Hollywood

Ashley Judd Slams ‘Misogynistic’ Media For Calling Her Face ‘Puffy’

Ashley Judd has been in the brutal entertainment business for more than twenty years, but body image criticism still manages to hit a nerve with her.

The “Missing” actress, whose “puffy face” was thoroughly explained by Us Weekly and E! News last month, pushed back in a Monday Daily Beast column in which she accuses the media of going on a misogynistic attack on her. Judd, who claims to have been sick for a month and undergone steroids to restore her health, said the nastiness in the media is not limited to men. Women, she said, are joining in on the mean-spirited fun of picking apart other people’s bodies:

That women are joining in the ongoing disassembling of my appearance is salient. Patriarchy is not men. Patriarchy is a system in which both women and men participate. It privileges, inter alia, the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women. It is subtle, insidious, and never more dangerous than when women passionately deny that they themselves are engaging in it. This abnormal obsession with women’s faces and bodies has become so normal that we (I include myself at times—I absolutely fall for it still) have internalized patriarchy almost seamlessly. We are unable at times to identify ourselves as our own denigrating abusers, or as abusing other girls and women.

A case in point is that this conversation was initially promulgated largely by women; a sad and disturbing fact. (That they are professional friends of mine, and know my character and values, is an additional betrayal.)

Judd, who says the discussion of her appearance was “misogynistic from the start,” calls on readers to figure out why they even took part in the debate to begin with:

“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? …Who makes the fantastic leap from being sick, or gaining some weight over the winter, to a conclusion of plastic surgery? Our culture, that’s who.”

We appreciate that Judd, who is known by many for her political activism and philanthropic work, is taking a stand on the tabloids’ weird fixation on the looks of celebrities, but we’re afraid our inherent pessimism leads us to believe things aren’t going to get any easier for women in the spotlight in the near future.

TAGS: Ashley Judd | ashley judd puffy face

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