisions you make re: your own body but as much as people would love to cheer the things she said as being supportive of the individual and not the image, the things she just said and even a good portion of what she originally said were off base. She didn’t write any of it for the purpose of being anti-sexist, she wrote it because she was personally hurt by the criticisms and used anti-sexism as a crutch to hold herself up and now her follow up commentary backs the argument. That’s not to say that there isn’t sexism or that sexism is ok but the core of her argument wasn’t about sexism, it was about how she was personally hurt by the criticism and she lashed out at everyone using sexism as her defense. She basically said that everyone is horrible, that men are sexist and that women are bad too because they buy into the ideas that drive sexism and all of that because she has a puffy face. If she REALLY believe it, she’d quit acting.
O.K., everybody; I don’t need to re-take Sociology 1013. Cool it.
Ashley we’re impressed with your command of the English language, however, you did have huge hideous cheek implants that were obviously removed. Your current cheek implants look quite nice and natural. Why don’t you address that issue.
British female writers are spitting bullets about how people reacted to Judd’s face. Words like “sexist”, “misogyny” etc are being used everywhere.
Shame none of them point out how it’s most women being bitchy about her puffiness. Shut the fuck up about men and start looking at yourselves, modern women.