Broken Idols —
See that lady up there?
The one giving you the good ol’ one-finger salute?
That’s Carrie Fisher, better known as Princess Leia, and she’s a personal hero of mine. Why? Because after a years of hearing the juvenile disappointment of inconsiderate, ass-hattish fans who think her main job is to be a nerd’s permanent sex symbol, she wrote this incredibly powerful blog post. It’s about how the medications she takes to cope with mental illness and stress, along with comfort eating, have contributed to the increase in her weight. But rather than announce her plans to join a weight loss program to appease her disappointed fans, she told them this:
I’d like to take this opportunity to offer this quasi poignant explanation & to say to those of you I’ve visually offended…… from the bottom of my heart encased in fat——-
BLOW MY BIG BOVINE tiny dancer COCK!
This led to an explosion of media attention that lead to headlines like this one: “Carrie Fisher goes crazy in weighty blog post: ‘Blow my bovine c-k!’”
Nevermind the fact that they completely shit on her admittedly fragile mental health, the implication is that if you get pissed when people make rude and inappropriate comments about your weight, then you must be craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy.
So, when I began searching for “representatives” of the Fierce, Freethinking Fatty mentality, she was the first person I thought of.
Sadly, Carrie recently announced that she would be joining the Army of the Living Star-ved (do my little word-play a favor and rhyme that with “dead”).
Yes, Fisher is the “new face” of Jenny Craig:
Adding to her humiliation were comments from bloggers. “I look on the Internet and they say, ‘Whatever happened to Carrie Fisher? She used to be so hot and now she looks like Elton John,’ ” she recalls. “I was really hurt.”
But now Fisher has reason to be hopeful: Since joining Jenny Craig in late November, she has shed 12 lbs. by eating only plan-approved meals and getting back to exercising five days a week.
Here’s the thing: as I’ve said countless times, I completely understand why she’s doing this. If the success of your career, if the amount of money you are capable of making, is dependent upon your weight (and that is exactly what agents and promoters tell their clients), then the incentive to pursue weight loss, even to the detriment of your health, is strong.
Add to that the financial incentives of becoming the spokesperson for Jenny Craig, and I really don’t hold it against Carrie. If she’s not aware of Health at Every Size, then being paid to lose weight has got to seem like a pretty sweet deal.
Personally, I thought Fisher was above it, but as Tom Lehrer says,
It’s so nice to have integrity, I’ll tell you why
If you really have integrity, it means your price is very high
So, I’m not mad at Carrie and I don’t think she’s a horrible person in the least. At most, I’ll pull out that old parental chestnut: I’m disappointed.
So, here’s my question for you: what do we do about it?
I don’t mean, “Should we go rescue Carrie from Jenny Craig compound?”
I mean, should we leave her picture in place above, considering she’s not shilling for Jenny Craig.
As with all major decisions, I leave it to you:
For many months I have been looking at that picture and thinking it was a pic of Tracy Ulman… ! Then I’d look again and say, wait, that’s not Tracy- who the hell is it?? Maybe it’s Sharon Ozbourne during a lighter-haired phase a few years ago…
I would have never guessed it was Carrie Fisher. Even KNOWING it’s Carrie now, I can hardly believe that’s her. It is either a very doctored, older picture from a (very brief) time when she had a *really* different hairstyle/look, or…. well, whatever.
To be honest, I have issues with Carrie; don’t care for her much .
Wow, this is a tough one. I saw Carrie in Wishful Drinking and LOVED it. I especially loved the fact that she seemed unapologetic about her curves, and honestly I was more concerned about her chain smoking cigarettes than her waistline! (Talk about HAES (sm).
And I’m also a huuuuge Tom Lehrer fan…(that has nothing to do with anything, just saying)
So, I am going the route of saying, this is your fabulous website and what ever you decide to do is great with me. I love your democratic approach and the fact you are addressing the problem, but when all is said and done, I am giving you my vote for all of the work you do on this website day in and day out. I’m sorry she and Kirstie, and all of the other actresses have had to go the diet route to make money… and then they gain it back and then fade into oblivion…it’s a sad cycle.
