November 22, 2018

Let's be thankful for shaming the Thanksgiving fat-shamer Sarah Michelle Gellar.

The actress apologized for this, which actually really is pretty awful:



As Breitbart (linked at the top of Drudge) put it:
The 41-year-old immediately buckled to the social media campaign against her, saying, “It’s come to my attention that some people think I was ‘fat shaming’ with this post. That could not be further from my intentions.”

“I love Thanksgiving and unfortunately my eyes are often bigger than my stomach, and I tend to eat so much I make myself sick. This was a joking reminder to myself not to do that,” she continued. “I’m terribly sorry that people were offended by my attempt at humor. Any one that knows me, knows I would never intentionally ‘shame’ any one on any basis. I am a champion of all people.”
I don't know if I'd use the expression "fat-shaming." But it is the sort of photograph that anorexia enthusiasts call "thinspiration." Ah, yes, here's US Weekly, "Sarah Michelle Gellar ‘Terribly Sorry’ for Offending Instagram Users With Thanksgiving ‘Thinspiration’":
“Buffy, please don’t promote diet culture. Not the kind of message we should be sending,” one [Instagram user] wrote. “Usually love your posts but I’m seriously against ‘thinspiration.’ It’s a core of most eating disorders.”
But, we're told, Gellar also "garnered praise" from some celebrities who said they might "pin the photos at her house, too." In other words, there is demand for thinspiration pictures. Twitter allows the #thinspiration hashtag. Here's what it brings to the top of the page right now:

That's a screenshot. I won't link. And I don't believe that Twitter user, even with that name, is critiquing anorexia.

I should be clear about what I personally find awful about Gellar's photo and caption. She just doesn't look happy. She looks like someone who's trying to look good for somebody else and is getting no pleasure from it herself. And she's wearing "pleasure" clothes. But she's wearing them for somebody else, not herself, apparently. It's sad. The expression on her face reminds me of Bender in "Breakfast Club." That's not joy, though she's at her rock-bottom low weight.

132 comments:

Ron said...

What no SMG tag? I think it qualifies...

rehajm said...

‘Pleasure’ clothes? Yeesh...

It’s a selfless act. Putting another(s) before yourself. Or others slightly ahead of youself. You probably recognize you might get something out if the deal, too. It was another era when people used to do that.

Now we self gratify by shaming others then wallowing in righteousness. Hopefully in another era we’ll recognize how awful we were.

Ann Althouse said...

@Ron I don't like to make a new tag for a person I don't feel I'll ever write about again. She's not a new celebrity, and she doesn't have a tag yet. I try to control the number of tags. There are too many already and new ones need to feel like a pathway to interestingness.

Ann Althouse said...

She's got on sexy lingerie and you see what else? The oversized white shirt reads as a man's shirt. And she's sort of cringing inside it, covering herself part way, and looking like she's wary and afraid. If you find that titillating, you should search your soul.

Ann Althouse said...

"It’s a selfless act."

What are you talking about? What kind of sex is enacted in that photograph, in your opinion? Is it a kind of sex you would want for your daughter?

Humperdink said...

The pic shouts "hey, look at me" and not much else. If the pic was sent only to her significant other and no one else it would be one thing, but nope.

Wince said...

You're right, she needs to be punished with a good spankng.

Mary Beth said...

She just doesn't look happy.

Who can blame her? She keeps getting called by the name of a role she hasn't played in 15 years.

Laslo Spatula said...

I think she is trying to do Sullen Model Face.

But evidently she is not a good enough actress to successfully inhabit the role that is a world-weary jet-lagged model making Sullen Model Face, even for a photograph.

Then again, perhaps she is aiming for Fish Gape?

I am Laslo.

Shouting Thomas said...

Your Marxist feminist obsessions are an inexplicable and loony part of your game, prof. Why are you engaged in this goofy campaign to improve women?

And that campaign is mixed up with an odd sort of prudery and equally confusing gay worship. Have you ever noticed what kind of sex gay men engage in? They play in poop. Which launched a global epidemic.

Have you ever considered dumping this garbage heap of ideological claptrap and going plain vanilla Christian?

But, it's Thanksgiving, and I'm going to spend it with my grandkids, not sticking around here to argue.

Happy Thanksgiving.

jaydub said...

Looks like humble brag to me.

Hagar said...

It is indeed awful, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer is successful enough that she does not have to pose for pictures like that. Besides she is now 41 years old and should know better anyway.

Professional lady said...

She looks afraid to me also. Kind of reminds me of those Calvin Klein heroin chic ads of underweight under aged models of several years ago. Yep, sex with anorexic teenagers sure is cool. Haven't bought a Calvin Klein product since. Now we also have those depressing Celine Dion ads.

Hagar said...

And I hate these lawyer written "apologies."

Shouting Thomas said...

Before I attend to baking chocolate chip cookies, let me say:

If anything should be shamed, it's obesity. Obesity is probably our #1 killer.

The majority of our populace is killing itself with eating. Heart disease, diabetes, destroyed hips and knees, inability to even walk a short distance.

