Thursday, August 21, 2008

Skeletal Beauty is ‘In’…so says Hollywood!


Many times we hear about a certain star passing out because they were simply starving. People need to eat and there is a reason for that…to nourish the body. Yet some are choosing not to eat or to eat just enough to survive in the name of ‘beauty’.

People come in all shapes and sizes but Hollywood would have you believing that only one size is good, super thin. Today, I’m going to talk about ‘thin’ in Hollywood. I call it ‘Skeletal Beauty’. If you take a good look at some of today’s stars they are just skin and bones with a big head and a face that it beautified by tons of make-up. In some cases they are suffering from malnutrition so their natural hair is falling out or looks horrible so they wear extensions and wigs. What price beauty?
I mean I have seen some famous actresses up close. Yuck! They look sickly and gaunt.Look at some of the voluptuous stars of the 50’s and 60’s. Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield & Raquel Welch would be considered overweight by today’s standards. I saw a chorus line from the 30’s in the film and most of the dancers had ‘something’ to their name. Today they’d be considered too fat to dance.
Remember Twiggy and the waif look. She weighed 90 lbs and looked more like a 12 year old boy than a woman. Women have to look like 12 year old boys to be beautiful. Hips have disappeared from a lot of the stars.I was watching a behind the scene of a certain movie and the director was pointing out how beautiful his lead actress was from a side profile. She had no back side or chest. She looked like a board to me.
Sometimes I ask if men did not create this thin image so that they could control women. Let’s face it, a 90 lbs woman is physically less of a threat to a man than a 180lb one. Plus they are playing with the female mind and pitting women against each other this way. And let me not go into the bulimia and anorexia thing. Women are killing themselves to achieve an unrealistic body thanks to the ‘Skeletal Beauty’ image.
The diet industry is a ‘billions of dollars’ business because of the ‘thin’ obsession. Yet, a lot of dieters don’t ask themselves why their bodies rebel and their diets don’t work or if they do, it’s temporary.
Is it me, or does it seem that films that use people who resemble ordinary people do better at the box office. Look at the success of the film, Fried Green Tomatoes, and its star, heavyset Kathy Bates. Commercials that have real looking actors selling products tend to do better than those which have actors who look like perfect models. Why…because the majority of people can identify with them.
I look at a film like the remake of the Amityville Horror (2005) and I laugh. That’s because the two leads are too gorgeous to be believable. The mother of three kids looks like a model, and the father Ryan Reynolds, looks too buff to be what he is. Wouldn’t he have a little paunch and be more rough looking for someone owning a construction business?
It’s no secret that those women who are starving themselves in the name of beauty are also grumpy. I’ve worked with some. One day, someone brought some donuts in. So this thin lady stood over them for like five minutes having a very vocal debate about whether she should eat one or not. I mean was her goal to let us know that she watches what she eats or to ridicule everyone who ate them.
I got so fed up, with the debate I told her, “Just eat the daym donut!” She walked away and needless to say we haven’t spoken since.
Now tell me, don’t you just hate it when someone takes, half a bagel or donut or some other pastry and leaves the other half. That seems like the ‘in’ thing. I watch what I eat so I can only eat half or a quarter.
I saw a guy shout at a woman who did this saying, “We don’t want your leftovers!”
Well skinny ladies, I have seen something really bad on my media job. I have seen guys laugh at the skinny starving ladies. Yes, they laugh, the woman thinks she is some kind of Goddess for being a size 2 or less. As soon as she turns the corner the men laugh.
They joke they don’t want bones but something to hold onto and they weren’t men of color either. Another time, there was a woman who dieted and became bony thin to the extent that people started telling her she needed to eat. Every time she walked by people worried if she would fall down and die.
Plus size actress, comedienne Mo’nique has been an advocate for heavier women. She is not advocating getting fat, but advocating acceptance and self- esteem for women who have been relegated second class status because of their body size. There’s a serious message for the big girls in the film ‘Phat Girlz’.
I’m not saying fat is good. Of course there are negative health effects when the body has too much. But the body needs some fat and there is a reason for that. If a person gets sick, or is in a starvation situation, the body uses the fat to nourish the body until the person can recover. There have been cases where some thin people have died simply because they had no body fat. And there have been cases where thin fitness buffs have died from heart attacks. So no, heart attacks aren’t the monopoly of fat people. This will be a great topic for another discussion.
Shelly “nun- chucks” mentioned air brushing in a lot of models photographs. Yes, that also helps create the idea that these women we see have no flaws. Well, if they didn’t have flaws then why did it take ten people to get the model ready for the shoot? That perfect fitting blouse or pants make have some pins in it so that it looks that way. Ah, Hollywood influence. The sad thing is that this influence is now being felt in the Third World. I'll go into detail in another discussion.
Films should be representative of real people. If you want to see real people just stand on the street and look who walks by. Most people are not size 2 or below. They come in all shapes and colors. It’s time for films to reflect this.

No comments: