Why is anyone calling Jennifer Love Hewitt fat?

[LynneSin]

So I'm at the Grocery Store and on the cover of People magazine is a story about JLH where she says "Stop calling me fat" and has a picture of her in a Bikini?

Is this picture of a fat person? Are we that shallow that think thin only pertains to Anorexic waifs like Keira Knightly, Kate Bosworth, the Olsen Twins, REnee Zwellinger et al?.

And personally, I think Ms. Hewitt is living proof that not all child stars turn out to be out of control nightmares like Britney or Lindsey. From what I've read about her, Jennifer has lived a pretty clean life and now has another hit series on TV.

[book_worm]

1. No, she's not fat--she just isn't model thin which makes some people

label her as fat.

[LynneSin]

6. What the hell is model thin?

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/JTKNIGHTLEY_narrowweb__300x492,2.jpg



This?

This isn't model thin - let's call it what it is - an eating disorder.

When Renee put weight on for her Bridgit roles I thought she looked great - and then she would starve herself to bone thin anorexia

[IntravenousDemilo]

16. Ms Knightley looks like she was just liberated from Auschwitz.

Give the poor girl a sandwich, for godsake.

[Chovexani]

18. Read my post downthread

And shut the fuck up, please. You have no more right to criticize this woman's natural size than the assholes who are calling JLH fat for not being a size 2.

[GalleryGod]

25. No "up and Down" pics of Keira..Because

that's her natural weight!

[Chovexani]

29. If they existed the tabloids would be all over them

Especially with as big (no pun intended) as she's gotten in the wake of Pirates of the Caribbean, and all. You know how much the tabloid media loves to tear down celebs they've propped up--especially women.

[IntravenousDemilo]

32. ...at birth... n/m

[ThomCat]

52. Jeez, give it up.

You're taking your hatred of her appearance way too far.

[IntravenousDemilo]

31. Yeah, I read your post. High metabolism, my ass. She still looks like Miss Auschwitz 1943.

Look at her arms! There's no muscle mass at all! She's simply malnourished-looking.

And nah, I don't really feel like shutting the fuck up -- but thanks for the invite.

[ThomCat]

50. Okay, so you're not exagerating. You really are being that judgemental.

Wow.

If you're that offended by her build then perhaps you should just consider that it's none of your damned business.

[IntravenousDemilo]

79. Bah

It's nobody's business really, whether they like her form or not. But it's a public forum, and since somebody else, um, "brought her up", I thought I'd "weigh in".

I'll never say anything bad about Renée Zellweger, though, since I've met her on-set and she's really very sweet and humble. And she has nice calves.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

56. Welcome to GD south!

Enjoy with hyper-sensitivity!

[ThomCat]

49. Um, have you ever really seen pictures from Auschwitz?

She looks nothing at all like that level of starvation. Not at all.

Okay, I know you are probably exagerating and taking creative license. I'm being very literal right now because of pain/meds. I hope you didn't mean that literally.

[Pierre.Suave]

28. I have a friend with a body type very similar to Keira

and I got to tell you, they even look alike.

She is BEAUTIFUL, she also does NOT have an eating disorder.

All I need to say is this, I wanted to HIT IT back in the day.

but for the sake of this discussion, all I need to say is that some women that size do not have eating disorders, and are also capable of being very beautiful.

Like Keira and my friend, Keri...

[Critters2]

85. When I graduated and interviewed for my first job,

the search committee spent quite a bit of time discussing whether, because I was so thin, I was healthy enough to do the job. Apparently they were really worried. But I had always been thin, and was in find health. I'm in good shape now, though not as thin as I was then.

Some people are just thin.

[Taverner]

2. Dude, I think she's way better looking now than before

Before she was a stick thin chin.

Now she has voluptuous curves that compliment her smile, a nice size 10 body that just begs to be caressed and...um what was I talking about?

Beauty starts at size 8 for me...

[EOTE]

22. Definitely.

If she was any smaller, it would be unhealthy. Apparently, in our screwed up culture beautiful and curvy is fat and only emaciated and bony is healthy. The scale is so messed up, it's a wonder we're even relatively sane as a society (or are we?). I remember a few months ago Britney gave a performance on the VMAs. Every girl I spoke to talked about how fat and terrible she looked. Now, I'm no fan of Britney Spears, but I thought she looked damn good. Aside from her lack of enthusiasm, she looked better than I had seen her in the past. I hear all the time about how men are to blame for the ridiculous standards that we place on women, but I truly think that women are their own worst enemies in this regard. There is nothing that turns me off more than hugging a woman and feeling bone. Give me curves any day.

[Taverner]

24. Britney was cute, yes...

But if I were doing the hanky panky with her, I'd be worried she'd vomit all over me.

[MorningGlow]

3. Apparently because you can't count her ribs at 100 paces

:eyes:

[Fox Mulder]

4. There's nothing fat about her.

In fact, I think she has a perfect body type.

[Gormy Cuss]

5. It's sad that she gets attention for looking like a normal woman, isn't it?

She looks happy in her own body. I'm glad when someone sized like this dares to call bullshit on being labeled fat.

[kwassa]

7. Because it is the business of tabloids to create drama where there is none

They need a story line, preferably big and simple, to sell the magazine.

It doesn't have to be remotely true.

[Chovexani]

8. Keira Knightley is not anorexic.

She has a super high metabolism and has said as much in interviews.

I really wish people wouldn't bash skinny women in their otherwise well-intentioned defense of women who aren't a size 2. It's ignorant.

[ThomCat]

12. Knightly can definitely act

and she's beautiful too. I just watched her is Pride and Prejudice. She's awesome!

[GalleryGod]

21. See her in "Atonement" she's even better !

I loathe the Keira bashers...

"a little knowledge is a dangerous thing".

[Drunken Irishman]

13. It's funny, because I know many fat people who get angry when you suggest they eat too much.

Yet turn around and call someone thinner than they are anorexic. My aunt is exactly like this. When I started losing weight (I wasn't big, just not active), she spread a rumor throughout my family that I was anorexic and bulimic.

[Chovexani]

17. I'm naturally thin, and I've had complete strangers accuse me of it.

It's a sore point. I'm actually about Keira's size. I've been that size my entire teenage/young adult life.

That's what people don't understand about naturally thin women. People with eating disorders generally have fluctuating weight. It's why you see Nicole Richie looking skin and bones one month and slightly healthier the next. I've known women (and a couple of men) in my personal life who've suffered from these illnesses.

Kiera has consistently been the same size for years. Take a look at her through Bend it Like Beckham, PotC, King Arthur, Domino, up till now. She's exactly the same size, barring some muscle definition she probably got training for Dead Man's Chest. Anorexic, she ain't. If nothing else, she wouldn't have had the stamina for those high powered action roles.

Unless, of course, we're not using "anorexic" as a clinical term, and we're using it simply as a pejorative to hate on women for their size. Which I suspect is the real reason it's used. Size acceptance should mean all sizes, or this entire thread is full of fucking hypocrites. This patriarchal divide and conquer bullshit has to stop somewhere.

[LynneSin]

20. But for many of these actress I've mentioned I've seen them normal weighted

Renee, the Olsen Twins, Lindsey, Kate Bosworth - they have all been normal weighted and suddenly drop down to dangerous sizes.

I've seen you in person and you hardly look gaunt like some of these actresses.

[Chovexani]

27. Note that I didn't defend *that* bunch in my post.

Clearly they've got some issues. Most of them of the nose candy variety.

I think it's fucked up that coked-out women are held up as a standard of beauty, but let's not paint everyone with a broad brush. I hate when people toss Keira in with the coke diet crowd because she clearly isn't. Also, we happen to be exactly the same height/weight so it's a sore point.

[ThomCat]

23. Bingo! Hating women just because of their size (no matter what size

they happen to be) is one of the standard weapons used against women. If you're not the "perfect" size and shape then you're either anorexic or a fat pig, but if you are the "perfect" size and shape then you're nothing but a sex-bot.

:wtf:

Can you imagine if guys had to go through life constantly judged on their appearance that way? I can't imagine anyone daring to judge me that way.

[EOTE]

35. "weapons used against women."

I'd like to add "by other women". I could be wrong, but I rarely hear men use these pejoratives against women, I typically hear it from other women. A few months ago when Britney Spears gave her performance at the VMAs, I heard women talking non-stop about how horrible and fat she looked. I just had to roll my eyes whenever I'd hear these comments, and I really don't even like Britney.

[ThomCat]

37. Online, I see men use those pejoratives all the time.

And it's almost exclusively men. Women may be brutal about each other, but guys really get hostile about judging women. I've been disgusted about stuff posted here, and DIGG, Reddit, Fark, and a dozen other places that were really, off the wall judgemental.

It's so common that it's almost a cliche that it's ugly guys who are daring to judge the attractiveness of women.

[EOTE]

30. Can someone be both anorexic and bulimic?

I would have thought that an anorexic would be disgusted by the thought of binging. I was under the impression that bulimics were typically of normal weight due to their purging, but anorexics were typically deathly thin.

[Drunken Irishman]

47. Beats me, but that's what she said I was.

I think she was just angry I lost weight.

[ThomCat]

48. Well, good for you, regardless of what she thinks.

We all have a judgemental relative like that. I hope she doesn't get to you. :)

[Drunken Irishman]

51. Oh she always does. And thanks.

My aunt is a bitter woman who is only happy when others are brought down to her pathetic level.