Most of the women my age (68) are so fat that you can't screw them without lifting up a huge belly and pushing it out of the way, then digging to find the hole.

The woman in the pic, I've never heard of. God bless her for taking care of herself and making herself presentable.

Biff said...

I agree that Gellar's Instagram post was misguided, but here are a couple of observations:

1) With over 180 thousand "likes" in the last few days, the post is performing very well in comparison to most of her other posts. From a marketing/engagement perspective, the post is a strong success and will help her bottom line.

2) Regardless of what may be politically correct to say, "thinspiration" is completely mainstream in celebrity culture. I've had a few opportunities to spend time among Hollywood tv/movie celebrities in casual settings, and the obsession over thinness is hard to overstate. Her Instagram post was mild by the standards of routine conversation in those circles, so it is not hard to imagine someone living in that culture being surprised with how "thinspiration" might play elsewhere. This is how many people think, as a matter of course. As an aside, I quickly learned to hide my shock at how unhealthy and emaciated many female celebrities look off camera. For much of the time I was in LA, I was fighting the urge to sneak in some cheeseburgers for the obviously starving celebs.

Laslo Spatula said...

I was curious how long ago the picture was taken.

A bit of a Google search, and the answer: a December 2007 issue of Maxim magazine.

So: her Thanksgiving warning to herself is a 'sexy' photo of herself from eleven years ago.

As in: by not overeating today I will again attain the body I had in a more youthful time.

The body that I, at the time, never expected to age, because the world was mine and I was In The Moment.

Everyone: remember when the world was mine and I was In The Moment?

Remember when this was Me?

I'm still Her.

It feels sad to me.

I am Laslo.

Ann Althouse said...

"Then again, perhaps she is aiming for Fish Gape?"

Oh, that was an unsettling experience. Halfway through I was thinking I never want to look at another photograph of a woman adjusting her face for a photograph and three-quarters of the way through I was thinking no one should ever be photographed again. What a horrorshow! The look is: My brain has been removed. This is the facial expression Jeffrey Dahmer used a drill to get from his victims.

Ann Althouse said...

"With over 180 thousand "likes" in the last few days, the post is performing very well in comparison to most of her other posts. From a marketing/engagement perspective, the post is a strong success and will help her bottom line."

And it's that kind of feedback that will cause us to get more things like that. Social media (and mainstream media) are now thoroughly infected with that kind of distorted, demented striving. I only hope we still have enough humanity to feel an aversion to what is fake and that there will be anywhere to go to get away from it.

Sebastian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

If I post a picture of Ms. Geller to remind me of anything, it won't be overeating.

Sebastian said...

"She just doesn't look happy."

Ah, we're in the era of That's Not Happy.

Anyway, she's an actress putting on a pose. I'd say many healthy, heterosexual, 41-year-old women would be happy to look this way.

"She looks like someone who's trying to look good for somebody else and is getting no pleasure from it herself."

Projecting much? She just said, to general consternation and fat-shamed envy, that she was going to plaster copies around the house as thinspiration. That's a form of "pleasure."

"sort of cringing inside"

Interesting to see how women put down other women, on the basis of no evidence at all.

Mr. Groovington said...

Shouting Thomas said...
Most of the women my age (68) are so fat that you can't screw them without lifting up a huge belly and pushing it out of the way, then digging to find the hole.

I’m both disgusted and impressed that you’ve done that. It’s up there with putting a cigarette out on your arm.

Laslo Spatula said...

"This is the facial expression Jeffrey Dahmer used a drill to get from his victims."

God, I wish I had written that.

I am Laslo.

Laslo Spatula said...

Combine Fish Gape with Anorexia and you will have a Social Media Superstar.

I am Laslo.

Mr. Groovington said...

Gellar is 15 pounds too thin. 10 of that being her white skinny ass.

rehajm said...

The oversized white shirt reads as a man's shirt. And she's sort of cringing inside it, covering herself part way, and looking like she's wary and afraid. If you find that titillating, you should search your soul.

Wow that's stupid. For a woman who claims to have read many magazines in her day you seem woefully ignorant of models who pout weaning men's shirts. You don't have to agree with it but it seems you should have an inkling of it and why it might happen. Do you rally think she's 'sad' or does that just work for whatever point you're trying to make? Its seems to me she's confident/proud/nostalgic enough about the photo to post it some decade(s) later. Sad don't much figure into it...

Is it a kind of sex you would want for your daughter?

Why is this wife/daughter crap always the feminine go to? It's a 'Have you stopped beating your wife?' kind of question. Asinine. For the record I would want my daughter to be free to pursue what makes her happy. I suppose if that means dressing sensually for photos and posting it on the internet or for a partner so be it. Seems way more healthy than being the mental equivalent of a shivering, pissing chihuahua who slut shames or calls 'sad' every time there's a woman posts a sensual photo. I'd want her to be comfortable enough to tell those people to fuck off if she so chooses or apologize to the shivering chihuahua women if she so chooses.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Shouting Thomas said...

I’m both disgusted and impressed that you’ve done that. It’s up there with putting a cigarette out on your arm.

