Sir Mix-a-lot hearts Kate Beckinsale

“I like big butts and I cannot lie. No otha brotha can deny. That when a girl walks in with an itty-bitty waist and round thing in your face you get…” to the radio and change the channel as fast as you can. That is if you’re me. I hate that song. But Reader M challenged me to use it in a post and you can’t deny that for a genre usually known for its misogyny, Sir Mix-a-lot just bumped the high hip-to-waist ratio crowd way up the self esteem ladder.

Everybody Has Something
Speaking of self-esteem, tonight I was hanging out with two of my best girlfriends here, taking advantage of the fact that it’s light until 9:30 so we can keep talking and pretend that we don’t see our kids gradually working themselves into a frenzy that would make the WTO proud. All was fireflies and unicorns until one of my friends, a woman whose figure is the envy of all who see her, stuck out her perfectly tanned and gorgeous legs and declared, “I’ve had people ask me before why I don’t have calves – if I’m deformed or something. I hate my lower legs.” Girlfriend has legs like a catwalk model. She is one of the few who can wear ankle strap shoes without looking like an oompa-loompa. And yet she hates.

Our other friend immediately displayed her iridescent skin to point out all the blue veins just under the surface. Which of course led me to complain about my stretch marks that go ALL THE WAY TO MY KNEES. Ahem. We are in good company.


Stars They ARE Just Like Us
A couple of days ago, bombshell Kate Beckinsale (whose wardrobe in Pearl Harbor I still covet) reportedly denounced her derrière, supposedly asking for a $2,000 a day body double to stand in for her um, more scenic scenes in her new film. Her people deny this but she has spoken out in previous interviews about her poor body image, admitting to thinking she is fat and has a big bottom.

Kate, a recovered (-ing?) anorexic, says,

“I don’t think you can aspire to the Hollywood ‘look’ and nor can I. Everybody is retouched, stretched, lengthened, slimmed and trimmed. I could look at a picture of myself from the past and think, ‘Why don’t I look like that now?’ It’s because I never have.”

Jumping on the starlet confessional bandwagon, Ali Larter recently ‘fessed up in Allure magazine to all the sacrifices she makes for beauty ranging from the unsurprising, like having to rigorously watch her diet and exercise, to the sadly shocking like having her thighs duct taped during a photo shoot because “they were too round.”


Ali talks about the effects of Hollywood’s image machine when she gained a few pounds during the filming of a movie:

“The faxes went out from the producers and the director to my agents to my manager to call me and ask me to lose weight,” she recalls. “I just remember sitting in my trailer hysterically crying from the embarrassment I felt about myself, my body—and that no one could talk to me directly.”

But she skips feeling sorry for herself, acknowledging that “This is what I signed up for. I’m not here going, ‘Oh, they’re so mean to me, and it’s so hard for me.’ What I do for a living puts me in the spotlight. They pay me for it.”

It sounds like they’re getting their money’s worth.

18 Comments

  1. I think artistic professions attract people who are insecure to begin with, and then make that insecurity worse. Artists are constantly being judged and criticized, are usually unemployed, and there are always thousands of people waiting in line to take their place in the profession.
    If you’re a woman, it’s worse. You need to be young, look a certain way (even if you’re not a performer), and you’re subjected to a brand of cruelty and humiliation that most men don’t encounter.
    Since leaving acting and becoming a Pilates teacher, I’ve encountered a strange phenomenon; being in demand! No one, yet, has told me that I suck, or that I’m too fat/old/ugly, or offered me a job if I were “really nice” to them, or threatened that I’d never work in this town again. I haven’t been harassed, humiliated in front of my colleagues, or called nasty names. I HAVE been treated fairly, complimented, and offered a number of jobs just because I’m qualified.
    It’s amazing!

  2. I do think that it’s a conceit which belongs to the entertainment industry, and one which the public have needlessly (yet unavoidably) adopted for themselves.

    I work on a television programme, and it was our executive producer who called me into his office and told me that I obviously had a problem. He helped me find the therapist who eventually (I believe) saved my life. However, this same executive producer took one of our lead actresses to one side and told her she was getting too fat, and to sort it out – as bluntly as that.

    You could argue that the two cases were completely different to him in that one person was mentally ill. Perhaps he just didn’t connect that the comment he made to the actress could lead psychologically to the situation he tried to remedy with me.

    But I honestly think it was because she was on camera, and I was not.

    I sincerely believe that a lot (if not most) of people high up in the media wouldn’t dream of levelling the criticisms they do at their stars to “normal folk” like us. The camera adds ten pounds, it really is just a hideous but necessary part of the job.