Don't get me wrong, I love her and she can be fun to hang around, but damn, she can be a world class bitch at times.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

64. you can have both anorexic and bulimic phases as part of an eating disorder

anobulimia

[krispos42]

34. Okay, but many celebs of her body type hurt themselves to achieve it

All-celery diets and that sort of thing.

I think many people here don't like it because they associate it with fanatical adherence to a standard of style that fashion designers (and few others) admire and promote.

I personally think KK is beautiful, but not particularly sexy. A joy to gaze upon but not something to lust about.

Kari Byron from Mythbusters is about the thinnest person I can think of that I believe is both beautiful and sexy. But I have a thing for redheads and geeks, and she has that going for her to, so... :-)

[NewJeffCT]

54. My wife is that way, too

she's naturally thin at 37 years old and she can eat more at a Chinese buffet than my parents and me combined.

I'm not joking about that, either.

[redqueen]

62. It's dumb to assume anyone who's skinny has a disorder.

What's weird is you hardly ever see men bashed for being too skinny... or too fat.

*sigh*

:(

[ThomCat]

9. Because people are assholes!

If they met someone in person who looked exactly like her, they'd be drooping and begging to be able to flirt with her. And most of them are too dumpy to have a chance.

But because she's a celebrity all these guys think it's perfectly okay to get all judgemental because she doesn't fit some fake, airbrushed, starved-thin image.

Fuck 'em!

She's beautiful, and she appears to be having fun and she seems comfortable with her body.

[AspenRose]

10. I saw that

I mumbled "if *that's* fat, I'll take it" and the lady behind me in the grocery line said "tell me about it" and we both :eyes:

(I hate having to get rid of pregnancy weight)

[SacredCow]

11. She doesn't look fat to me....

But then again, neither does Britney Spears- especially considering the 2 kids.

[SeattleGirl]

14. She is absolutely NOT fat!!!

I was just having a conversation with a friend yesterday about how women are being hit from all sides to be skinny, skinny, skinny. This is just another example of that. JLH is not fat, and I'm sick of the media making judgments like that.

I wish that this kind of shit would just STOP.

[porphyrian]

15. If she's fat, fat is hot.

Personally, I don't like my women looking like starving 11 year old boys.

[fizzgig]

19. if she's fat

i'm a fucking beached whale

[Steven_S]

38. Thanks,

I almost hurt myself laughing at that one. :)

[Deep13]

26. Oh, total blimp. She should try some crystal meth.

In case it is not obvious: :sarcasm:

I still wonder why anyone cares about the private lives of entertainers.

[Phillycat]

33. Judging by that picture, she appears to have cellulite on her stomach and hips.

And her hips look wide-ish. I'm not one to talk, I haven't been a size 0-2 for over a year now. But I'm saying, there is some fat there. :shrug:

[book_worm]

41. I guess she looks like a normal person.

[Phillycat]

44. Well, right. But that's not her job.

She gets paid millions of dollars to look better than a normal person. :shrug:

[EOTE]

59. There's a difference between having fat...

which is required in order to live. And being called fat which is used to denigrate people. Don't say that she's paid to be a waif, because she's not.

[Phillycat]

60. She's paid to not have cellulite.

Which she does, in this picture. :shrug:

[Pale Blue Dot]

65. "She's paid to not have cellulite"??????!!!!

That is one of the most ignorant and sexist things I've ever seen on DU, and I've been here for six years.

Wow. :nuke:

[Phillycat]

66. Uh, okay.

She is, though. It's her job to be judged by her looks. She's an actor. It's the way it is. Also, being female and a feminist, your accusastion of sexism is pretty funny. :D

PS. I've also been here for six years. :shrug:

[Pale Blue Dot]

67. So male actors are also "paid not to have cellulite."?

Yeah, your feminist credentials come shining through. :eyes:

Oh, and by the way, Jennifer Love Hewitt is a well-paid actress on a hit TV show. Should she now be fired for having cellulite? They shouldn't pay her, right?

[Phillycat]

68. No, and they never have been.

You need to stop freaking out on me about this. I didn't make these rules, they've been around since before I was born. Since before any of us here on DU were born. Being an actress or model has always meant being thin. Always. It's not the ideal career for someone who doesn't want to be obsessed with her looks. When I weighed 95 pounds in high school, lots of people told me I should be a model, so I was, for a while. Then I decided I wanted to eat more than, like, a cookie in the course of a day. So I decided I didn't want to be a model anymore. Jennifer Love Hewitt made a choice to be an actress, and that choice comes with an obligation to keep herself looking good. You're getting angry at me about something that's just plain fact. If you don't like the facts, well, work to change the system.