In the course of a 12 year relationship, my girlfriend transformed herself from a petite and reasonably fit woman into an obese woman with serious health problems.

What could I do? I tried my best, but I had to end the relationship.

Ann Althouse said...

" I'd say many healthy, heterosexual, 41-year-old women would be happy to look this way."

Happy to magically be that thin, but if she had to become rigorously abstemious and her body was gnawing at itself from the inside with all that self-denial, she probably wouldn't be happy. What happens to your face — and to your mind — when you focus your striving on getting as small as possible? And how could you still be "healthy" if you did all that. You might as well say: I'd say many happy women would be happy if they looked like that. First, get a happy woman. Then, see? She's happy!

But, sure, I agree with you that many non-crazy women, if given a wish to set their body to a specific thinness (which they could have, permanently, without needing to do anything to get and stay there), would choose just about that look (or even thinner).

I doubt if it has anything to do with heterosexuality. I think studies have shown that the thinness women select as ideal is more intense than what men select as ideal for a woman.

Charlie Currie said...

"Buffy, please don’t promote diet culture. Not the kind of message we should be sending,” one [Instagram user] wrote. “Usually love your posts but I’m seriously against ‘thinspiration.’ It’s a core of most eating disorders.”

I would say, most eating disorders are in the opposite direction...fatspiration.

Charlie Currie said...

"She looks like someone who's trying to look good for somebody else and is getting no pleasure from it herself. And she's wearing "pleasure" clothes. But she's wearing them for somebody else, not herself, apparently. "

Why, yes she does. And I appreciate it very much.

tim in vermont said...

I think a little fat shaming can be salutary. So I guess I agree with her original intent. Though she is too skinny for me.

Sebastian said...

"Happy to magically be that thin, but if she had to become rigorously abstemious and her body was gnawing at itself from the inside with all that self-denial, she probably wouldn't be happy."

"magically"? Weight Watchers built a good business on doing it rationally.

"if she had to become"? Big if there.

"rigorously abstemious," gnawing at itself," "all that self-denial," "probably wouldn't": again, it's interesting to see how a woman puts down another woman, criticizing a look based on no evidence at all.

But I, in turn, agree, that "getting as small as possible" can be unhealthy.

My own studies have shown that lesbian women care less about thinness.

Mr. Groovington said...

“the thinness women select as ideal is more intense than what men select as ideal for a woman”

You don’t need a study to find that, it’s true.

Do a poll here:
1) she’s perfect
2) she’s overall too skinny for me
3) she’s passable above the waist, but her ass is too skinny for me

I think that’s how the guys would word the questions, with 2) and 3) sharing 90% of the vote.

Charlie Currie said...

My first reaction to seeing the picture was, I thought it was the surfer girl who lost her arm in a shark attack.

tim in vermont said...

There is a sweet spot, zaftig, which is a major turn on for me. I just saw a woman from my car this morning, while going out for coffee. She running and my thought was “Don’t lose another ounce! Be sure to counter that running with some red beans and rice!"

tim in vermont said...

The problem is that intense thinness makes better photographs. Look at Britney Murphy’s movie roles before and after she shrunk herself to tiny. She went from the actress version of “friend zone” to the lead.

Mr Wibble said...

Ms Geller did nothing wrong, and shouldn't have apologized. Too many people are massively overweight. Heck, I'll admit that I'm overweight. I work out regularly and try to maintain a decent diet, but I'm fighting a declining metabolism combined with bad habits from my youth, as well as a bunch of weight gained years ago during a depressive episode. It's going to be a long process to get back into shape, and we all should look for inspiration to keep us motivated.

Fernandinande said...

US Weekly / Drudge -> Breitbart -> Althouse about some completely trivial picture which is now INTERNATIONAL NEWS because it just might violate yet another New Agey religious prohibition.

And now -> Metoo. I feel like my keyboard needs a shower, with plenty of water because my mental image of the keyboard is that it's disgustingly fat*. I put up a picture of an older, smaller keyboard, but it didn't help.

*Oops, I guess I shoulda said "f-word". At some point we might be down to 26 words: A-word, b-word,...e-word (etc).

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Don't let leftwing mob bring you down. Screw the collective left and THEIR police thought-crime image crime shaming.

donald said...

All I know is She has always been insanely gorgeous to me. Not much of an actor, but really, really gorgeous.

I don’t think there’s any reason to put any other thought into Sarah Michelle Geller.

Anne in Rockwall, TX said...

Ugliest pair of panties ever. The ones that sit thin and high on the hip making a "V" of the material are much more attractive.

Paco Wové said...

"surfer girl who lost her arm in a shark attack."

My first thought was "I didn't know Gellar was an amputee. When did that happen?" followed by "I guess the message is: Don't overeat – there are amputees starving in Ethiopia!" until I finally realized it was "Look at meeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!"

rehajm said...

Don't let leftwing mob bring you down. Screw the collective left and THEIR police thought-crime image crime shaming.

Worth a double.

Big Mike said...

She looks like someone who's trying to look good for somebody else and is getting no pleasure from it herself.

