Friday 30 January 2009

Quick hit: In which the author finds herself agreeing with Ashlee Simpson

Could this be a sign of the end of the world?
The 24-year-old singer has defended her older sibling - who was photographed wearing unflattering high-waisted jeans at a recent Florida concert with a seemingly fuller figure - insisting the comments about Jessica’s weight are "embarrassing and belittling".

She wrote on her blog: "I am completely disgusted. Since when did a woman's weight become newsworthy? How can we expect teenage girls to love and respect themselves in an environment where we criticise a size two figure?

"A week after the inauguration of US President Barack Obama and with such a feeling of hope in the air for our country, I find it completely embarrassing and belittling to all women to read about a woman's weight or figure."

!!11!!

3 comments:

Anna said...

Agree with Ashlee completely - but Jessica S had made her career (in large part) out of exploiting the fact that she fit the slim beauty ideal. I would like to have seen her and/or Ashlee being vocal about the damage beauty ideals can do earlier in Jessica's career! (Maybe they have been and I'm judging them harshly...)

notafeminist said...

While I agree whole heartedly with what Ashlee's saying, I really don't like people saying "We shouldn't make fun of these girls, they're not even THAT fat!"

She's right that people in a size 2 should not be denigrated for their weight, but neither should a size 16. Whenever someone says "No wonder we have eating disorder issues in young women, size 2 is skinny by my standards!", I feel that they're not really tackling the issue of weight, they just want to redefine a beauty standard that others don't match. But that's a tiny nit-picky point and I've probably taken her words out of context and meaning.

TidgeH said...

True. Would also be more genuine coming from someone who hasn't had a nose job to fit said beauty ideal. But any speaking out is good speaking out, I think.