Fame and fortune are two things that many people wish for before they go to sleep at night, and hope for every morning when they wake up. But even though we tend to envision the life of a celebrity as a glorious journey through Hollywood, the spotlight is often something that ends up being more of a nuisance, and often a source of negativity. For the past few years, this has been the problem for Jessica Simpson. Not to say her earlier years were filled with any real problems. She has always been the sweet, angelic blonde, who very nearly was a mouseketeer and destined to wait until marriage. For years she fit the image that the media and the industry laid out for her falling into the same mold as other 90’s and early 2000’s pop stars, e.g. Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. As of late, however, things have started to get a little rough for Jessica. A few days ago Jessica Simpson appeared on the Oprah television talk show to open up about the last few years including relationships, and most importantly her recent weight gain, and the way the media has criticized her. You can read the full article here at Oprah’s website.
When I first heard about this interview with Oprah, it seemed as if the timing was nothing short of perfect. This seemed to resonate all too clearly as it coincided with our reading of Brumberg’s “Body Project”. The picture above is the one of a group of pictures taken at an event in 2009 that started the media frenzy, as Jessica was wearing so-called, “mom jeans”. Jessica also acknowledges that she had gained ten pounds, but that she did not feel that she should be ashamed. Brumberg’s book examines our culture through the past dcades and how
women, but also men, have turned their bodies into ‘projects’, whether as a form of expression, or to find a means to feel connected and accepted by society. The chapter of Brumberg’s book that examines the adolescence and early womanhood of Yvonne Blue illustrates how even a century ago, women were feeling an unnecessary pressure to look or feel a certain way. Although, in Brumberg’s chapter, The History of Svelte, we find out that dieting practices were in some part very much frowned upon by many. In fact, at this time, many people still placed value in a larger, full-figured female physique. She even uses a quote from a college newspaper that said, “ If preventative measures against strenuous dieting are not taken soon, Smith College will become notorious not for sylph-like forms, but for haggard faces and dull, listless eyes.”(99) We may say that we have progressed as a society, but it seems as if today, more than ever, we put more stock in women’s’ figures and images than a hundred years ago. We talked about women’s pants sizes, and the article actually addresses this issue, “According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the average American woman wears a size 14. Jessica says the jeans she's wearing in the now-infamous photos are a size 4.” Hearing this put into those terms made this whole thing seem even more ridiculous. It’s crazy that Jessica wears about ten sizes smaller than the average, and for the past 6 months or so she’s been called overweight by the media. However, unlike Yvonne in Brumberg’s book, Jessica did not begin to diet and attempt to change her image to fit the standard that was being forced upon her. In many ways I think that she took the stance that Brumberg wishes more women would choose. Women should diet or exercise because they want to be fit and healthy, not because they feel compelled to make themselves into someone that people will accept. Just underneath the quote from the Department of Health, Jessica says, "I'm not going to ever be size 0, and I don't want to weigh 90 pounds," she says. "It's a really hard thing for me to talk about because I celebrate women of all sizes. I think that we're all beautiful." I definitely think Brumberg would agree that if all women (and men) felt this way, the body would no longer have to be a source of self-consciousness in women.
I agree with Marcus. As we all know, Jessica Simpson has been picked apart publicly for her relationships, breakups, and body size. She is constantly in the headlines and any little slip up she may have is posted on every website and in every newspaper, exaggerating the truth.
ReplyDeleteI recently read an article that that discusses how Jessica Simpson has created a new VH1 reality series, The Price of Beauty. On the show, Jessica and her two best friends, celebrity hairstylist Ken Paves and Cacee Cobb traveled to different countries to see what lengths women will go to in the name of beauty. The goal, she says, is to give women power to accept who they are and realize that no one is perfect. She is even going a step further by planning to start a foundation for girls to help with self-esteem.
While I think these are great ideas, I wonder how effective they will be in changing young girls’ minds on the idea of the “perfect body” and how one must behave in society to be accepted. I hope that through this, other groups will get on board and promote awareness of this issue. Specifically, I think it will be valuable for people (whether a celebrity or not) to give educational lectures at schools to promote awareness that girls should accept their bodies and help them boost self-esteem and confidence.