Scarlett Johansson Speaks Out About Body Image & Tabloid Media

Sorted under body image, media on April 14, 2009

According to the National Eating Disorders Association, as many as 10 million females and 1 million males currently living in the United States are fighting a battle with an eating disorder; with statistics this high, the situation presents society with a decision to make. Keep going in the direction we are going, letting media falsify the bodies of the people we see in print or make a commitment to stop presenting people with impossible body standards that are not even possessed by the people themselves who we see in magazines and tabloids.

Society’s image of the “perfect body” is severely out of touch with reality and it is a fact that the media plays a huge role in the way people look at their bodies; it is a sad world that we live in where publications are looking at the amount of money to be made in the business of self-loathing. Luckily, more and more celebrities are coming out and speaking for themselves on the topic of body image and holding the media responsible for the damage they have caused and continue to cause with every magazine cover they plaster their bold yellow font of body-hatred on.

Scarlett Johansson recently published a piece on her experiences with body image and the media, after seeing herself in the pages of magazines and tabloids containing several claims that she has been on a strict workout routine regulated by co-stars, whipped into shape by trainers she has never met, eating sprouted grains she can’t pronounce, and ultimately losing 14 pounds off of her 5′3″ frame, which she said herself if she had lost 14 pounds she would have to part with both arms and a foot.

In response to all of the media claims that have been made in her name, Scarlett Johansson had a few words of response:

I’m frustrated with the irresponsibility of tabloid media who sell the public ideas about what we should look like and how we should get there.

I’m not normally the type to dignify toilet paper rags with a response, but in this case I feel it’s my responsibility to comment. In a way, I’m glad some dummy journalist (and I use the term “journalist” loosely) is banking on my “deflating” so that I can address the issue straight from my healthy heart.

I am so glad that Scarlett has chosen to speak out against the media that has been portraying her in a false light in order to cater to their usual form of publicizing the “perfect” body and profiting off of the self-loathing of people world-wide. More celebrities need to speak out against the media that uses them as fodder for their obscene profit margins; perhaps if more celebrities spoke out against the lies that have been spread in their name the media would finally see that it is not okay.



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  • stephanieslocum
    well, as they say, rotten tomatoes sometimes do get to spoil the good ones.....
  • Those tabloids don't know what they're talking about. Scarlett Johansson's body is perfect. She's got curves, she's not skin and bones, and for the first time in many years, we finally see an actress with "obvious" womanly body parts. Anyone who says she's fat and needs to work out more is crazy. Let her be, please. We don't need another anorexic woman in this world.
  • This is very inspiring. I'm always been a huge fan of hers.
  • I hate the way magazines lie about people's size/weight to sensationalise things that are barely a story! They make hideous claims if someone is pictured enjoying food sometimes it seems that its fashionable to praise them for eating one month and the next its popular to slam them... it's ridiculous
  • I definitely appreciate that there are at least some celebrities out there trying to make a difference in in the area of self-image and self-esteem. I'm worried for my baby daughter who will be raised in this media driven world of skinny and revealing is beauty. I hope that more celebrities stand up and encourage girls to love themselves and don't try to be "perfect" as the media wants them to be.
  • imo, i agree on johansson's comment... celebrities deserve respect.
  • I really like scarlett's POV.

    Thanks for this. She serves as an inspiration to all women.

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    http://www.jsws.com.au/web-design
  • We need more advocates in the public eye taking a stand like this. Great awareness-raising, both of you!
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