Oh, goodness. Could this be the beginnings another celebrity feud? Or is it just a one-sided “fight?” I’m inclined to go with the latter, but you be the judge. Here’s what went down recently between Catching Fire star Jennifer Lawrence and Fashion Police host Joan Rivers:
During a Q&A with Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, Jennifer responded to a question about body image issues in Hollywood asked by a father on behalf of his daughter. “What is your advice for your girls dealing with the same treatment among their peers,” the father asked, “and response to those who judge us based on appearance?”
Terrific question. Jennifer’s gut reaction? “Well, screw those people!” The audience laughed, of course, because as far as short answers go, that one is kind of person. But then she continued:
“You know, it’s something everybody experiences—I experienced it in school—the world has a certain idea where we see this airbrushed, perfect model, and then if you don’t look like that… You just have to look past it. You have to look past how you look. You have to be comfortable. Like, what are you going to do, be hungry everyday just to make other people happy? That’s dumb.
“There are shows like the Fashion Police and things like that, that are just showing these generations of young people to judge people based on all the wrong values and that it’s okay to point at people and call them ugly and call them fat. They call it ‘fun’ and they say ‘welcome to the real world’—and that shouldn’t be the real world. It’s going to continue being the real world if we keep it that way. We have to stop treating each other like that and stop calling each other fat.”
An excellent answer, no? But Joan didn’t think so; in fact, she fired back on Twitter with the biting sarcasm she’s known for:
Read Jennifer Lawrence’s New Haircut Broke the Internet, Y’all
I understand Joan’s impulse to defend her show. I do. It’s tough to deal with criticism, especially with regards to your work. But there are both constructive and non-constructive ways to respond to it; Joan unfortunately took the non-constructive road here by attacking the person who made the criticism, rather than addressing the critique itself. It would have been more useful—and probably a stronger move in general—if she’d dealt with the actual allegations, rather than simply insulting Jennifer.
I also fail to see what Jennifer’s answer qualifies as arrogance; it’s a thoughtful, powerful statement, and moreover, it’s something which the world definitely needs to hear more often—especially from high-profile personalities like Jennifer. There’s a reason why so many people think she’s such a great role model, and this is it.
I’m calling foul on this one, but maybe that’s just me. What do you think, Bettys?
For the curious, here’s the whole Q&A; the comment in question is at about the 21-minute mark:
Lucia Peters is BettyConfidential’s senior editor. Tweet me! @luciapeters
Photo Credit: StarTraks Photo