  3. To some degree, I think everyone looks at the beautiful Hollywood people and wishes we could share some of their attributes. It gets hard, though, to separate reality from airbrushing, even when we know it happens!

    I will always love Kate Winslet for her positive self image. She had that magazine cover where she was photoshopped beyond recognition, and went on the warpath to make it known what had been done. She very candidly discussed how she had been stretched to appear really tall and have glamazon legs, while in reality she is short and hippy.

  4. It is not often that I feel sorry for all the starlets out there. But I have to say, while we are all submitted to the Hollywood body image, very few of us have to worry about a picture of our rump being taken, showing *gasp* cellulite and ending up plastered all over tabloids. That would be an enormous amount of stress to have your weight be so widely broadcasted. I am really having a long hard thinking session about body image right now, and how I too buy into the thiner than thou mentality.

  5. I think one of the reasons “most” people have these horrible hang-ups about their body is because of the entertainment industry. It’s really stupid if you think about it – we aspire to look like these people, but they don’t even look like these people. It’s a never-ending battle to attain the unattainable. *SIGH* It’s just so frustrating because there are so many out there suffering with body disorders that I think wouldn’t be there if this high standard wasn’t constantly set so publicly. Most of us will never set foot in front of a camera, but we live our lives as though we’re going to be put in a glass case on display for everyone. I know that a lot of EDs are about control, but the ones that are publicized – the Nicole Richie’s of Hollywood – seem to stem from wanting the “perfect” body…and that transcends to our adolescents in the real world to start thinking that they are less than perfect. Thank goodness for Sir-Mix-a-Lot, I think more people should listen to him!

  6. i LOVE that song! probably because i have a big butt 😉 The entertainment industry is this whole other world with their lifts, tucks, air brushing, spa detoxes, personal chefs/trainers, injections, and on and on and on. And I think that a lot (not all, but, a lot) of women ignore/forget that when they look at themselves in the mirror.

  7. I certainly agree with Azusmom’s statement about criticism and artists! Although my major work is as a doctor, my intense interest in visual art has given me a fair amount of experience in that field also. While my surgical work has been very well received, in comparison, my “art” is a much more challenging endeavor. Of course I always consider that it’s just not good enough, but I think there is more to it than that. If my self-worth was only based on the art, I would be reading a lot of self help books, instead of writing them 🙂

    Dr. J

  8. I would tend to side with Ali’s comment. That’s what they signed up for, and why they get paid what they do.
    And BTW.. my wife LOVES that song. LOL

  9. I still don’t think that’s as bad as having your mom and sisters tell you to lose weight because you’re fat. I caved after my coaches told me that too.

  10. My Ice Cream Diary

    I had a friend who is from a huge family of perfect females. They are all tall, skinny, and gorgeous. But it just so happened that they all had skinny girl boobs except one of them. One of them had perfect breasts on a perfectly skinny, yet curvy body. Because she was different from her sisters she thought her curves made her fat and she has never been able to enjoy her self because of it. EGAD!!!!

  11. damn.

    azusmom said a LOT there.

    M.

  12. Everyone has really good points here.

    It’s tough to be human. Especially when it appears as though the whole world is watching your every move, like for those celebrities. And if people like them who have personal trainers and nutritionists and their JOB is to look fantastic yet they still have body image issues, then is it any wonder at all that there are so many souls out there with major body issues?

  13. Angelina Jolie passes 2 adoring fans.
    Fan1 to Fan2: I would love to have Angelina Jolie’s body.
    Angelina: *sigh* Me too.

    For Sir Mix-a-lot, I was bummed they added that snippet to the Shrek-Karaoke party song. My kids love the Shrek song. So I snipped that part in a Wave/MP3 editor and told my kids, “oh, the CD must have skipped there. I don’t know what they really say.”

  14. Crabby McSlacker

    It’s interesting that one way women bond with each other is to admit our imperfections and make fun of ourselves–I love that sort of humor generally. But I never really thought of how singling out our physical imperfections and bemoaning them sort of reinforces this whole sick cultural ideal that we should all aspire to have a “perfect” body.

    I think I’ll try to remember that next time I’m hanging out with friends and talk turns to cellulite, saggy boobs or whatever. I have plenty of other non-physical imperfections I can joke about. Can you imagine a group of guys spending that much time talking about their looks?

  15. It may be what Ali Larter signed up for but not what the rest of us did. I now have a personal goal: next time one of my friends bemoans her body I’m going to compliment her for something she does, something that is completely unrelated to how she looks. Maybe if we all the change the subject often enough others will realize that how we look has little to do with our personal worth.

  16. Sheesh. Makes me glad I’m not an acress. It’s hard enough to deal wtih body issues without everyone else nagging you about it.

    Thanks for sharing. You always have great stuff on here.

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