New x men female star made to slim down

[Pixielovescake]

Right i dont usually post here , more of a lurker. I always read the feminism threads and agree with them im just not as articulate as you all so i dont post.
Anyway i was lurking a bit earlier then i went and read this article and went .
Is it just me or is this horrific ?
This woman (January Jones) admitted she dropped 2 dress sizes to play a character who she also admits has an "unrealistic" body in the comics. So she is fine with trying to make herself look like someones idea of how a woman should look and thinks it is ok to promote this crap to thousands of people via the film she is staring in ?
Please tell me its not just me and that this is awful ?!

Oops forgot to link ! Here :www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1365353/Mad-Mens-January-Jones-goes-natural-look-day-admits-shes-averse-having-plastic-surgery.html

Most of the male stars in X-Men Origins: Wolverine had to bulk up for their roles, did anyone complain about that?

Plus, my personal opinion is that they are playing comic book characters, of course they have "unrealistic" bodies. Some of them have wings and claws and are blue so I don't think it's really an image of how women (or anyone) "should" look.

(Runs away before the flames hit me).

Well I do sort of see your point. I think bulking up is understandable to a point as is sliming down for a role. When you see someone with claws or completely blue it does give off thew impression that its noraml ifyswim ? I think that she's being made to look like a comic book woman is not quite right. It can give the impression this is how a woman is meant to be whereas someone having claws wouldn't give that impression. I mean she wasn't just slim she was odd looking , lollypop head and in a suit showing off her breasts. I don't know it might be me reading too much into it but it doesn't feel right. I guess you could say the same about a man who has been made to be muscular like a comic character too. I know its just a film so its not real but the characters are meant to be more or less human. I don't know maybe its just me !

"I think that she's being made to look like a comic book woman is not quite right."

Well it wouldn't be a very good film if the characters didn't look like the comic book on which its based.

Well maybe I am wrong then. I just meant I don't know the way it was done all for her to look attractive and like a comic image doesn't seem the same to me as say droping weight to resemble someone with an eating disoerder say. I know they have to at least resemble the characters they are playing so maybe I'm just seeing too much into it.

I don't think you are wrong Pixie - being painted blue, or having claws glued on, or even bulking up for a role is completely different to living off nothing but fruit juice and raw veg (which she states in that article), damaging her body and jeopordising her long term health. I don't expect Hugh Jackman suffered many ill effects for getting a (very yummy) six pack. Who knows what this girl has done to herself?

Ah another pixie ! That's sort of what I'm trying to say I think. There's looking the part and making yourself look like a barbie doll I think. An unatural femiinine shape isn't the same as someone being half reptile or something.

And I don't remember batgirl at all actually. I'm off to google.

oh my god. She is beautiful ! I'm a six 6 and even I'd kill for her figure. There's no pleaseing the papers is there ?

Don't actors and actresses do things like lose weight and gain weight in order to succeed in their characters role. Xmen is also a bit different in that many of them have unrealistic bodies they are mutants. I mean look at Christian Bale in 'Dark Knight' and him in the 'The Machinist' Here. Both the way they bulk up and slim down according to their role is pretty worrying they are not doing it in a healthy way and those changes you see happen in a few months.

yes salatrix but with men it's if the role concerns starvation or disease (Tom Hanks in Philadelphia) , or the machinist, not because skinny is the only acceptable body shape for them. And yes fat women exist in films but they were chosen because of their fat i.e it's comedy or something.

I think the background to this is that women who work in the film industry have to be terribly thin to start with, if they want to work. For a woman in that industry to have to slim down further is really going some.

Also needs to be taken into account with the prevalence of unrealistic images of women everywhere all the time - against the far more balanced images of men that are around.

Haven't read the article yet mind.

Actually that article does something that really annoys me:

"According to claims, the star lost weight on a restrictive regime of fresh juices and raw vegetables."

ie they actually have no fucking idea how she lost weight and have made something up - directing a whole bunch of women and girls who want to be thinner onto an extreme and unhealthy diet.

I have no doubt that she had to do something to get down 2 dress sizes - but the press have no idea what they're just guessing

FFS it's for a film role representing a comic book character. If she was losing weight to make herself appear more attractive to perform as a model for example, where young girls etc. will see her as a size zero and feel that his is the correct way to be beautiful, then OK, I could see the point of complaining.
But this is for a film, one where she would have been told that she had this to be this size before getting the role and still auditioning. If I have completely missed the point of the question, and the moral outrage of the OP is actually concerning the harm the actress did to her body then I would point out that she chose to do this, she wasn't forced. (and I might be a cynical prick here, but I doubt the OP has ever complained about what Christian Bale did to his body to appear in The Machinist)

and? actors male/female change appearance to secure roles.to look aesthetically the part.your ire is misplaced

why is it only women who have to be ridiculously thin to look aesthetically the part? You have to use a bit of analysis here

i mean women have to be ridiculously thin to represent a normal woman; men only have to be ridiculously thin if they're representing...a ridiculously thin man

The reason she has to be ridiculously thin to do this role though is to adhere to a cartoon writers idealised view of what women look like. Interestingly not all male superheroes are very bulky and muscular - some are thin and wiry and that's all OK. But for female superheroes it's cartoon woman very thin with exaggerated breasts.

I am not sure that building body mass carries the same risks as losing it does it? Unless steroids are involved. A lot of exercise is a lot of exercise. Extreme diets can cause all sorts of problems with your heart and things I think? How many weightlifters die every year as a result of bulking up compared to models who die because of slimming down? (I have no idea TBH would be interesting to know). Or I suppose just how many women die every year as a result of dieting compared to men who die as a result of bodybuilding? How many women are on diets at any given point compared to how many men are bodybuilders? When a man looks at someone like Arnie, they generally think that he is an extreme and while some might like a bit of bulk, few would like the whole lot. While how many women look at women as thin as the one in this film (and the actual one is this film) and don't see it as extreme at all but what they want to look like and read about how she's done it and so on. And feel guilty if they can't adhere to the cabbage leaf diet or whatever the press has said it's down to. And feel bad about themselves.

I suppose the question is, is there ever going to be a point where people draw a line on female thin-ness? Is there ever going to be a point where the women in films who are the aspirational beauty standard are going to make most people say "yuk that's too thin". Or will it just keep getting more and more extreme?

Does it matter if the aspirational beauty standard is a demonstrably unhealthy way to be?

I also think that plastic surgery has had something to do with this. A large pair of plastic breasts stuck on the front of an otherwise rake thin woman gives the illusion that she's not as thin as she actually is IYSWIM. If the women had their natural shapes and were that size I think people would notice more easily just how little there is to some of them.

I suppose for me it's just yet another unrealistic image for women and girls to aspire to (and for men to think of as the ideal form for women as well) added to the pile.

That's an interesting point about male sexuality as well. If men are exposed to images of unrealistic women all the time as being the way women ought to look - then are they ever going to be really happy with a woman with a natural body? Does that explain the explosion in US porn - where women also conform to the "cartoon woman" image - as since they are tiny that is what the male eye has been trained to respond to. What does that do for relationships with normal women?

Just musing here really