It’s no big secret that the media perpetuates our culture’s obsession with unhealthy, unrealistic body image. Perhaps this is best demonstrated by the E! show Fashion Police, where a panel of B-list hosts critique the red carpet wardrobe choices of celebrities. Currently on hiatus until September, the show ran for five years as the brainchild of the unapologetic diva of comedy, the late, great Joan Rivers. The idea for Fashion Police was born out of Rivers’ many years of comically candid interviews with celebrities from the red carpet. Working side by side with her daughter Melissa, they were the first to ask, “Who are you wearing?”
Recently the show has been marred in controversy after co-host Giuliana Rancic remarked during Fashion Police’s Oscar special, “I feel like she smells like patchouli oil…or weed,” in reference to 18-year-old Disney-bred star Zendaya’s dreadlock hairstyle. Following this, original co-host Kelly Osbourne left the show “to pursue other opportunities”, apparently furious with the way the network had handled the incident. Within a week, Kathy Griffin, who had been hired to replace Rivers, also resigned after just seven episodes.
Griffin is another no-nonsense female comedian who has been open about her struggles with body image, as well as her decision to undergo multiple plastic surgeries in the hopes of furthering her career. So, it came as a surprise when she said in her statement of resignation: “I do not want to use my comedy to contribute to a culture of unattainable perfectionism and intolerance towards difference.”
Long before Fashion Police, Joan Rivers made a career out of publicly policing women and their bodies, including and especially, that of her own. But in the mid 70’s when she became the first person to publicly acknowledge silver screen siren Elizabeth Taylor’s burgeoning physique, it wasn’t because she wanted to be cruel. Instead, she said she was speaking out on behalf of women everywhere. “We women were furious when the most beautiful of all women let herself go,” she wrote in her 1991 memoir, Still Talking. “If she became a slob, there was no hope for any of us.”
Rivers was constantly striving to be the best physical version of herself, and she truly believed that all women should take a page from her book if they ever wanted to get ahead in life. In 1970, she was 33 and just beginning to make some traction in her career when she explained to The New York Times that her simple and classic look was actually quite strategic. “You’ve got to get the women to like you and I thought the best way was to wear plain, simple dresses with high necks, and no jewelry. That way you’re less of a threat.” While her fixation with physical appearance eventually helped lead her to critical success, it also led to battles with depression and bulimia and an excessive relationship with plastic surgery. “I’ve had so much plastic surgery,” she said, “when I die they’ll donate my body to Tupperware.”
Lena Dunham is a name that has become permanently entangled in this conversation. The creator, writer, producer, director, and star of HBO’s Girls has been widely criticized for her use of nudity in the show, specifically that of her own body. Dunham is not a size 2. She does not satisfy the male gaze. And very much like Rivers, she is not afraid to speak her mind, both in and out of her work. Unfortunately, our society is just as critical of bold, outspoken women today as they were in 1970. It seems that almost everything Dunham says and does is controversial. She remains a top target for internet trolls and a constant presence on fashion “don’t” lists. Due to the extent of social media ridicule, Dunham, who has been open about her struggles with clinical anxiety, was moved to delete the Twitter app from her phone. “I deleted Twitter because I’m trying to create a safer space for myself emotionally,” she told Ryan Seacrest from the Golden Globes red carpet. “People threaten my life and tell me what a cow I am. There’s a lot of people I love on Twitter, but unfortunately you can’t read those without reading deranged Neocons telling you you should be buried under a pile of rocks.”
Despite all of this, Dunham has been able to achieve mass critical success. Girls, which has won two Golden Globe awards, is currently in production for its fifth season, and Dunham’s memoir, Not That Kind of Girl, reached #2 on the New York Times bestseller list. While all of this shows just how far we have come, the torrent of abuse that plagues her demonstrates how far we still have to go. Men just aren’t faced with the same level of criticism that women are. Will Ferrell seems to appear less clothed and more out of shape with every passing movie and Kevin Hart just can’t seem to stop yelling about life as a short guy. But rather than criticize, the media celebrates these men for being “real”. The fact of the matter is, our society is terrified of real women; what we look like and what we have to say. It is 2015. We are deep in the throes of the supposed fourth wave of feminism and women are still being faced with the same old roadblocks we have been battling for centuries. In many ways, making the decision to pursue a career as a woman with a voice in entertainment really is a battle – against the press, against critics, and against the dated, narrow, patriarchal confines of what a woman “should” be: pretty and silent.
While it is important that women like Kathy Griffin are taking steps aimed at eradicating our culture’s penchant for female body shaming, there is a deeper issue at play – that of the seemingly unbreakable link between a woman’s physical appearance and its role in her career. We’ve come a long way from the assumption that all women at the top slept their way there, but we can’t stop now. As feminist historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich famously stated, “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” Joan Rivers did not behave, and neither do Kathy Griffin or Lena Dunham. If they did, we wouldn’t be here talking about them right now. So ladies, I encourage you to continue to make a racket, and for Joan, let’s all keep talking.