Is ‘Full-Figured’ an Insult?

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As opposed to, for example, “Holy kamoley, look at the incredible size of the ginormous hooters on that redhead“?

Mad Men star Christina Hendricks has slammed a reporter for being rude after she was asked whether she has inspired other women with her ‘full figure’.
The 37-year-old TV star was offended when asked about her curvy shape, getting her publicist to ask the journalist to rephrase her question. . . .
Kate [Waterhouse, fashion editor for Sydney’s Sun-Herald newspaper] asked: ‘You have been an inspiration as a full-figured woman. What is the most inspiring story that you can remember where you’ve inspired someone?’
Seeming a little flustered at the question, Christina replied: ‘Um, I don’t know… I’m sorry.’ . . .
According to E! Online, Christina later said off-camera, ‘I think calling me full-figured is just rude.’

(Via WeSmirch.) Obviously, the fashion editor meant to praise the famously curvaceous Ms. Hendricks as having served as a sort of celebrity role model for women whose shape doesn’t match the usual skin-and-bones fashion-industry standard of beauty. 

Furthermore, I think “full-figured” is both reasonably accurate and far less rude than some terms that might have been used if any of Ms. Hendricks’s male fans — and c’mon, guys, we’re all fans, aren’t we? — were given a chance to interview her.

In other celebrity news (also via WeSmirch), the most unusual couple in Hollywood keep pushing the “creeptastic” threshold:

The teen bride, who was 17 when they filmed the show, and her 52-year-old husband Doug Hutchison were the first couple introduced on the premiere episode [of VH1’s Couples Therapy 2].
“I call him ‘Dad’ instead of ‘Doug’ sometimes,” [Courtney] Stodden purred . . . with Doug creepily adding “See, this is the thing … I’m raising my wife!”
And while he may have a very young, scantily clad wife, Doug admits it’s taken a toll on her relationships — both personal and professional.
“I got death threats … my agent dropped me, my manager said marrying Courtney was like taking a gun and shooting my career in the head,” he says.

You can read the whole freaky thing at one of those catty gossip blogs that would never say anything pejorative about gay celebrities, while heaping scorn on the Hutchison-Stodden marriage. It was the tabloid-bloggers’ hateful reaction to this (entirely legal, if admittedly weird) marriage that inspired me to defend them — I actually did a phone interview with Courtney’s mother — despite the widespread suspicion that the whole thing was just a publicity stunt aimed at landing themselves a reality-show gig.

Look, if “Honey Boo Boo Child” can have a reality show, we’re already wwaaaayy down the slippery slope, and the 35-year age gap in the Hutchison-Stodden marriage is actually much less than the age gap between Hugh Hefner and some of his bunny “girlfriends.” And, as I say, the outraged reaction at the legal marriage of Hollywood’s most notorious newlyweds must be compared to the coverage of certain other celebrity nuptials of which no chicken sandwich restaurant owner can be permitted to express disapproval.

Finally, I remind you: Courtney Stodden says she’s a Republican.

UPDATE: Reaction from a military wife living abroad:

Seriously: If that show isn’t a crime, we need to pass a law that would criminalize it. I doubt even the most radical ACLU types would dare to defend “Honey Boo Boo” as protected First Amendment free speech. Liberals who aren’t offended by the most extreme works of Andres Serrano and Robert Mapplethorpe are completely grossed out by “Honey Boo Boo.”

 

 


55 comments

  1. “…getting her publicist to ask the journalist to rephrase her question…”

    Wait, what? Was Hendricks gagged? Did a cat get her tongue? I’m assuming her mouth works. Would that be wrong?

  5. One must point out that no less an authority than Snoop Dogg has pronounced the physical attributes of a candidate’s spouse as electoral criteria.

  6. Someone should remind Ms. Hendricks that Jane Russell reveled in her full-figure, back when I was an impressionable lad watching her pitch women’s undergarments on television. “Hubba-hubba” indeed.

  10. If Christina Hendricks say’s calling her full figured is rude, then it’s rude, for that matter if she says the sky is green then it is.

  15. I don’t know if they used the expression “full-figure” in Russell’s day, but today it means a big size. I don’t think Hendricks would have been the least bit offended if they had used the word “voluptuous” instead. And that would have been more accurate.

  20. I’d like to interview her… really hard, and then interview her again.

    (I guess that would be rude of me if I told her that in person, though.)

  25. ‘You have been an inspiration as a full-figured woman. What is the most inspiring story that you can remember where you’ve inspired someone?’
    Stacy, you’ve been an inspiration as a short, well-endowed man……..
    Ok, you’re the interviewer. You might even comment that men, including yourself, find her voluptuously gorgeous if you were asking the questions (while trying desperately to maintain eye contact).
    But as a investigative journalist, how about coming up with how you’ve inspired as a short dude instead. It’s a foolish question defining the person by physical attributes instead of their talent in an industry where you’re discriminated against if you’re Delta Burke gorgeous, full-figured. . .

  27. Full-figured is one of those phrases that has been debased with modern use. Too many fashion ads have used it as a euphemism for large, heavy and/or, let’s face it, fat, and I say that as someone who dimples the gravity well pretty good myself.

    We’ve gone from where the only acknowledged looks in fashion are Kate Moss and Rosie O, with no real middle ground.

  29. I’m going to second those who commented that “full-figured” has come to mean “fat”.

    Of course when one starts talking about Ms. Hendricks’ figure, all I can think of is Mal in Firefly and “Woah, good bible.”

  35. Sadly, the Left has also hijacked the term ‘voluptuous’, so that it covers obese, as well.

    But that post-modern meaning and the one ascribed to ‘full-figured’ [see my comment above] are not how it is defined by Rule 5 – at that is all that matters.

  36. I can’t tell you how many pics of women with beautiful faces I have had to reject for my Rule 5 postings because they possessed bodies that looked like they were addicted to heroin or looked like fourteen-year-old boys from the abdomen downwards.

    [I denounce myself as a raaaaacist for using the term ‘boys’ while living in the same country as Barry Soetoro Marshall-Davis Obama!]

  37. That’s what the world has come to mean thanks to the Left. I refuse to accept their distortion of the language!

    First they came for the word ‘gay’ and I said nothing…

  41. Yes, they darned well did refer to Jane Russell as “Full figured.” Every 13-year old boy knew what that meant, too. “Fat” it was not.

  44. Thank you, Bob!

    Now if we can reclaim the word “diversity” so it no longer means, “whites and Asians need not apply,” then we’d be on a roll.

  45. Hey, some of those anime characters have quite a rack. Too bad they’re mostly below the age of consent. 🙁

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