Christina Hendricks and Her Body

This is a really interesting piece on Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks and her body in this week’s issue of New York magazine.  Hendricks is probably the most visible mainstream celebrity who is notable for a body that defies the twiggy, super-skinny standards of attractiveness that most of the rest of Hollywood buys into:

You can see why all the focus on how big the chest, how narrow the waist, how round the hips could drive an actor—anyone—insane, but people were only noticing Christina Hendricks’s body because they were finally noticing Christina Hendricks…. And it’s not Hendricks’s fault that she’s come to everyone’s attention as an actress at a time when bodies are very much an issue—if not the issue—as far as fashion is concerned. There are the various attempts by fashion cities like São Paulo and Milan to police model weight; there are press conferences, BMI restrictions, mandatory turkey sandwiches backstage at every show. But lately there have also been baby steps taken toward the (unfortunately) radical idea that looking good need not involve so much rejection of the naturally occurring female shape.

I’m all about shattering societal norms of attractiveness, but I think the approach this article takes is a bit misleading.  The author criticizes the usual dialogue on bodies as “grotesque,” focusing on either extremely thin bodies or very fat ones (the article cites Gabourey Sidibe, the lead in the Academy Award-nominated film Precious), while suggesting that Hendricks is a sort of representative of a reasonable compromise, a “naturally occurring female shape.”

This is a misleading characterization.  There is nothing particularly “natural” about Hendricks’ body, which is a position the author even betrays by her language: “how big the chest, how narrow the waist, how round the hips.”  Her body is as much an idealized form as Sidibe’s or, say, Mischa Barton’s.  The fact of the matter is that there is no natural female body, no state of equilibrium that a woman’s figure magically falls into when she avoids excessive dieting or overeating.  A real step forward in the dialogue on bodies and body image will come when we stop privileging one body type over others, when we can have a conversation about bodies that includes Hendricks, Sidibe, and Barton and doesn’t see any of them as natural or grotesque.

–Aaron Bekemeyer