A View On Confidence - Simply Elliott

There is a trend in the news lately critiquing the weight of actresses. Shocking, I know, right? However, most often these critiques revolve around the personal lives of the stars, not their calling into question the validity of a role they are portraying. And that’s why I actually became interested. I have never really been to follow the Hollywood drama, but there are certainly actors and actresses I favor more than others, for their talents onscreen mostly, but on occasion for their personal endeavors which generally speaks to a lack of headlines and more of normalcy in what little news is shared. In my opinion, role models in the acting profession these days are few are far between, which is both sad and frustrating when the media seemingly has such control on our societies views of the “perfect” person. Most films portray the leading females as unnaturally thin, less than intelligent, and more often than not, fully dependent on others for success (unless of course it’s Angelina Jolie and she just tends to rip everyone’s heads off in one fell swoop). The magazines and shows perpetuate the image that women need to be rail thin and overly made up to appear beautiful and that unless you are six feet tall and wear a size zero, you are overweight. And for girls like me, that’s a rather depressing message to hear. Body image is something I, and lets be honest, most females, tend to struggle with at one time or another in their lives. I’ve touched on this before in a post about our obsession as a society with numbers, however I wanted to pause momentarily on the specifics of an issue that is difficult to overcome without people representing reality.

While external image is seemingly rather a frivolous topic, I believe that until we can embrace ourselves as worthy and acceptable, it will be rather difficult to exude confidence and joy in who, and whose, we are and truly love others as we ought to. The people that influence us most are of course those closest to us, however it is ridiculous to assume that celebrities have no effect on our thoughts, as ubiquitous as their images are as those dreadful golden arches.

Now, a few years ago, I thought Mean Girls was such an encouraging movie, aside form the overarching message of the film, the leading lady for once was a girl with a “normal” body size. Not some unrealistic stick-like figure that could be easily snapped like a twig. But rather a muscular, curvy, real, person. And for the first time, I thought to see what the life beyond “Cady” had to show, if the same confidence continued beyond the set. But Lindsay Lohan’s off-screen behaviors were less than that of a role model for young girls. So I began to wonder. Is there anyone these young girls (and young adults for that matter) look up to as having their head on their shoulders as well as a healthy sense of self and body image?

To be honest, I have always been more of a avid reader than a moviegoer. And the book will always trump the film; however there have been two series characters that in the literary world I had come to admire that were portrayed to a tee on screen as well. The intelligence, loyalty, and courage of Herminone Granger in the Harry Potter series and the fierce, athletic, independent, and resourceful survivalist of Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games trilogy have more than inspired me through those stories. So when the lives of the actresses in reality portrayed many of those same qualities, and a strong message for girls of any age, I was quite excited for a change. After all, being in my twenties I still crave to know it’s not only just about being a model to have achieved success in life and that brains and contributing to society in a manner other than simply bearing children and being a trophy wife are to be equally of value.

Well here comes the news that caught my eye. Both Emma Watson (Hermione) and Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss) are rather small in stature between 5’4” and 5’6” and between 115-130, respectively, according to a multitude of sites. So when I saw the title “Is Jennifer Lawrence’s body too ‘womanly’ to play Katniss in The Hunger Games?” I was a bit perplexed to say the least. Critics have spared “Hunger Games” stars Josh and Liam from the “too healthy to be hungry” criticism, despite the pair’s “requisite buff young actor frames” but attacks Jennifer as she is a woman. I was encouraged to see her response to it all.

Jennifer says “I’m so sick of these young girls with diets,” “I think it’s really important for girls to have people to look up to and to feel good about themselves.” “This is hilarious. First, people say how so many actresses in Hollywood look anorexic, and now they are criticizing me for looking normal,” The actress reportedly added that overly thin body images “are too often adopted by young girls and women — thanks to what they are constantly being shown as being attractive.” On her athletic build she commented that “I’d rather look a little chubby on camera and look like a person in real life, than to look great onscreen and look like a scarecrow in real life.”

Another interesting find has been about the reality that Emma Watson opens up about insecurities, body size and body image. Even someone as tiny as she is still has insecurities, but also has such a sense of self worth as to combat the thoughts that are seemingly inevitable in the female mind with a positive outlook. Something we can all afford to learn.

‘I’ve accepted my body shape more as I’ve got older. I went through a stage of wanting to have that straight-up-and-down model look, but I have curves and hips, and in the end you have to accept yourself as you are.’ She added: ‘My weight has fluctuated between a size 6 and a 10 UK. When you’re growing, your body is still figuring itself out and it takes a while to settle down. ‘I keep telling myself that I’m a human being, an imperfect human being who’s not made to look like a doll, and that who I am as a person is more important than whether at that moment I have a nice figure.’ ‘It makes me sad to hear girls constantly putting themselves down. We have these unbelievably high expectations of ourselves, when actually we’re human beings and our bodies have a function. ‘We say that the pressure is coming from men but actually it’s from each other. I think women feel so much pressure these days and it can turn us against each other. But we really damage our own confidence when we put ourselves down, so I try not to.’

“There’s nothing interesting about looking perfect—you lose the point. You want what you’re wearing to say something about you, about who you are.” “I find the whole concept of being ‘sexy’ embarrassing and confusing. What’s sexy about saying, ‘I’m here with my boobs out and a short skirt, have a look at everything I’ve got?’ My idea of sexy is that less is more. The less you reveal the more people can wonder.” In speaking of intelligence she say, “The saddest thing for a girl to do is to dumb herself down for a guy.”

She goes on to say “I don’t want other people to decide who I am. I want to decide that for myself. I want to avoid becoming something too styled and too ‘done’ and too generic. You see people as they go through their career and they just become more and more like everyone else.”

This is so true of everyone, not just in the acting industry, but in every walk of life. Everyone around us tries to tell us, by their words and their actions, that to be accepted we need to be a certain way. Whatever that way is, they are deciding it for us unless we take control. The popular trend at school or at work can consume us if we aren’t careful. Molding us into something we are not. A cookie cutter version of what society deems to be desirable, leaving the unique and wonderful creation that you were made to be discarded with last nights take out. We are called to follow in the image of Christ, not in the image of man, and I believe that starts with loving who we are and how He created us to be. Only then can we even begin to show love to those around us.

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