I agree. But she’s an actress in Hollywood, so isn’t that more or less her job? The “Fifty Shades” trilogy is on cable, but I don’t watch — I can’t help but think that Dakota Johnson admitted that she had to get herself drunk to do her scenes.

Hollywood is full of women with great figures. My favorite actresses have a look about them like they have interesting depths to their personalities and the sexiest actresses are the ones who project that they’re a lot of fun behind closed doors.

robother said...

Cutting off your arm to make weight shouldn't be allowed in wrestling or in anorexia. This isn't Vietnam, there are rules.

mockturtle said...

It always disappoints to see someone apologize for imaginary offenses. There is absolutely nothing so benign that it wouldn't offend someone. Before social media, these 'offenses' were suffered in blessed silence.

Anita Villegas said...

Status signaling.

Wince said...

Buffy, nah.

Bring on the Mrs. Beasley porn.

Ben Wa balls sometimes have a retrieval string or attachment of some sort, but they do not have an adequately flared base for safe anal play.

MayBee said...

Ha! We should do the other thing feminists hate, and tell her to smile.

This goes in to my big personal tag, "not everything has to be a thing". We don't have to get all involved in every single social media thing.

rhhardin said...

It says high maintenance to me, not looking good for others.

mockturtle said...

I wouldn't want to be that thin. At my age, one can have a nice-looking ass or a nice-looking face but not both.

rhhardin said...

Julia Roberts did a nice duck face in Runaway Bride (1999). Google julie roberts duck face

rhhardin said...

julia not julie

Mr. Groovington said...

“one can have a nice-looking ass or a nice-looking face but not both”

The ass.

Temujin said...

I don't care about any of your hand-wringing over this photo. I'm going to reprint it and paste it around my house, too, in hopes that it diverts me from watching the Lions today. I think it will work.

As for her not smiling in this photo: are you serious? Like this is a new thing in photographs of individuals and groups? This started awhile back with celebrity fashion models. Then to hip-hoppers trying to look tough in photos. Then it spread to athletes . Spread to everyone. No one smiles anymore. Everyone is just tough. Except most people aren't- they just look angry or stupid. I often wonder why a young, famous, wealthy beyond imagination athlete takes a picture with a hard, angry look. They should be beaming. I'm beaming now and I'm wearing shorts.

FIDO said...

Hm. So any woman who wishes to give a moment's thought to bringing pleasure to someone else or be appealing to anyone else besides her is bad and evil.* Got it.

I keep thinking that maybe I am being too hard on Althouse as a prude and she says this.

Sarah Michelle Gellar had, and continues to have 'the goods'. This breeds resentment in women who either lost 'the goods' or always had 'the bads'.


What is the feminine term for a female 'incel'? Asking for a friend.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

considering the obesity problem in the US, fat shame away, honey.

She does, however, look a bit too thin. Put some meat on your bones little missy. Enjoy an extra slice of pie.

FIDO said...

Seems like Althouse has found her own 'Brown Spot', some imaginary artistic offense which says little about the actual image and loads about the person making the observation.

SMG is trying to aspire to something hard, not wallow in a tub of Ben and Jerry's in a semi ratty flannel robe. If this were anything but lingerie, Althouse would be speaking highly of her dedication and work ethic.

But some man somewhere might get a scintilla of pleasure from it so it must be stopped. Which says loads about Althouse, and nothing about Sarah Michelle Gellar.

I would hope that my daughters might someday learn the lesson that in a relationship, occasionally, SHE has to give. But alas, even some seventy year old women in ratty flannel bath robes have failed to get that message.

Ann Althouse said...

"'"sort of cringing inside' Interesting to see how women put down other women, on the basis of no evidence at all"

Hey, quote me correctly!

I said "sort of cringing inside IT" — where "it" = the man's oversized shirt. The evidence is the pose. It's a photograph, and all the elements are intentionally assembled to create an impression and a feeling in the viewer. The idea that you shouldn't interpret the meaning is ridiculous. It's a piece of artwork, intended to have an impact. If you don't think my description of what's going on in that picture is good, tell us what you think you see. I think I've been clear that I'm only describing the impact on me and I am inviting you to say what the impact on you is. Now, I laid down a heavy-handed challenge: "If you find that titillating, you should search your soul." So maybe you're not up for talking about it! To me, the image suggests a woman afraid of but ready to submit to sex with a dominating man.

FIDO said...

Let's see: Brown Spot, Sexual Recession and Jordan Petersen discussing the Devouring (Castrating) Mother.

That is three Althouseian posts tied together. What do I win?

Retail Lawyer said...

What Donald said at 7:54. I've always thought she is the prettiest woman in show biz. She would be even if she was heavier. But America really has an overweight problem. It is or will be a public health disaster. The TV news last night showed "poor" women in Oakland too obese to fit into the cab of my truck picking up free Thanksgiving groceries like this was all fabulous and isn't our community wonderful. This will not work out well.

William said...

