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Ashley Judd is angry. She’s really angry. So angry, in fact, that she wrote about it in The Daily Beast. Over what, you ask? Apparently the endless chatter that occurs in Hollywood circles, entertainment magazines and on talk shows about whether or not she’s had plastic surgery reached some sort of crescendo that demanded her attention. She writes:
“I choose to address [this now] because the conversation was pointedly nasty, gendered, and misogynistic and embodies what all girls and women in our culture, to a greater or lesser degree, endure every day, in ways both outrageous and subtle. The assault on our body image, the hypersexualization of girls and women and subsequent degradation of our sexuality as we walk through the decades, and the general incessant objectification is what this conversation allegedly about my face is really about. …
That women are joining in the ongoing disassembling of my appearance is salient. Patriarchy is not men. Patriarchy is a system in which both women and men participate. It privileges, inter alia, the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women. It is subtle, insidious, and never more dangerous than when women passionately deny that they themselves are engaging in it. This abnormal obsession with women’s faces and bodies has become so normal that we (I include myself at times—I absolutely fall for it still) have internalized patriarchy almost seamlessly. We are unable at times to identify ourselves as our own denigrating abusers, or as abusing other girls and women.
A case in point is that this conversation was initially promulgated largely by women; a sad and disturbing fact. (That they are professional friends of mine, and know my character and values, is an additional betrayal.)
If you make a deal with the Devil, you’re going to get burned. How many magazine covers has Ashley Judd been on? How many of them have been Photoshopped to hell? How many of them have been marketed almost exclusively to women? She enters into an industry filled with the most shallow, narcissistic and vain clowns among us and then wants to blame a patriarchal system designed to brainwash her female friends into betraying her? Not quite.
Sixteen to twenty-five year old men see women as objects because they’re raging balls of hormones. Literally. The rest of the male world will always appreciate a good-looking woman, but they have more important things on their mind. That’s what happens when you become a man. Although, sometimes, they have less important things on their mind (e.g., the football game). Either way, they don’t give a rip what Ashley Judd looks like…except when she willfully dons a football jersey and poses seductively for the camera.
Do you want to know who does care what Ashley Judd looks like? Women. Specifically, the kind of women who host The View. Angry, catty types who like to say mean things behind the back of others. The kind of women who take great glee in seeing beauty fade in someone they once saw as a rival, or were jealous of simply because she was beautiful. On some level Ashley Judd is even worse, because she’s a good-looking woman who goes around throwing out terms like ‘inter alia’ (unnecessarily) just to rub it in that she’s more beautiful and more intelligent than you. If our pretentious friend wanted to put an end to all the “nasty, gendered, and misogynistic” conversations she could start by having a heart to heart with the person in the mirror.
Below is a picture of Adele. A friend of mine had this to say about her Vogue cover shoot:
“Taking a women who IS in shape, photographing her in a bathing suit and putting her in a men’s magazine is one thing. But that is light years away from taking a woman who is somewhat overweight—who is known specifically for her TALENT—airbrushing her to the point that she looks like she’s had surgery, painting her with makeup and putting her in, easily, the most revealing top she’s ever posed in. Then they point a fan at her and hide her chin with heavy shadows—and FOR WHAT? A magazine aimed exclusively at women? That’s who this is for? That is something [women] all should be ashamed of. Including her.”
Remember how women fought for all sorts of basic rights, and then generations later their daughters and great granddaughters used those rights to turn themselves into Photoshopped mannequins? I do. Note to Ashley: next time you write a piece on the “insidious” women who don’t realize they’re part of the problem, all you have to do is to stick it in an envelope, put a stamp on it, and then send it to your home address. The mailman might think you’re a little strange, but your message will be better targeted.
Douglas Ernst Blog 
hummmm, it’s a shame that some females just can’t get over the fact that there are two sexes, ( three if you live in LA ), and what is worse is that some that have been blessed with the gift of beauty don’t apreciate what they have
I think you nailed it right there. She’s a good looking person. She should let it go. Instead of recognizing that pride and jealousy will always exist, she comes up with weird theories about patriarchal societies and the brain-washed women who take part…
She “fed the beast” by writing for The Daily Beast.
Shallowness strikes. Judd needs to drop her anchor and appreciate what she’s been blessed with.
