This topic interested me a lot to begin with because it is something I strongly believe in that women should never be judged for the way they look and think anyone is entitled to give there opinion based on how a woman looks and weather she has intelligence in her or not because that does not matter. Society has it based to be quick to judge on a women’s appearance and that is wrong on so many levels.

“We become nothing but our ‘defective’ parts.” Sounds horrible, doesn’t it? It speaks more truth that I thought possible though, because that is really what it is to other people and what we bring home to ourselves because of other people. And see our defective parts only refers to what’s on the surface, the stuff that other people can see. That it does not matter if you are smart, kind, intelligent, compassionate, empathetic, because you are a bit overweight or not as cute as other people, all that other stuff is completely ignored as if it didn’t even exist.

I work for an older woman, she tells me stories about her growing up, the places she has been, the people she has met. Today she asked me if I knew what the term ‘Blue Stocking Girls” meant. I had never heard of it and did not have a clue as to what it meant. She told me that when she went to a high school where you basically took one of two paths, the girls who were going to go to college and the girls who were not going and just had plans to get married after school. If you wanted to go to college, you were called a Blue Stocking Girl, because that meant that you did not care at all what your image was like, you were deemed to be called ugly just because you wanted more for yourself. It did not matter if you actually were not ugly or that you had not let go of yourself, it was more that you thought education was more important than image, and that was weird.

Women can’t have it all right? You can’t be smart and pretty. You are either normal or a Blue Stocking Girl.

I believe Ashely Judd was completely in the right in her response to the critiques on her appearance. However, being in the acting industry, you are continuously critiqued on little things. Opportunities are lost because your hair is brown instead of blonde, or the opportunity is gained by being 6’2″ instead of 5’10” like the other guy. The Hollywood people are known for critiquing for the littlest things, and they do not focus on one gender. Men and women are equally judged in the movie industry. Adam Sandler was always critiqued for having a large, egg-shaped head and curly hair, but he did not seem to care much, he just ran with it. My point in the end is: a person should not be critiqued about gaining a little weight or aging a few years, but people on the receiving end of the critiquing should not carry it on their shoulders because the person doing the critiquing does not have an ounce of relevance.

Your response to a comment above, “Maybe because historically men could gain status and esteem from things other than looks. But women couldn’t so much, until very recently” was something I hadn’t thought of as a reason why media exaggerates and focuses in on women’s looks so much. It makes sense, because women have been oppressed for so long on what they were allowed to do, that a lot of their worth was put on how they looked in both dress and body shape. As time has gone on, we have gotten more rights as women but that initial worth of “beauty”–whatever that may look like depending on one’s cultural standards of beauty–still lingers. I sure hope as time goes on, women and even men, will be less judged for their looks because it is character and ability and kindness that counts.

I especially love the sentence “Our voices, our personhood, our potential and our accomplishments are regularly minimized and muted”. I find the body image of a woman is really over-emphasized by others, which makes the effort on other aspects powerless and useless. I never agree that the body images of women are worth more than their personhood. I feel Ashley Judd is really a wise woman. She is confident, independent and beautiful with her elegant smile. Women are objectified and degraded by the society, and in many countries, they are not even aware of that. Girls should raise their heads and appreciate their kindness, wisdom, and sensitiveness. And girls should take care of themselves, work hard, eat healthily, sleep well, and exercise regularly. It’s time indeed to have some new conversations!

I have to agree with this post. It is very sad how appearances matter more than internal qualities. It is so frustrating that instead of criticizing or praising her for role in the T.V. show, what its more important in our society and media is her looks. She was very strong in standing up for herself and defending her beliefs especially in her profession where she is constantly demanded to physically portray what is unattainable to most normal women. I can also respect her dignity in staying the way she is and not changing herself just to appease the critics to have their approval. She definitely makes a great point to others; we have to learn to value ourselves based on our own standards not what our crazy and superficial society wants. This however is very difficult to do and practice because since we were little we learn that appearances were very important and we must present and behave in a certain way to be loved, respected, etc.