I have no great objection to the way she looks. Civil War soldiers used to pose holding their pistols. It was the convention of the time. They weren't spree killers. Women wearing black lingerie pose with sullen, bruised expressions. They're not drug addicts or abuse victims. It's just st aconvention. When they wear bikinis, they have a more sunny, healthy expression. Perhaps she should pose licking a lollipop. It's a low calorie treat and would help to soften the severity of her expression.

bagoh20 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Retail Lawyer said...

What became of the big anorexia public awareness campaigns of a few years ago? Theory: it was a delusion on the part of the anorexic so it was bad. But now we must make way for delusions to be OK because it is a delusion to think you are a girl when you have XY chromosomes. And that is OK.

Yancey Ward said...

"It always disappoints to see someone apologize for imaginary offenses. There is absolutely nothing so benign that it wouldn't offend someone. Before social media, these 'offenses' were suffered in blessed silence."

Amen to that, Mockturtle.

Ann Althouse said...

I didn't say that she didn't look good. (I think she does.) I said I don't like to see a photograph that expresses the idea that what is sexually exciting is sex with someone who is afraid and not ready.

bagoh20 said...

I don't get the problem. She looks great and she knows it, and that is a very important thing to a woman that age who has done very well on her looks. She doesn't look happy? She's posing. She has the expression of most 19th century portraits. That's just her "fierce" look - determined, independent, strong. It's sexy, but fierce sexy. She's not a victim. She's on the prowl and about to take what she wants. There is no hidden meaning.

I've been up and down in my weight, and we all know that we feel great when we look great (winning), and she looks like she feels great. Sometimes you can think yourself right out of the ballpark looking for a unique angle. I think her message is straight forward. "I look great, I'm proud of it, and I'm definitely happy about it."

Yancey Ward said...

No indication to me when that set of photos was taken, but if they are of the 41 year old Ms. Gellar, I say, "Wowsa!"

Christopher said...

In a nation of mastodons, I guess this is terrible.

I should be clear about what I personally find awful about Gellar's photo and caption. She just doesn't look happy. She looks like someone who's trying to look good for somebody else and is getting no pleasure from it herself. And she's wearing "pleasure" clothes

Your attempts at mind-reading are bizarre and it gets worse further down. This is the blog equivalent of Choom-Gang Obama on mommy issues.

Anorexia is a thing but Gellar is beautiful and my aren't we judgey today. You aren't smiling enough! SMILE! Take a look at photos of public spaces much earlier in your time and mine, and back a bit still. Baseball parks, street scenes, it was a much more pleasant environment to be around everyone when we weren't navigating through herds of blimps.

Happy Thanksgiving!

William said...

Thanksgiving: The big blessing of my life was that for most of it, I was able to to overeat and remain skinny. Thar's long gone, but it was great while it lasted......I've got an arthritic knee. I keep my weight down to pamper it, but life is hard and full of frustration. We're on this earth such a short time, and its sad to no longer have the comforts of pepperoni pizza and chocolate chip cookies to carry me through the rough patches.

bagoh20 said...

Wearing the man's shirt is a long loved sexy look. To the man it coveys the idea that she accepts you and likes you, becuase she would never put on your shirt if she didn't. To women it says this is consensual, safe and not at all yucky, and probably involved some hot abandon that lost her her clothes. All that is sexy, and the opposite of the Althouse take here.

William said...

We can still fat shame Trump and Christie, right? I guess you can't do it with Sarah Huckabee though. If I were Sarah, I would get a big plate of ribs and eat them during the press conference. When Jim Acosta asks his questions, she could upstage him by licking the grease off her fingers.

Ken B said...

Let me get this straight
- SMG looks awful but Monica Lewinsky is stunning
- we cannot talk about the works of Joseph Conrad but Starbucks sandwich reviews are a great topic

Sebastian said...

"I think I've been clear that I'm only describing the impact on me"

Yeah, we get that.

"I am inviting you to say what the impact on you is."

Good-looking middle-aged actress proudly shows she still got it. Good for her. Good for us.

"If you find that titillating, you should search your soul."

Very mildly titillating. Searched my soul, found nothing out of order.

"To me, the image suggests a woman afraid of but ready to submit to sex with a dominating man."

Which is interesting, to us men, as an example of an odd feminine interpretation. "afraid"? "submit"? "dominating"?

Which is also very interesting as evidence of what women have to put up with among women.

Argumentativeness aside, I do give thanks to Althouse for putting her thoughts out there, and for giving us a forum for virtual conversation.

Anne in Rockwall, TX said...

A woman wears a man's shirt like that for two reasons.

It smells like him and that is a powerful aphrodisiac. But Althouse can't smell so that interpretation might have been missed.

And it means she owns his stuff. When you can grab his dress shirt and put it on, he is yours. Even if you're not a celebrity, the man will let you grab his shirt. Powerful.

Yancey Ward said...

I don't think those photos were recent.

mockturtle said...

It smells like him and that is a powerful aphrodisiac. But Althouse can't smell so that interpretation might have been missed.

Ah! Good point, Annie.

Ken B said...

Bagoh20 @9:16

And it says she spent the night, and is using it as a nightshirt cum robe.

Can we say cum here?

