BAM: Two A List actresses slam Hollywood for telling them to lose weight.

By MAMAMIA TEAM

Hollywood and positive body image are sort of like chalk and cheese.

Or a low-carb, low-fat, non-dairy meal replacement drink… and cheese.

But this week two A-List ladies have spoken out against Hollywood’s diet culture. And it’s pretty awesome.

Exhibit A:

Jennifer Lawrence.

Twenty-three-year-old Jennifer Lawrence is an all-round legend. She’s won an Oscar. She’s starring in a multimillion dollar teen movie series that is substantially better than the previous offering of its genre (here’s looking at you, Twilight.) She’s told Chelsea Handler to do this:

In the past two years, she’s basically become a spirit animal for women the world over. So, it was almost no surprise this week when she spoke out against Hollywood’s diet culture. Speaking to Harpers Bazaar, Lawrence recalled:

It was just the kind of s**t that actresses have to go through. Somebody told me I was fat, that I was going to get fired if I didn’t lose a certain amount of weight.

They brought in pictures of me where I was basically naked, and told me to use them as motivation for my diet. They thought that because of the way my career had gone, it wouldn’t still hurt me.

She then provided one of the most excellent quotes we’ve ever read on the subject:

If anybody even tries to whisper the word “diet”, I’m like, “You can go f*** yourself.”

And that, friends, deserves another GIF:

Damn straight.

Exhibit B:

Kristen Bell.

If you thought that Hollywood’s pressure on actresses to be slim relaxed as you got older, you were wrong. Once you stop being a starlet and start being, well, just a star, a whole new host of problems open up.

One of the worst is the post-baby bikini shoot, which sees celebrities paid small fortunes by magazines to drop their baby weight quickly in order to pose on their cover alongside an endorsement for Atkins or intensive gym workouts or some other weight loss method.

If you don’t know what we’re on about, here are some textbook examples:

But 33-year-old Veronica Mars star, first-time mum and sloth enthusiast, Kristen Bell, isn’t having a bar of it.

Bell’s come out criticising the trend for women to feel pressured into losing their baby weight straight away. This from EOnline:

“It’s like, by the way, don’t you want to look like you’ve had a baby?” she said of those women who feel the need to lose the weight overnight. “I’m sitting here with you, I’m crunched over, I have a huge muffin top—who cares?!”

Too right, Kristen. Who cares?

Unfortunately, the answer to that question is often casting directors and producers. Oh, and the designers who want you to wear their gowns on the red carpet.

What female actresses weigh is such a big topic of discussion that both Jennifer and Kristen have had to answer these questions in the first place.

But, if enough actresses start speaking out against Hollywood’s diet culture, maybe we’ll start to see some real change.

Oh, and food on the red carpet. Isn’t that right, J-Law?

What do you think of the emphasis Hollywood places on ‘skinny’ and ‘diets?’