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Want to Write a Guest Post for Women and ...Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Ashley Judd
Now let's remember Ms. Judd is a feminist and an activist. She took the job on the show because the producers said that they would address issues that she cared about which include AIDS activism. But working in Hollywood opens you up to a wide range of scrutiny and Ms. Judd has said ENOUGH. She took to the Daily Beast in an essay that has gone viral.
Here's how she started:
The Conversation about women’s bodies exists largely outside of us, while it is also directed at (and marketed to) us, and used to define and control us. The Conversation about women happens everywhere, publicly and privately. We are described and detailed, our faces and bodies analyzed and picked apart, our worth ascertained and ascribed based on the reduction of personhood to simple physical objectification. Our voices, our personhood, our potential, and our accomplishments are regularly minimized and muted.
She went on to explain in the piece that she had been ill and was on steroids so that contributed to the puffy look of her face.
...I choose to address it because the conversation was pointedly nasty, gendered, and misogynistic and embodies what all girls and women in our culture, to a greater or lesser degree, endure every day, in ways both outrageous and subtle. The assault on our body image, the hypersexualization of girls and women and subsequent degradation of our sexuality as we walk through the decades, and the general incessant objectification is what this conversation allegedly about my face is really about.
But the kicker is this:
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.
The patriarchy effects all of us. I am just as guilty. I sat at my sister's house of Friday night before the Seder flipping through People magazine talking about how skinny Princess Kate was and saying many other things I am not proud of. And there were many young nieces listening to the conversation. I am ashamed and I will make every attempt not to do that again.
As Ashley Judd says we need to change the conversation and we need to be examples for young people so they won't have to deal with this crap as they grow up.
Please read her full piece here
Ashley Judd Speaks For Herself About Faces, Bodies And Fame (NPR)
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Recent Comments
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Where is the WGA in all this? They have never stood up for their female members who are paid less
June 18, 2013 9:02 PM -
LS- Be prepared. I drop the f-bomb a lot.
By Melissa Silverstein onToday's Disconnect - Do Actresses Have Clout or Not?June 18, 2013 4:17 PM -
Melissa, thank you for cross-posting this. And Mr. Lew, what a great article. My favorite line,
By Linn D. onCross Post: On Gender ParityJune 18, 2013 2:08 PM -
Dear Melissa, When you dropped that F-bomb, I laughed out loud so hard it qualified as a,
June 18, 2013 12:32 PM -
Film student in Grand Rapids, MI. This website was actually recommended for me (LOL) from Shadow and
June 18, 2013 12:18 PM
3 Comments
kt | April 17, 2012 1:28 AM
I agree with everything Ashley has to say, she articulates so well, what we females have to put up with in a so called men's world....
Would you please interview Ashley, and ask her what she has to say about this, Lee Aronshon's comment at the Toronto Screenwriting Conference,"Enough ladies, I get it. You have periods,â he said. âBut weâre approaching peak vagina on television, the point of labia saturation.â That coming from a showrunner of 2.5Men....horrible....much like his new show with Ashton..
Aviva Dove-Viebahn | April 11, 2012 7:31 PM
That was an absolutely amazing essay; I'm glad you chose to showcase it. Ashley Judd is definitely my new feminist hero!
Melanie @ MelanieCrutchfield.com | April 10, 2012 6:56 PM
Thank you so much for highlighting this article. I'm not too proud to say that I want to be just like Ashley Judd. She's smart, and talented, and she fights for what she believes in. This is the best way to be in the entertainment industry. High five, Ms. Judd. High five.