“Beauty is just a lightswitch away”…
yay for you for pointing out that Ashley Judd benefited greatly from a very shallow industry, never complained about being written about, praised, made up, taking her clothes off, posing seductively, big $$ cosmetics contracts or any of the patriarchal hypersexualization of women – until her looks began to fade, all of a sudden it’s all “don’t talk about my looks!” (subtext: unless you keep flattering me). Note that in the middle of complaining about our shallow values, she has time to praise her own flawless skin, and mention that she’s normally a size 2/4. Yup, mail it to yourself, Ashley!
Zing! Astute points, JL. A very proper take down of Ms. Judd, indeed.
Mr. Ernst, I find Ms. Judd to be almost laughably hypocritical. I won’t link to them directly here, but I have seen the following two videos on the internet, and you and your readers could find them yourselves with a couple of Google searches:
– she was with Salma Hayek one evening when the paparazzi began following them (well, I suspect they were following Salma Hayek and she managed to get into the picture). They got into a car, Salma driving, and Ashley Judd pulled up her shirt and flashed her bare breasts at the paparazzi. then threw up her hands as if to say “now do you have what you want?” considering that she had the flat chest of a prepubescent boy, and she was sitting next to the voluptuous Salma Hayek, I’m guessing the answer to that was “er, not really.”
There is also a video of her striding across the stage at the Oscars, circa 2000, in a long white dress slit up to the hip. And she’s not wearing underwear. We know this because we can see her public hair.
Tell me she wasn’t aware of this possibility as she was taking VERY large strides.
And, it is well known among her husband’s pit crew at IndyCar that she – um – never wears underwear.
And of course, she’s always bragging about how she’s close friends with Bill Clinton, whom she calls a “true romantic who loves his bride.” I’m sure Juanita Broaddrick doesn’t think Bill Clinton is a true romantic. I also suspect that even Hillary Clinton herself doesn’t! For a person like Ashley Judd who wears t-shirts that say “This is what a feminist looks like” – she certainly gives some pretty misogynistic behavior a free pass – I guess because this guy is connected and she has ambitions in the public sector.
And finally, she appeared on a panel sponsored by Emily’s List at #DNC2012 last week. I had not known what Emily’s list was until then, when I looked it up. In brief, their motto is “if you are a Democrat and you have a vagina, we will support your run for office.”
As a successful female Ivy League honors graduate, I don’t talk the feminist line, I just live it – without calling myself one. I compete against men professionally and do quite well. I don’t need affirmative action. And when it comes to political races, I will vote for the better candidate – even if that candidate doesn’t have a freaking vagina.
I find it interesting that the Democrats are so dead set against big business, yet here we have Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, sitting on the Emily’s List panel, exhorting Ashley Judd to run for public office, and if you look at Senator Gillibrand’s professional career? She spent it as a lawyer defending big tobacco.
Again, hypocrites.
As for Ashley Judd’s political aspirations, she may get some sort of political appointment to a committee that meets twice a year, with light duties but plenty of opportunities to attend fundraisers and be photographed with Bono and other part-time humanitarians … but I doubt she stands a snowball’s chance in hell of being elected to anything from the state of Tennessee.
The Liberal women like this makes the rest of us look bad. She’s a pretty woman, but that doesn’t do any her any justice if she’s sour on the inside. The more I hear her say the more I wonder about her common sense; if she has any.
Hollywood has a way of warping any common sense an actor has to begin with. Successful stars are surrounded by people who tell them they’re a genius constantly. They’re never told “no.” They begin to think they’re more enlightened than the rest of us, and then they end up like Ms. Judd, writing bizarre pieces for The Daily Beast.
That’s actually a Kentucky Wildcat hockey jersey, not a football jersey. http://www.ukhockey.com/posters.shtml
AS for McConnell, I think he has a better shot of LOSING to a Tea Party candidate in the primary than to Mrs. Dario Franchitti.
Note to Douglas: men do care about her face. Sure, she’s exposed herself, but she’s absolutely correct as well. You don’t have an empathetic bone in your god-fearing body.
“You don’t have an empathetic bone in your god-fearing body.”
I wrote this in 2012, Rick D. I must have really hit a nerve for you to be commenting this late in the game. Instead of making dumb comments about how I don’t have an empathetic bone in my body, why don’t you actually put forth a real argument? You can’t, because you know that the underlying message of this post is on point.