Maybe it's not people who find the picture sexy who need to think. Maybe it’s those who never even considered what you mentioned, or what I mentioned, but who leapt to full Mrs Grundy mode who need to. Maybe lust shaming is worse than lust.

I am always struck when someone I knew as a horn dog in high school turns up all prudish. Sad to forget your own life. Althouse says she was a pro sex feminist. Do you believe her? Maybe she's forgotten her own life.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

It's a photograph, and all the elements are intentionally assembled to create an impression and a feeling in the viewer.

That's true, but the viewer is bringing their own preconceptions to the photograph. To me the impression isn't one of fear and unwillingness, at all. Maybe my perception is influenced by the roles I've seen her play, which are all confident, strong women, and that's what I see.

Paco Wové said...

And when you’re sexy, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab their shirts. Anything.

FIDO said...

Hmm.

I will make a couple of observations:

What woman puts on a man's shirt BEFORE sex? Generally she does that AFTER sex (Althouse may never have done this, but other women have) And she does that as an act of symbolically joining with that man. Enjoying the afterglow. Smelling his scent. Giving him a sense of, dare I say, ownership. And not one the MAN insists on. This is a voluntary act BY THE WOMAN.

Another note: Again, Althouse may be operating out of ignorance, but my wife has dressed up for me, VOLUNTARILY. And that look takes a LONG TIME to get ready. But I am supposed to believe that a woman who makes that effort isn't interested in sex?

Bullshit.

As they say: if the girl is wearing a matching bra and panty set when you undress during a date, she had already made all the decisions about having sex and you had nothing to do with it.

I think this is what roils the panties of Feminists like Althouse the most; a woman making a clear effort FOR a man. She wants you to imagine that a man is putting a gun to a girls head and saying 'make with the whorish make up and stockings'. Which is nonsense.


**

Also, calling bullshit. That 'search your soul' comment is clearly trying to shame men in finding her attractive and sexually alluring when she WANTS to be attractive and sexually alluring. Don't try to back out of it now. You said it. Own it.


Ron Winkleheimer said...

And it would seem odd for an actress whose oeuvre is playing strong, confident women to want to convey an image of fear and helplessness. When she played Daphne in the Scooby Doo movies, which would have came out about then I think, a big deal was made about Daphne having learned martial arts and no longer needing to be rescued. We are in the midst of the grrl power movement and have been for quite some time. Women aren't allowed to be shown as fearful any more. In the new Halloween movie Jamie Lee Curtis' character is kickass and wants the bad guy to escape, so she can kill him. She has access to firearms and knows how to use them.

Anonymous said...

Nothing more tedious than imposing diet talk onto a feast day. (And "fat acceptance" is diet talk, too.) If you were clear on the "this is a feast day/these are not feast days" distinction, and lived it, you wouldn't be all freaked about a bit of feast-day overindulgence, one way or the other, you neurotic gluttons.

Bilwick said...

Re SMG's photos: Yum-YUM! Although these days her photos make me a little sad because it reminds me of the sitcom she did with Robin Williams shortly before his suicide. The show was not great, but it grew on me, and before it had a chance to ghirtet really good, it was cancelled.

Re the shirt, a few years ago an older woman with a lot of experience told me I should keep a laundered and pressed dress shirt in my closet--not for my use, but for any women who might visit my apartment. One of the best pieces of advice any woman ever gave me.

walter said...

Ann acts as if she's never seen modeling shots before.

Howard said...

Tiny, mousey woman, bottle blonde. OK to look at but definitely not breeding material.

walter said...

But if she had a great smile in that pic, the jealous/fat would be more angry.
Shame on her for promoting "diet culture".

Original Mike said...

”Happy to magically be that thin, but if she had to become rigorously abstemious and her body was gnawing at itself from the inside with all that self-denial, she probably wouldn't be happy.”

Oh, good grief. Over the top much? I went to the #thinspiration site and there are pictures of women there who clearly have a serious problem. This picture ain’t that. To associate “if she had to become rigorously abstemious and her body was gnawing at itself from the inside with all that self-denial” with this picture sounds like someone looking for an excuse to have another chocolate chip cookie.

I am at the lowest weight I’ve been at as an adult and yes it’s work but it accrues an important benefit. It’s healthy. On average this country has a serious weight problem and it’s not being too thin.

FIDO said...

Althouse is also acting as if she has never heard of roleplaying before.

Except for Harvey Weinstein and a blackmailing boss, what girl who is diffident about sex is going to dress that way?

But pretending to be an ingenue to get the guy's motor running? An Offense against the Matriarchy perhaps, but well within the Overton window of most people's sexual possibilities.


Though to be fair to Althouse, when I saw this picture, I also saw fear. But I had context. Buffy had been long cancelled, no one was talking about Scooby Doo Three, and at 34/35, SMG was getting ready to hit the Wall. She was not afraid of sex. She was afraid of unemployment. So she did this to appeal to her customer base...which isn't Althouse.

walter said...

Someone tell her, if she packs on a few pounds, she might land Howard.

Howard said...

don't get my hopes up walter... the holidays are depressing enough

chuck said...

