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Health magazine features teen queen Hilary Duff on the cover for it’s November issue. Before I get into what Duff discusses in the article, I must throw out a Full Disclosure: I love Hilary Duff. I own both The Lizzie McGuire Movie and the soundtrack.
Now, from its title, we can presume this is a magazine that is focused on health, though I can’t actually corroborate that because I’ve never read it in print (the tagline of the magazine is “Vital information with a human touch.”) It’s clearly less popular than Self or Women’s Health or Shape, all of which aim to attract the same general demographics (women, mostly young, who work out a lot). But it is this Duff interview that is getting Health more publicity than it’s probably had for a long time. In between mundane questions, Duff says:
“I got pretty skinny when I was between 17 and 19. I don’t know what exactly made me get on that kick, but at the time I was starting to become aware of what people said about me …
… and how I looked in pictures. I literally ate nothing but steamed vegetables and broiled or grilled chicken, with nothing else. I was touring at the time, traveling everywhere, and I felt so run down. Not giving your body enough of what it needs is really dangerous. I regret it because I don’t think I was happy then.”
Her quotes about the scrutiny she faced about her body as a teenager while in the public eye are equally frustrating:
“It sucked. I was 16 and my body was still changing and people would say I was too heavy. And then I would lose weight and my face would get skinny and people would say I had done something to my face and that I was too skinny. It must have been really hard because I’ve blocked it out a little.”
But the emphasis here, whether Duff realizes it or not, is that a woman is never really the right size for anyone, especially one who is in the public eye.
Hilary, it’s awesome to hear that you snapped out of a period in your life when you were unhappy; there was a time when you did look really, really small. But this interview isn’t helping the issue. The title of the piece is “Hilary Duff’s Happy, Healthy New Shape,” — the emphasis is on “new.” With questions like “You seem comfortable in your own skin now. What’s the key to body confidence?”, the magazine is continuing to promote an agenda completely about bettering the female form to some idealized vision. The interviewer constantly emphasizes being the “right” size, and moderating ones diet.
Are we in an age of “moderation”? Once upon a time, fat women were considered the societal body ideal, because it indicated they were wealthy enough to eat well (just check out works by Peter Paul Rubens, who has left us with the term “rubenesque” for a very curvy woman). Slowly over the past hundred or more years, a very thin body has come back into style. But even when discussing having a healthy body, a magazine like Health wants us to idealize Duff’s form, while convincing us we should and can strive for it. They aim to make us feel as though Duff is “just like us,” with questions about what her guilty-pleasure foods are (“cheese…healthy things with a high fat content”), and be comforted by the fact that even for Duff, workouts are “a constant battle.” But at the end of the day, doesn’t it seem like they’re telling us we’re still never good enough the way we are?
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It’s always a “new” shape. Never the current shape that she’s been in for a few years and is super happy with, saying it’s new makes it sexier or something. And yes, I agree that they’re always pushing women to get better/tighter/sexier/hotter bodies.
Firstly I adore her shirt, I want it and it is taunting me with my utter brokeness.
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I hate the argument that fat women were once the ideal because it wasn’t that they were fat, it was because they were rich, is that really the ideal you want that only rich women are attractive?
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I encourage people to be healthy, I don’t give a damn what your pant size is but it is horrifying to me at school when I see people walk down flat hallways panting for breath, when supposedly able bodied people wait 10 minutes for the handicap elevator instead of going up/down a few flights of stairs. I fully support loving your personality, but I can’t encourage people in sheer unhealthy obesity and go ahead and get mad, if you’re that overweight/undermuscled it’s not like you can catch me when I flee.
I am really surprised by this article/blog. I guess I just looked at the big picture. I read the article and was very impressed by her being truthful about her struggles.
And the constant battle, is probably the issue of finding time to work out along with desire etc.
‘New’ draws attention. why do you think sometimes headlines have nothing to do with the article? I don’t see the problem with it. It’s not the most awful thing. Or the new is talking about the fact she changed her workout anyhoo …they don’t have to make her just like us. She is just like us who has dealt with her own issues whatever they are and overcome it.
She might have just realizes that there is no right size for others but there is the right size FOR her. I don’t see anywhere where she talks about making others, media, public happy. Only about feeling good, powerful and fit.
The point isn’t to get you to have her body but you got to admit it is not a bad message to send that you can be healthy and still eat some good food.
I don’t know this magazine. It sounds newer but Self has had celebs photoshopped pretty badly and had controversy (calling the cover star a role model and then pshopping her) and Shape with Leanne Rhimes. I certainly don’t consider this magazine worse than them.
I just think a lot of not credible words/interpretations have been put into the celeb’s words and the article’s intentions in this blog by the writer to produce this post.
I know from other blogs (or from Celebrity Blogs- mainly JustJared) that Hillary was often seen coming out of the gym. Almost daily. I think she works hard for her body and that she is obviously very healthy and choosing to maintain her body with exercise and eating a decent diet. I’m all for it.