I cannot pass judgment on what people do with their own lives; the only thing that matters to me is if they try to tell me what to do with mine. If she’s not a shill, I say leave it.
The thing that I find most distressing about all of this is that it’s her body and she has a right to do whatever she wants with it, whether we like it or not - that’s why we’re fighting for bodily autonomy for everyone. Yes, she’s bought the Fantasy of Being Thin, but what can you expect when her livelihood depends on her meeting Hollywood’s unrealistic expectations?
We know how hard it is for us to tell everyone to go to hell when they tell us we need to be thin - from our families to our doctors to perfect strangers on the street. How much harder is it for someone who was thin at one time, had the adulation of fans/agents/directors/etc and lost all of that when she got fat (well, fatter than Hollywood wants its stars to be, anyway)? Is it any wonder that she caved and wants to get back what she lost when she gained weight? Who are we to say she’s not fit to be a role model for this community? As far as I’m concerned, she’s a perfect example of what we face every fucking day of our lives and that she couldn’t be staunch in the face of all that condemnation makes me more determined to keep fighting for all of us.
I have always admired Carrie Fisher, regardless of her weight or her mental state, because through it all, she has never lost her sense of humor. But I have to agree with Fat@54, as I saw Carrie on a TV blurb recently for an appearance on an upcoming talk show, and she doesn’t look like herself anymore. Of course she can do whatever she wants with her face or her body, and getting paid to lose weight for awhile maybe doesn’t seem like a bad way to make a quick buck, even though we all know she’ll probably gain it back eventually anyway. And if she truly feels better in her new body/face, then good for her. It just made me incredibly sad to see one more of my favorite people succumb to the whole “appearance is all that matters” frame of mind. We all know Hollywood is a cruel place for aging actresses, but man, Carrie was always so cute and perky, with a curmodgeonly attitude that just cracked me up. Now she looks like just another Hollywood gargoyle, and it breaks my heart. Honestly, I didn’t notice if she’d lost weight.
It’s her life. As long as she’s not shouting at me to go around changing mine (which, from the few blog posts I’ve read, she seems not to be doing), it’s fine to leave her where she is for me. After all, that blog post STILL rocks!
My issues with Carrie Fisher stem from what I perceive as her “trading on” her faults and fuckups, instead of working to regain and retain her status as a working actress. There may not be a whole slew of ‘em, but there ARE working actresses who are larger than a size 5, or 8 or 16. There ARE working actresses who have addiction and emotional problems, as well.
But Carrie instead chose to make a (sad and desperate) career out of parading her mother/daughter relationship issues, her man-issues, her weight, her alcoholism and her mental health shortcomings.
Sure, she kept up the sharp sarcasm and depreciating humor… but because it was so obviously a defense mechanism, as well as how she really felt about herself, it never really seemed funny (to me, anyway).
I guess I could wrap it all up in one question;
Can you think of anything (at all) Carrie Fisher did, as an actress, since Star Wars?? (her one-woman show, tell-all books and other self-exposing efforts don’t count). I can’t.
Honestly? I don’t hate her, I don’t even dislike her — I just feel a deep sense of pity and sorrow for her. She is nowhere NEAR accepting herself as she is, embracing it all, and enjoying life… Her latest Jenny Craig spokeswoman job doesn’t surprise me at all.
I had no idea that your blog featured a picture of Carrie Fisher. Actually, I always wondered what a clearly “normal” (pardon the word, I just can’t find another one so I put it in quotation marks) weight person was doing on the masthead of a fat acceptance blog.
I’m sorry that she’s shilling for Jennie Craig now. She must need the money.
As far as what to do goes, why don’t you feature the faces or avatars of the FFF collective?