> She looks like someone who's trying to look good for somebody else and is getting no pleasure from it herself.

So, model sexy, not actually sexy. Oddly enough, model sexy dominates the image landscape, go figure.

Sebastian said...

@FIDO: "I think this is what roils the panties of Feminists like Althouse the most; a woman making a clear effort FOR a man."

A "dominant" man, don't forget. The worst kind, as we all know.

But making an effort for a regular old beta male is fine.

What roils her most most, as the elaborate baseless mind-reading shows, is the image of a woman showing other women how to make a clear effort for a man. She must be "afraid," "cringing inside it," "getting no pleasure." The put-downs are the tell.

Feminism is the haunting fear that some woman, somewhere, may be happy putting out for a man.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

NOTHING TASTES AS GOOD AS SKINNY FEELS

This has been a Public Service Announcement

ALP said...

Ya know, as one gets older, overeating doesn't FEEL as good as it used to. Its not bad advice. Jesus - every time I read shit like this I retreat from speaking to anybody I don't know even more. I mean, why risk dealing with the type of people that would get upset about something like this?

Earnest Prole said...

The bone is for the dog; the meat is for the man.

Matt said...

That pic looks more delicious than anything I'll be eating in 3 hours time.

Seriously, though. "Fat shaming" needs to be embraced, celebrated and expanded. Some people are so stunningly grotesque it's not fair to the rest of us to have to have our days ruined seeing them and then having to pay for their health care. I was on a Disney cruise in Oct and saw some of the most morbidly obese people I've ever seen in my life. Bonus - got to see them in their swimsuits. I have no idea how they were able to squeeze through the doors to their cabins or wedge themselves into the tiny bathrooms. Most of them were also covered in tattoos, which paired quite nicely with their pasty white flab.

There's nothing positive about being as big as a house. It's not empowering. It's not beautiful. It's not healthy. It is just one more example of society embracing mediocrity and low expectations.

Go for a walk, fatties!

n.n said...

She has the sad appearance of the prototypical high fashion model, but she is fully covered, and not doing the feminists' Slut Walk, or the Occupy Uncles house thing.

reader said...

My take away from the photo

She is skinny, but not too skinny. I can't see her breast bone.

Men's styled shirt that doesn't really belong to a man. She is so small it would look much sloppier. But I agree you wear a man's shirt for the scent and for the statement that you have access to his things. The disconnect in the picture is that the shirt is usually thrown on after sex and the lingerie would be history.

Matching lingerie set (Walmart!). These don't have to be worn only for the purpose of being viewed by a man. They simply don't last long (my husband says naked is always best). These sets can be something a woman does simply for herself.

My first take of her expression is pensive not fear. After/before being physically and emotionally close to someone you may have thoughts about the relationship that aren't all sunshine and light. Do you still care for them? Do they care for you? Are you strong enough to walk away? Are you strong enough to stay?

I have used a photo to motivate myself. Since my late teens I usually belonged to a gym. During a period when my motivation and membership lapsed I used the photo as a prod.

Finally, my mother could cook. My husband's first Thanksgiving with my family (before we were married) he ate so much he spent a few hours immobile on the floor moaning. Moderation isn't a bad thing.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

did she chew off a part of her right arm in a fit of hunger?

Hemmingway has a book for her.

Anne in Rockwall, TX said...

There is nothing on earth I loathe as much as a damned bra. The constriction around my rib cage makes me so I angry I could spit nails.

Lingerie with underwires and push up crapola would only be done at a man's request. And he better be one helluva a man at that.

But slip into his shirt with nothing else? Have his scent wafting up? Pure bliss. Now rip this shirt off me.

PB said...

Can I put them up?

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

So.....that means we wont be seeing you at "Vicki See's" anytime soon?

Bill Peschel said...

This comment thread is a great Rorschach test.

The ones admiring the 41-year-old's body missed the commenter who pointed out it was from 11 years ago.

The ones criticizing Althouse for saying she looks fearful ... well ... everything but her eyes say "I wanna fuck." The eyes are saying, "Don't hurt me."

I could be that's her natural shape. I'll even admit that it's an interpretation for me. But her eyes are not saying sultry. Her eyes are not looking sexy. She seems ... worried.

Agree on the lingerie / man's shirt disconnect. She needed a robe to slip out of. A man's shirt is for after sex, when she walks into the kitchen to cook me breakfast.

Ze said...

Silly girl, she should know that the panties go on over the garters so that you can take them off and still be wearing the more exciting lingerie. Also, Althouse, you have frequently talked up or defended or at least explained those unhappy in friendly looks on models as, I guess you don’t know the word, hauteur. Why not in this case?

Needless to say, she looks more than fine to me. Is that a recent picture?

walter said...

It's apparently discomforting to some..therefore art.

Earnest Prole said...

Bony women don’t do all that much for straight men, but for some reason seem to send other women into fits of rage. That’s the meaning and intention of this self-portrait.

Lucien said...

Umm . . you guys all know there are four pictures in that Instagram post and you can flip through them using the arrow at the side of the photo, right?

Gospace said...

