Ashley Judd speaks out against the harsh words directed at her “puffy” face when she was battling a sinus infection last month.

The actress explains in a Daily Beast essay that she typically ignores anything written or spoken about her, but colleagues and friends urged her to listen to what was being said. What she discovered were cruel accusations that she had gotten plastic surgery because her face appeared to be “puffy.”

She chose to address the speculations and accusations because “they were 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.”

She was further upset when she realized women were joining the ongoing “disassembling of my appearance.” She feels an additional betrayal from those whom she considered to be professional friends.

She feels the obsession with women’s faces and bodies is abnormal and yet is becoming the norm in society. “We are unable at times to identify ourselves as our own denigrating abuers, or as abusing other girls and women.”
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Questions loomed last week during the two-hour premiere of Mad Men’s season five – where’s Betty? However, it didn’t take long for the sexiest blonde on the show to make her appearance in tonight’s second episode. Where was she? Likely in make-up putting on a body suit that has been likened on Twitter to that of Gwyneth Paltrow in Shallow Hal. However, this is not the same Betty we’ve come to know and love. We could say she was curvy, but really, Betty was just heavy. Christina Hendricks has curves!

Donning a body suit to make her appear much, much heavier than the model-esque woman who was married to Don Draper, January Jones’ character would likely be humiliated if she knew how Twitter was responding to her new figure.

At first, we thought it was just the over-sized pink robe the now Betty Francis was wearing. Then, admittedly having not watched season four, considered for a moment that she was pregnant with a fourth child. However, when her mother-in-law brazenly calls her out for her weight in not so many words, we had to face the truth that Betty had put on weight. After failing to squeeze herself in to an ill-fitting dress and canceling an attendance with her husband to a social event, Betty climbed in bed and felt sorry for herself.
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As someone who’s struggled with body image myself, this story hits close to home.

Shannon Bradley-Colleary, a 46-year-old blogger at The Woman Formerly Known as Beautiful, hasn’t always loved her body. In fact, 20 years ago, she hated it. 

In addition to her own negative thoughts of herself, she had a boyfriend at the time who was always pointing out her cellulite telling her that it was unattractive. Glad she dumped that guy.

But unlike most women who would otherwise hide those feelings away and let negative thoughts fester, Shannon decided to take a look at her body from a new perspective. She had artistic nude photos taken of herself and when she saw the results, the negative thoughts she had of herself disappeared.

Where she expected to see a pudgy woman with cellulite and heavy thighs, she saw a beautiful, healthy young woman who had no reason to doubt herself or hate her body. No problem areas, no cellulite, just a beautiful body.
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If the goal of advertising is to get attention, then Equinox Gym has got the perfect formula. The gym’s most recent advertisement has got many people talking, but not necessarily singing praises.

The new ad features a very thin nude model whose mid-section is hidden by a red circle with the question, “Are You Skinny Fat?” The phrase “skinny fat” refers to the concept of normal weight obesity. The researchers at the Mayo Clinic describe someone as “skinny fat”  if they may look fit on the outside yet they actually have a high ratio of body fat in comparison to their weight. In other terms, “skinny fat” is simply when someone looks thin, but has excess fat and little muscle mass underneath the surface.

So, yes, this is a real condition with rather serious health risks. ABC reported that the high ration of fat to lean muscle can actually interfere with the liver’s metabolism and these individuals are at a higher risk for diabetes and hypertension. However, most agree, this health condition isn’t really an issue to deal with in the gym, rather it’s a serious condition to first deal with in the doctor’s office.

Ultimately the simple ad leaves many left with questions, and as most critics agree, it simply will fuel thin women to fear that they aren’t thin enough. There’s not enough context in the advertisement to be a service announcement, it’s simply another ploy to get members in the door.

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Today is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate achievements by women and inspire the generation of girls that follows. Women’s Day has been celebrated since 1909 when it was a National Woman’s Day. Today is a great day to think about nurturing a healthy body image in young girls. Whether you are a teacher, coach, mentor, or parent, every adult woman can make a difference in the lives of young girls.

One way to create an environment that promotes positive body image is to declare a Fat Talk Free Week. All of us can be role models of health for the children in our lives. While friends may influence kids more than we can, it is important to know that how much your kids eat is influenced by who they are with. To teach kids to have a positive body image, we must first learn to be confident in ourselves.

Mothers need to know just how their attitudes, choices, and words influence their daughters’ feelings about dieting. Parents also need to know how to talk to their teens about health, even though for many parents talking about weight is even more difficult than talking about sex with their kids.

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