I hope the sharing of my thoughts can generate a new conversation: Why was a puffy face cause for such a conversation in the first place? How, and why, did people participate? If not in the conversation about me, in parallel ones about women in your sphere? What is the gloating about? What is the condemnation about? What is the self-righteous alleged “all knowing” stance of the media about? How does this symbolize constraints on girls and women, and encroach on our right to be simply as we are, at any given moment? How can we as individuals in our private lives make adjustments that support us in shedding unconscious actions, internalized beliefs, and fears about our worthiness, that perpetuate such meanness? What can we do as families, as groups of friends? Is what girls and women can do different from what boys and men can do? What does this have to do with how women are treated in the workplace? – Ashley Judd, talking about the recent media storm over her appearance, which naturally included accusations of plastic surgery, implications of her needing plastic surgery, implications that she could not look like she does (i.e., good) without plastic surgery, implications that her (hypothetical) plastic surgery had ruined her looks, implications that her husband would now cheat on her because of her looks (i.e., bad), and that her looks were terrible in a acting role in which her character would, logically, have looked terrible.
Read the entire, incredible article at The Daily Beast.
