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Another day, another article gushing about Christina Hendricks‘s luscious hips, ample ass and generous cleavage. This would be fine, if it weren’t at the expense of body-shaming her supposed mirror-opposite — the UK’s Mail Online proclaims that 8 out of 10 women would rather look like Miss Joan Holloway-Harris than former Spice Girl and size 0 extraordinaire, Victoria Beckham. This is being reported as if it’s groundbreaking news, but almost this exact same article was printed last year (and covered by Zelda Lily) with Kate Winslet’s name in the place of …
… Hendricks’s. Ugh.
However, report this stale fluff piece they did:
Over nine in ten said they felt women of all sizes could be stylish and a further six in ten wanted to see more pictures of ‘real’ women in fashion magazines.
A fuller-figured woman is no more real than her skinnier counterpart and that mindset is extremely negative and extremely hurtful to all girls out there who just don’t have round hips and huge tits naturally and are slyly presumed to be throwing up at every available opportunity.
And, for the love of God, can we stop talking about Christina Hendricks’s body already? We’ve gone beyond objectifying her — we’ve turned her into a symbol for this entire “real woman” movement that is not only bullshit, it’s equally as destructive as the “anti-fat” school of thought.
The problem is that this whole “skinny vs. curvy” issue doesn’t get us anywhere.
Privileging one body type over the other — no matter which it is — perpetuates this concept that all women must conform to one figure and that, depending on the decade or culture, the alternative is “gross,” “unattractive,” or in this case, “not real.”
Is it easy to say objective whether mysterious journal-writer Marilyn Monroe was prettier, sexier or more iconic than Audrey Hepburn, for instance? I think the point here is that Christina Hendricks wouldn’t necessarily look good at Victoria Beckham’s weight, but Beckham might not be able to pull off Hendricks’s either.
This is always going to be a question of personal taste — and it always will and should be. It is just as bad to wrinkle your nose at stiletto-addict Posh’s jutting collarbones as it is to raise your eyebrows at Hendricks’s curvier frame.
But what do you believe? Is it good that women would prefer to be curvier than skinny? Should we privilege one body type over another? Do you think that this concept of “real” women is potentially just as hurtful as “fat” comments?