Laslo Spatula said...
I think she is trying to do Sullen Model Face.


Exactly. Ever see a runway model smiling on the runway? Apparently, sullen face is an ideal photographers aim for. To put the focus on the clothing not on the model. If she were the subject of the photo, and not the pose or outfit, a smile would be called for.

The second photo in the set,, with the head tilt, has almost too much facial expression for a model photoshoot.

bagoh20 said...

This post made me horny, and now I just hate myself. I hope you're happy.

n.n said...

I’m just going to pin these up all over my house as a reminder not to overeat on Thursday #thanksgivingprep

Whether it's lingerie for women, or shorts for men, we each have our incentives. She's sharing what works for her because she cares.

buckled to the social media campaign against her

He's a warlock! She's a witch! Deja vu. #NoJudgmentSelective

She looks better than she should. #ModelPrivilege #EarlyToMidTwentiethCenturyPhilosophy

readering said...

So if it was taken from a professional photo shoot of 2007 it really only says something about the photographer and editor, not the model.

FIDO said...

The photo is from an 11 year old maxim shoot when her career was tanking and she was trying to stay relevant. So the worry was real.

She...does not look that good now, though nowhere near fat.

She cares about her appearance since she doesn't have tenure to protect her.

n.n said...
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n.n said...
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Freeman Hunt said...

It does look exactly like a Bender expression. Nice catch. It's disturbing.

"What woman puts on a man's shirt BEFORE sex? Generally she does that AFTER sex"

Yes, this photo costume is illogical, unless the costumer wanted us to think that she got up, put all that lingerie back on, and then put on the shirt. But that would be strange.

As for her actual looks, not the photo, of course she looks great. I don't think she should have apologized either. I think the post is funny and perfectly understandable to anyone not looking to be offended.

n.n said...

Everyone has a photo, a memory, an ambition, that is retained as an incentive for their personal moderation. What is your anchor that mitigates drift in evolution's eddies?

FIDO said...

The fact that she self selected the photo means everyone else can pound sand. SHE likes the picture.

rhhardin said...

I sure wish I would've had longer to get used to the idea. You think if you got no uterus and no breasts you're still technically a woman?

Sure you are.

Yeah, you just--

You're actually a happier woman. No need to worry about maxi-pads and underwire.

- Erin Brockovich (2000)

loudogblog said...

Ann, I agree that her photo is not an example of fat shaming, but she does have a very strange look on her face. It's obviously not a happy face. It's like she feels that she has to display her body in a sexual way, that also emphasizes her extreme thinness, but doesn't really want to do it. I imagine that if a blackmailer demanded a sexy pic as payment from someone, this is the kind of face that the victim would make. What is going on in the film industry when it comes to female actresses?

Gunner said...

The best Buffy seasons were the first and second ones where she was rocking miniskirts and not too skinny.

eric said...

She can wear that around my house anytime she'd like.

Douglas B. Levene said...

I wish we had more fat shaming in the US. In China, it's de rigueur. Strangers will tell you you're fat. Friends will tell you your daughter or wife is too fat. Parents will hound their daughters for a few extra pounds. The result is that there aren't very many obese Chinese girls or women walking around, and lots of them, at all ages, with great figures. There are hardly any obese Chinese men, either.

Marcus said...

I think she is HOT in that photo. I like 'em skinny. No big asses. And I ain't a big tiddie man either.

Hostess: To me, the image suggests a woman afraid of but ready to submit to sex with a dominating man.'

And what's wrong with that? FFS, it's a POSE for the camera. So are you saying that in all womenkind, there are no women that want to be dominated by their men? It IS a common fantasy and played out, I assume.

THEOLDMAN

Darrell said...

She is posing in her Buffy face.
Because fans expect that, no matter how many other roles she has taken on.

FIDO said...

So are you saying that in all womenkind, there are no women that want to be dominated by their men? It IS a common fantasy and played out, I assume.


She isn't saying that no women want it. She is saying that no woman SHOULD want it and any man who wants to be that dominant man is essentially a proto-rapist.



Original Mike said...

Blogger Marcus said...”I think she is HOT in that photo. I like 'em skinny. No big asses. And I ain't a big tiddie man either.”

Yeah, I find the idea expressed in this thread that she is too thin or extremely thin or unhealthily thin to be bizarre.

Earnest Prole said...

Yeah, I find the idea expressed in this thread that she is too thin or extremely thin or unhealthily thin to be bizarre.

She’s unappetizing.

Scott M said...

So SMG has an image of what SHE HERSELF wants to look like. She has a strategy to maintain that image that SHE HERSELF wants to maintain with HER BODY. If she was calling on others not to overeat and using her own image to push that idea, then fine...go all internet arble-garble on her. However, she was making a CHOICE for HERSELF.

She should never have apologized.

Skippy Tisdale said...

Any one that knows me, knows I would never intentionally ‘shame’ any one on any basis. I am a champion of all people.”

Pedophiles breath a collective sigh of relief.

Molly said...

What's up with all the anorexia shaming on this post and comments? "Say it loud: Anorexic and proud."