Ashley Judd Calls Media's Puffy-Face Controversy "Nasty, Gendered and Misogynistic"

Actress fires back after numerous outlets reported that she sought plastic surgery

By Bruna Nessif Apr 10, 2012 1:11 AMTags
Ashley JuddMichael Tran/WireImage.com; George Pimentel/WireImage

Things just got real.

Although Ashley Judd's camp told E! News that it was medication that caused the actress' face to appear puffy—instead of getting work done like many assumed—the Missing star took it upon herself to write a lengthy article on the Daily Beast about the whole ordeal.

"The Conversation about women's bodies exists largely outside of us, while it is also directed at (and marketed to) us, and used to define and control us," she wrote.

"The Conversation about women happens everywhere, publicly and privately. We are described and detailed, our faces and bodies analyzed and picked apart, our worth ascertained and ascribed based on the reduction of personhood to simple physical objectification."

Judd continues to explain that she has refused to read media articles related to her because, "I do not want to give my power, my self-esteem, or my autonomy, to any person, place, or thing outside myself. I thus abstain from all media about myself."

But when it came to the controversy over her unusually puffy face while promoting her new series, the actress felt that there were underlying issues that were too important to overlook and that the whole conversation was, "pointedly nasty, gendered, and misogynistic and embodies what all girls and women in our culture, to a greater or lesser degree, endure every day."

She begins by listing a brief analysis of five "conclusions" she made based on the reporting done surrounding her look, ranging from assumptions of getting plastic surgery to being called a "cow" when she became a size six, and calls out women who participate in "abusing" other females in similar ways.

"We are unable at times to identify ourselves as our own denigrating abusers, or as abusing other girls and women. A case in point is that this conversation was initially promulgated largely by women; a sad and disturbing fact...

"If this conversation about me is going to be had, I will do my part to insist that it is a feminist one, because it has been misogynistic from the start. Who makes the fantastic leap from being sick, or gaining some weight over the winter, to a conclusion of plastic surgery? Our culture, that's who. The insanity has to stop, because as focused on me as it appears to have been, it is about all girls and women."

Do you think Ashley Judd has a point? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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