Face it, this rubbish must stop
RENEE Zellweger and Jennifer Aniston have a flipping good point: Seriously, why are we still talking about whether a woman has or hasn’t chosen to have something “done” to her face, and defining her by whether she’s a mother or trying to get there – and her age?
These and so many other common put-downs about women, but not about men, in the public eye just need to stop. Can that be too much to ask?
With the new Bridget Jones movie around the corner, attention has again turned to Zellweger, an actor who has made a point of having a few years out of the limelight to regroup.
Predictably, as soon as she put her head up for the interviews, the focus was again on her appearance and age.
Every actor over 35 routinely is asked about how she keeps her career going and how she keeps herself looking good (note: George Clooney, Harrison Ford and Hugh Grant are not) but a special scorn is reserved for Zellweger and Aniston – perhaps because neither are mothers and their careers are seen as “all she has”. Apparently, some would even like that taken away as punishment for not conforming with expectations of what a woman is.
Critics and gossips seem obsessed that in the 16 years since she first played the daffy ingenue Bridget, Renee the person has grown older. She has been, and continues to be, punished severely for this process that happens to everyone – but is ignored or even celebrated when it happens to prominent men.
For the record, I don’t want these ridiculous, superficial standards that women in public (and by extension all of us) are supposed to attain, maintain and be judged by, applied to men. I just want them finally to be removed from us. Because they don’t mean anything.
You might recall that after years away from public life writing and doing a scriptwriting course, when Zellweger made a rare appearance in 2014, commentators were aghast. “What has Renee Zellweger done to her face?”
In June this year, one film writer at the respected industry journal Variety had the gobsmacking audacity to ask: “Renee Zellweger: If she no longer looks like herself, has she become a different actress?” What a bloody stupid story angle.
Actors are expected to be the ultimate chameleons. For starters, that is kind of the point.
Zellweger suffered in silence when this rot started in 2014 but when it hotted up with the “different face, different actress” headline she decided to respond – not that she should have had to counter such trashy treatment.
She did so with dignity in a piece in an online newspaper, stating that although we have evolved to acknowledge the importance of female participation in determining the success of society generally, “the double standard used to diminish our contributions remains”. This is “perpetuated by the negative conversation which enters our consciousness every day as snark entertainment”.
She’s right, of course. There was nothing short of a feeding frenzy after Zellweger emerged looking – drum roll – older, in 2014.
In her latest magazine cover shoot, for The Hollywood Reporter, to promote Bridget Jones’s Baby, Zellweger looks bloody gorgeous, fit and 47 years old. That’s how old she is. Where is the scandal?
Faces change, especially when you lose weight, which the actor did after making each Bridget movie.
Bridget sports those loveable chipmunk cheeks; Renee is super lean and athletic. If you have ever gained and lost weight, you’ll have noticed those same changes in your own face.
The only reason I can think of for the general enthusiasm in picking at Zellweger’s face – which the actor felt compelled to say she had not chosen to alter with eye surgery, and at Jennifer Aniston’s marital or maternal status – is because it makes people unhappy with their own lives feel better to take someone seemingly more fortunate, down.
But in the case of both of these women, and others, it’s something beyond schadenfreude. It is done with actual glee. A cheap and lazy way to take successful women down is to focus on their physical flaws or other imagined imperfections – and it just reflects badly on the person doing it.
It looks like what it is – an attempt to keep women in their “place” by letting them know they are only relevant as long as they remain sexually attractive or attain the respected position of maternal stateswoman. It really is pathetic. And it’s beyond time to stop.
RENEE ZELLWEGER THE PERSON HAS GROWN OLDER. SHE HAS BEEN, AND CONTINUES TO BE, PUNISHED SEVERELY FOR THIS PROCESS THAT HAPPENS TO EVERYONE.