[Pale Blue Dot]

69. I "work to change the system" by judging actresses on their merit, not their weight.

What are YOU doing?

[Phillycat]

70. Okay, you can't stop being attacking to me.

So I'm going to stop this conversation now. :shrug: Maybe step AWAY from the computer and think about what I've posted and why it's pissing you off so much. Deep breaths, man. Deep breaths.

[Pale Blue Dot]

72. lol.

Ok, bye!

:rofl:

[progressive_realist]

83. Ever watched an action movie?

If you think having a totally ripped musculature like that is the normal male body type, well...

[Patiod]

73. My SO is an actor (male) and he too is paid not to be fat

He is a little heavy, and he doesn't get nearly as much work as when he was smaller. For whatever reason, casting directors like smaller people - a lot of actors (bothy movie and stage) are short and skinny. There are plenty of exceptions (Schwarzenegger, Uma Thurman and David Morse come to mind) but tall or fat or big in any way is not the norm. The guys who work all the time in our local professional theaters are all short and wiry. The women are short and skinny.

Now, if he IS cast, its usually as a bad guy (fat = bad). His last three roles? Two sexually harassing bosses (corporate training films) and the Guy Who Has a Coronary (health care commercial).

It's an ugly truth, but a truth nonetheless. If they want you to weigh 120 and you weigh 180, either you lose the weight or lose the role. Yes, Hollywood is a lot tougher on women in terms of physique, but Brando aside, they're tend not to cast big guys either unless they're playing bad guys or the comic relief (Jack Black, Chris Farley, that ugly guy from "Knocked Up", etc)

It's a horrible business, where they can tell you they're not casting you because "you're too bald", "you're teeth aren't white enough", "you're too young/old" and especially "you're too big" (which could mean tall or fat). But good luck changing it.

[distantearlywarning]

61. I think a better question is why we are paying actresses to be underweight.

And why that is considered to be completely normal?

[Writer]

76. No... I have to go with what at least one poster said upthread...

she's not fat, but I'll bet my dog that she's isn't smaller than a size 8.

[Beer Snob-50]

36. i have no jproblem with her body type

however, i don't think the bathing suit looks good on her.

[Neoma]

39. It's outrageous!

Her boobs are so big!

[flvegan]

40. She's not as exceedingly skinny as she used to be, most likely.

She's not fat by any measure, though. But, when you've done a shoot like this, this is what they expect 24/7:

[Shell Beau]

42. She isn't fat at all! She looks good!

[BarenakedLady]

43. I wish I was as "fat" as her.

[Deep13]

58. Jesus, no kidding. Me too. n/t

[Fleshdancer]

45. She's a size 2

TMZ was having a field day with her beach shots because aparently she's human and prefers to not starve herself to the point where she's a size 0.

I'm very happy that she's standing up for herself and other actresses have spoken up too because this is all so f*cked up.

[DarkTirade]

46. I personally find her more attractive now than I did before...

But that's just me.

[Maestro]

53. I don't think she is fat by any way, shape or form.

She is incredibly gorgeous in fact! I would call her thin. What others think I don't know, but a normal person would not call her fat. I'd like to put those that call her fat on a scale.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

55. She looks perfectly fine and normal to me

Of course, I never, ever cared for the anorexic look. I think more men than you think don't care for that look, which makes it doubly sad that some women are forced into thinking the anorexic look is attractive.

[greendog]

57. She's not fat and she's getting some pretty good publicity. n/t

[redqueen]

63. Because the media loves pushing the "skinny is the only acceptable weight" meme.

I wish people would stop buying that crap.

Oh well.

[rug]

71. I don't thiink she's fat but I laughed at the comment "I know what you ate last summer."

Not to mention when they called her Jennifer Love Chewit.

[SKKY]

74. Fat or not. I'd still hit it.

[RainDog]

75. because this is a totally fucked up society that also hates women n/t

it's true.

[Orsino]

77. Kinda skinny. n/t

[TreasonousBastard]

78. You seen the pix from the back? She's breaking a sacred rule by...

not having the cellulite removed before the paparazzi sell it.

Nope, she's not fat-- she's a perfectly normal, and gorgeous, woman. But, in Hollywood you gotta see Dr. Goodthighs or you're gonna get slammed by people who will dump on you for the slightest evidenc that you're human.

[Jamastiene]

80. Wow, what a babe...

Fat? I don't think so. She's drop dead gorgeous.

[kwassa]

81. of course she is fat, and here is the proof.

Pictures can't lie, can they?

[SlavesandBulldozers]

82. you can see her ass from the front.

which is great.

[MilesColtrane]

84. I'm certainly not calling her fat.

I do, however, refer to her as PHAT!

MMMMMmmmmm!