YEARS ago, when J.Lo’s curvaceous body first sashayed onto the national stage, America sat up and took notice. Oh brave new bum! Now this was a booty to write home about, something to celebrate, obsess over and emulate. And for millions of curvy gals from Bay Ridge to, ahem, Butte, it was like having an emissary.
Sure, Hollywood was teeming with size-0 blond starlets – and it always will be – but there were certain beauties that could be counted on for their curves, their freckles, or their general girl-next-door fabulousness. Women like Catherine ZetaJones, Lindsay Lohan, Drew Barrymore and Beyoncé.
These days, J.Lo’s curvaceous bum should be featured on a “Missing” poster, Lindsay Lohan has lost the boobs and had the freckles removed, Beyoncé’s a little less booty-full, Nicole Richie emulates Twiggy, and Catherine Zeta-Jones recently stepped out at a Manhattan awards event looking like she had downsized by at least two dress sizes.
Despite the dramatic weight loss, ZetaJones, dubbed Zeta-Bones after her appearance at the Glamour Women of the Year awards, claimed that she was “not fanatical” and had learned to “deal with diets without losing [her] limit.” So where have all the booties gone, long time passing? Where have all the booties gone, long time ago?
Whenever a curvy bombshell starts to lose weight and trend toward the stickthin, it leaves ordinary women feeling betrayed and asking, “Who’s left to make me feel good about myself?” “I am so exhausted by the enthusiastically skeletal teen queens who stagger around Hollywood proclaiming 95 pounds to be their ‘natural’ body weight,” says Monica Bielanko, a 29-year-old news producer.
“And now J.Lo, Beyoncé and Janet Ms.Jackson-If-You’re-Nasty are slowly but surely caving in. Shame! You should know better. Salma, don’t abandon us for the skinny side – we need your beautiful booty now more than ever!” Shakti Shukla, a 33-year-old project director, couldn’t agree more. “This trend makes me feel self-conscious and is warping my self-image,” she says.
“I’ve starting thinking that a woman is only beautiful and sexy if she’s a size 4 or 2. It’s depressing.” And while it’s hard enough for adult women – who are nevertheless mature enough to take it with a grain of salt – it’s a different story for teenage girls, who measure their self-worth against what they see in magazines and on television.
“Many female celebrities pay lip service to ’embracing individuality,’ but their actions are sending a very different message,” says Morgan Karp, a 27-year-old marketing manager.
“I think we’re producing a generation of misguided, materialistic and vulnerable young women.” And as Sara Donnelly, 26, a stand-up video comic, points out, it’s not just a question of weight loss – it relates to the whole issue of girl power.
“When the ‘Survivor’ album came out, I totally adored Beyoncé. She was beautiful and healthy-looking, certainly not stick-thin or creepy,” she says.
“She sang about the joys of having a fat ass, and you could dance your own fat ass off to that song! Then, after a great deal of success . . . she decided that she hated food.
And while her solo album had some strong woman anthems, the last Destiny’s Child album made me vomit with its ‘Ooh, Daddy, Let Me Serve Your Every Need’ whining. That song where the group sang about the importance of getting your man’s slippers for him, and keeping your body in the same shape it was when you met . . .
WHAT?” While many women feel betrayed when “curvy” women resort to the stick-thin standard that is prized in Hollywood, others are sympathetic, pointing out that celebrities are still prone to the same kind of self-doubt and anxiety over their looks as are normal women.
Ironically, the celebrities who are held up in Hollywood as having “real woman” curves are generally much smaller than even the average woman, points out Shelly Ridenour, a 34-year-old entertainment editor at Jane.
“Jennifer Lopez and Kate Winslet and Scarlett Johansson and all the other women who are held up as ‘curvy’ are a lot smaller than you might think in real life,” she says.
But some women aren’t really losing any sleep over it.
“I think Lindsay Lohan looks better with her boobs and J.Lo looks better with her butt,” says Mariasha Brown, a 29-year-old writer. “But I still feel like I have plenty of role models. Besides, men will always choose the Monica Belluccis, Scarlett Johanssons and Salma Hayeks over the Kate Bosworths of the world.”
