Hollywood Babble On & On #990: Fat or PHAT!

Sorry for the title that sounds like it was made up by a suburban junior high kid trying to look cool, but I couldn't help it because it was so appropriate to answer this question from reader Kit:

I have been thinking about how actress, Jennifer Lawrence, when she appeared in Hunger Games was attacked by some as "fat". Now these attacks obviously had no impact on the movie's success. But she has had other quotes such as "In Hollywood, I'm obese". Now this could be Jennifer Lawrence being Jennifer Lawrence, making bizarre (and funny) hyperbolic comments. She also had the quote "I want to look like a woman. I don't want to look like a little boy". As a straight male, I want to say that she is probably the only woman under 25 that actually looks like a human woman.  

Anyway, to the point of my query, I've noticed something about the claims she is "fat". They come almost entirely from within your "Axis of Ego". So I was wondering, could they be a part of what you say is Hollywood's "Juvenile Dementia"? 

The face of obesity? Seriously?

For those of you who are new to this blog the "Axis of Ego" is my name for the mindset of the Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Malibu community. And the term "Juvenile Dementia" is my name for Hollywood's obsession with youth.

Now let's get back to Jennifer Lawrence, or as Hollywood sees her: "The female Dom Deluise."

Now if you ignore her smash hit The Hunger Games, or the fact that she's got 2 Oscar nominations at the young age of 22, you will notice that Miss Lawrence has a certain something that a lot of starlets her age lack.

That certain something is looking like a woman.

What is Hollywood's problem?

She's not anorexic, bulimic, or have any other sort of apparent eating disorder, and that freaks the hell out of Hollywood.

In Hollywood thin is more than in, it's an obsession, especially if you're a young actress looking to get hired. If your ribs aren't showing, you're more or less a pariah fit only to play the "fat friend" who says "You go girl!" to the skinny lead actress.

Now there are some usual suspects that get blamed for this emaciated state of affairs.

1. CAMERAS: They get the blame because it's believed that they add ten pounds to a person's appearance and that you must be unnaturally thin just to appear normal.

2. MEN: Men are sexist pigs who force women to be super-thin because they somehow like it that way. Oink-oink!

But there's a problem with those theories.

Camera's have added this 10 lbs since the invention of the camera. So why when you watch old movies the female stars don't look morbidly obese in comparison to modern stars, the super-thin modern stars look unhealthy. Wouldn't it be better to follow the example of the golden age starlets?

Then there's men...

Actually ask men, and they will tell you that they love women like Jennifer Lawrence, and the way they're built. It's hard-wired into men's brains.

So what's the real reason for Hollywood love of starved starlets?

1. MAGAZINES: Actresses can't rely on their box office appeal to maintain their careers. The ticket buying audience is too fickle, and the movie choices too questionable. To justify their paycheques most actresses need to be consistently in the public eye to make it look like they can sell movie tickets.

That means magazine covers, and lots of them.

To get on magazine covers you have to be accepted by the haute couture industry, and their standard of beauty involves women being reduced to glorified coat hangers.

2. JUVENILE DEMENTIA: Hollywood is obsessed with youth. To be part of the in crowd you must look young, act young, and have to stay that way far beyond the realm of possibility. Now most people are thin when they're young, and get a bit thicker as they get older. So by Hollywood logic the thinner you are the younger you must be. The moment you gain weight, especially when you're actress, is the moment you get demoted from lead to character actor.

It doesn't quite gel with real world logic, but that's never stopped Hollywood before.

3. CONFORMITY: Hollywood likes to present itself as a community of free-spirited individualists, but it's the most narrow-minded, groupthink obsessed, and conformist place outside North Korea. The fact that Lawrence doesn't play their games, and her success as both an actress and blossoming box office starlet, just adds to the confusion and frustration she makes them feel.

I hope that answers your question Kit, and I have to say that I did this post solely to answer your question, and not as an excuse to post traffic attracting pictures of a beautiful actress.