In my opinion, appearance and physical appearance regard as one of advantages of women in today’s society. Some people say “person shouldn’t be judged by their looking.” But ironically most of people do so. Women’s appearance also influences their job opportunities. For example in my country, a stewardess, news caster, weathercaster, secretary or woman who actives in public, representative from company, or seen by majority in society “need” to be beautiful women. Actually I’ve never seen those who are working this kind of jobs are not beauties. Thus, women who are good looking have more opportunities to have “exposed” job. Also, personally I think most of men who are high-social class or rich have beautiful wife or they date with beautiful women. Although we believe that “true beauty” comes from inside of heart, one’s personality, what we come up with someone’s impression at first sight is always their “looking”. Since people care about it, most of women start to care about their appearance, talk or criticize about other’s looking. But how boring is it? If all people become care about how we look only someday, what happens? Today’s technology of surgery is so developed and people can do surgery on their face or body easier than the past. Since surgery became common nowadays, many people become don’t hesitate or think it in negative way anymore. Let’s say all women in the world become beauty one day. Then how people judge women? We may notice what we care about is just empty and ridiculous. Important thing is go back to origin, try to see person’s inside. Having good looking is of course good thing and it’s one of advantages. But everyone have to notice that people are not only consist of looking, but they consist of personality, heart and inside which comes from within. But I don’t think people who judge someone by looking should be criticized, because what made people like this is our society. So we have to start to change this tendency.

I can’t agree more with Ashley’s statements. I’m glad to find that famous women who are actress’ are aware of these problems and care about them. I also like that she spoke out against these issues that we all seem to face as women. Society really does seem to only care the little things, like how we look or act. What should really matter is our intelligence and what we can actually do as people, not get stuck on our appearances. I wish more actress’ would speak out about this issue and act on it to help our culture as a whole realize that looks aren’t everything.

I love this post because it relates to the biggest problem I view in society concerning women – they are constantly judged solely on their looks and are pressured with beauty ideals that are impossible to attain. Social media is the main culprit in creating these false illusions, and other societal influences play a role as well. However, women should take responsibility for themselves. Yes we are scrutinized by all and especially demeaned by the overall objectification that underlies most of our relationships with men. That is why it’s necessary for women to build their confidence and pride not based on their looks but more substantive and meaningful pursuits. Most importantly, women should speak up against instead of being passive or even worse, submitting to the oppression.

What was most interesting about this particular quotes is that she never once discussed the need for a broader definition of beauty, of explaining that aging is a part of life, etc. While these are both important issues, the one Judd made created much more of an impact– stop valuing women for their looks and only their looks. If society were to shift its value system to appreciating women for their intellect, creativity, empathy, etc, it would eventually eliminate the need for a beauty standard and men and women would approach a more equal playing field.

I find this statement brave of Ashley Judd to post, she is surely going to get backlash for her comments; but she chose to give them anyway. What she says is in many ways the absolute truth, women are constantly praised or condemned for their physical appearance, so much so that like, Mrs. Judd stated: “Our voices, our personhood, our potential, and our accomplishments are regularly minimized and muted.” This hooplah over what the woman is wearing, her makeup, how much weight she has gained/lost detracts from whatever that woman is trying to accomplish, particularly, women in the public eye. As mentioned in class, growing up in American society certainly makes you feel like this scrutiny normal, appropriate and just “the way it is;” the fact is though–it doesn’t have to be. This criticism is detrimental to women’s self-esteem, I imagine it doesn’t feel good to be called ‘fat’ and ‘ugly’ all the time, and surely, while being called beautiful all the time might seem great, I have a feeling it may cause problems later in life. As we all know “beauty” fades, and if “being beautiful” becomes the only way a woman defines herself or prides herself with, it can be a hard reality to face when she ages. I think to focus on the many other qualities women have (intelligence? humor? drive?) will change the way women feel about themselves and the way society views women. I really enjoyed this post!

Our society today has women consumed by weight and aging. Women of all ages are struggling to reach an impossible and unhealthy weight, by doing so the women have internalized this belief. We think we are going to reach this miracle goal and by reaching so we become more valuable. We believe men will value us more and we will be more worthy of the world. I believe that beauty comes from within and nothing physical and on the outside can determine beauty. I hope women will read Ashley Judd’s words and take her words internalize them and identify with them. Reading her argument and many others like it make me feel empowered. I feel as if women everywhere have the ability to determine their beauty and need to realize the surface is just that, surface.

Our society has grown into a society where what you wear can have a statement to it. Wherever you go, you will get judged for it. You won’t have a say to it and most of the time, you would not know who is speaking it. It is wrong to judge someone based on their “cover,” but most people can’t help it. This creates a problem because with all the female celebrities trying their hardest to be “thin” and “fit”, it makes the audience want to be just like them do that they can feel beautiful. They created such a huge impact on the world, most girls would do just about anything to feel like that.

I believe that beauty comes from within. Your exterior look may say one thing, but what’s inside is what counts more. I believe that your personality will define whether or not you are a good person. Looks can be deceiving, a bad personality can make a pretty person look ugly to you. Everyone and everything will always be judged. No one should have to feel low just because they don’t look a certain way. Everyone should love themselves and their bodies and be happy for who they are. Appreciate what they have even if it is not that much. Overall, you should not take anything for granted.