Round-Up! BFD Links
1. I thought this was really fascinating: A professional model talks very personally about her body image issues and the modeling industry, in a guest post on the always awesome Already Pretty.
I started modeling in 1998, at the age of 19, at 5’11″ (180 cm) and 120 pounds (55 kg). I grew up hating my body. I was always too tall and too thin. I loathed every encounter with the school nurse (she used to ask if my parents fed me), and by the time I was 13, I had acknowledged the fact that I was labeled a freak by the society around me. I can’t even remember how many times I have been asked (sometimes by total strangers on the street) if I had an eating disorder. Both of my parents are tall and thin, as are my siblings, but my body was the freakiest of all. I felt abnormal, and now in hindsight I wonder if I felt like that only because of the mean comments people made. I have a feeling I would have developed a more normal relationship with my body if I had been allowed to be who I was.
2. The totally reliable Examiner is claiming that Megan Fox was kicked off the Transformers 3 set for being “too skinny.”
Fox and Transformers director Michael Bay had a “huge row” over her weight. The 24-year-old stormed out after the blow-up after Bay called her “unhealthy”.
“[Bay] thinks she has lost too much weight and looks too frail. He wanted her to put on some weight and it all kicked off.”
Bay wasn’t the only one concerned with Megan Fox’s weight loss. Even the crew said she was far from sexy and more a “gaunt, pale image”.
3. The L.A. Times covers the fat celebrities who make their money (and careers) from their size. (Goddamn it, Kirstie Alley.)
Welcome to the era of the fat celebrity. No longer is it shameful, shocking or a career killer for the famous to make weight struggles the centerpiece of their lives. In fact, they’re making money off of it.
“Fat celebrities are particularly irresistible because in the real culture people are constantly struggling with what’s wrong with their bodies,” says University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos, author of “The Obesity Myth: Why America’s Obsession With Weight Is Hazardous to Your Health.” “People can identify with that, and this is another way of tapping into the fascination with celebrities as being both unique but somehow just like us.”
4. iVillage is throwing a contest—who loves themselves the most?
iVillage Beauty & Style is all about making women feel confident. Whether through a perfect manicure, a head-turning dress, or your go-to lipstick, iVillage encourages you to express your personal style with pride.
Upload a photo and sound clip of yourself, talking about how hot you are and why, on IVillage’s fotobabble site and maybe win $500.
5. Check out Letters to My Body, a very cool community-based body image project that you can join.
The purpose Letters to My Body (LTMB) is to serve as a catalyst for open discussion and free speaking about the positive and negative feelings that we have concerning our bodies. The hope is that through an anonymous vessel such as a letter, we can begin to heal the wounds that have been cultivated over our lifetimes, and also to praise our bodies and recognize that they are beautiful–no matter what shape, size, or condition.
In addition, I hope that Letters to My Body will bring awareness to the countless women and men who suffer from eating disorders. I want this silent disease to stop being so silent.
Posted by jenfu
Filed under: Celebrities, Eating Disorders, Gossip, Kevin Smith, Kirstie Alley, Links, Media, Movies, TV
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I’m hearing all kinds of stories about the Transformers deal. I know her and Micheal Bay have been feuding pretty much since the beginning. Word is that he is strict on how she looks and wants her to look perfect 24-7. Word also is that Megan is a mouthy miss attitude who is difficult to work with. I read an article that said he didn’t want her to come back for the third movie, and another article from her saying that it was her own decision to not continue on with Transformers. Who knows.
Anyways, I am SO doing that contest!
Thank you so much for the shout out!
I’m half tempted to put on my uniform and do the iVillage thing. It’s not the most flattering outfit, but it makes me feel proud and confident. Not what they’re looking for, but I don’t think talking about my lipstick is the most inspiring thing I can do.
I liked the article from Already Pretty…it’s always interesting to me to hear what sorts of body issues that petite women deal with. I have friend of similar proportions who talks about the same things…that people have always teased her for being “too” thin, that her own mom thought she was anorexic during high school, and all other kinds of unwelcome comments. It’s very enlightening.
Also, I’ve read some articles from fairly reputable magazines in which actors and other directors besides Bay claim Megan Fox is a big ol’ pain in the behind on set. Interesting, as you’d think that that kind of big-headedness would sink in after she’d made some decent movies.
Thanks so much for the link love, ladies!!
I don’t have a blog, and my local online paper (sfgate.com) is making me crazy today. Is it okay to share these links, since this is a linky post (although your links are positive). Please feel free to delete if not okay, and thank you.
People don’t actually know that they’re overweight!
the movie critic decides to weigh in
Re. Michael Bay, he directed “The Rock” here in San Francisco about 15 years ago, and it was rumored that he was such an incredible ass to everyone, actors and crew, that when he drank too much and passed out at the wrap party, some of the crew literally pissed on him.
I feel like for the most part overweight celebrities don’t show an increased acceptance of fat people, like some of the articles suggest, but just the opposite. It seems to scream publicity stunt – if you’re no longer anywhere near “A – list” why not put yourself back in the spotlight by purposely gaining weight with the intent of losing it.
Megan Fox… I wonder if she’s really as unstable as she claims to be or if some of that is a publicity stunt too. I normally feel like if a person is showing symptoms of mental illness just for attention that in and of itself suggests a major problem, but who even knows if she actually does/has done everything she’s claimed.
If it’s true that Fox was fired for her appearance, in light of the post from the naturally skinny model, I think it’s misleading to say that Fox was fired for being “too thin.” She, and models in general, tend to start out thin and become even thinner. I see a huge difference between the model/actress who starts out with a BMI of, for example, 17 (“underweight”) and the one who goes from a BMI of 19 to 17. To me it implies that the person has gone from changed in a way that may be harmful to them.
This might seem offensive and sound like a lack of universal body acceptance, but I also think it’s different for a director to fire someone for becoming too thin vs. too fat. I think even people who believe that there are health problems associated with obesity must admit that the problems would mostly be in the long term, not the short term. Being too thin would be more likely to mean health problems right now.
Sorry this is so long, been in a venting mood!
@cindy–man, that movie critic you linked to is a mess. And you can see from all his replies the comments that the whole thing seems to come from his feelings about his own weight, which is sad.
@boots-thank you so much for saying that. I am still bothered by the article, that this guy has a public platform that is a NEWSPAPER to spew his personal disgust of fat women, and upset that a site I go to for news now feels “contaminated” – I am in the beginning stages of FA so I guess I am extra-sensitive to this, especially because it’s my city, San Francisco, which I felt was “safe” to be fat in. I thought SF was a bubble of acceptance. I guess the haters are everywhere, and I’m delusional to think otherwise.
(Sorry to go OT like this, I know I’m commenting on my own link which is probably not cool)
No, feel free to comment on your own link, it’s worth talking about! I’m going to do a spinoff post later in the week–I live in the Bay Area too, Cindy…
Cool on all counts! Thanks, mo pie.
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