Christina Hendricks is oft-celebrated for her gravity-defying curves. But months ago, she said: “Anytime someone talks about your figure constantly, you get nervous, you get really self-conscious.”
She added, “I was working my butt off on the show, and then all anyone was talking about was my body.”
Uh-oh, we thought.
At some point she’s going to get tired of talking about her figure, and that’s when everyone’s going to turn on her. And so the recent “anonymous source” story at the Daily Mail didn’t surprise us. The headline “Christina Hendricks Diets to Shed Curves” only made us think one thing: They’re Kate Winsletting her.
Back in the day, Kate was the celebrated curvy actress around town being praised by lady blogs and inspiring those of us who aren’t Keira Knightley skinny. The woman won an Oscar and still all we could talk about was her hips. Then she lost a few pounds, and we lost our collective international obsession with her body. She’s still a celebrated actress, sure, but gone are the days when you could open a tabloid to find her killing a form-fitting dress plus some quote about how normally she eats and praise for her healthy body image.
We sincerely hope that Christina Hendricks isn’t trying to get rid of all her curves, too (and we refuse to admit that the Daily Mail article has any merit to it), but is it possible that we love our voluptuous actresses so damned hard that we end up driving them into skinniness? As the Daily Mail says, “Christina has got sick of all the talk of her being the curviest woman in Hollywood. For her it basically meant she was being called fat.” In the business of show, it seems, you can be celebrated for being different, but that “difference” never really belongs to you. It’ll be discussed, prodded, analyzed and picked apart constantly, and if you complain, Hollywood will remind you that you were lucky that they allowed you to play with all the “normals.” Please, media, please do not take away our Joan Holloway.
Christina? We love you and we love how your body reminds us of ourselves and makes us feel sexy, but we also love your nuanced and emotional acting. We’re not afraid to be nerdy here (hey, we loved you in “Firefly”) and invoke a quote from “The Dark Knight”:
You either die a hero, or you live long enough to become a villain.
We refuse to make you into a villain, Ms. Thing. You do whatever you want with your body. Just don’t do it because we can’t stop discussing your cleavage.
Update: Hendricks now says she’s not planning to lose weight.
This post originally appeared on Lemondrop. Republished with permission.
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