The Message Of Jennifer's Body

Jennifer Lawrence's body -- her perfectly lovely, slender-but-not-rail-thin, able body -- is presenting more complications than it rightfully should. Whether it's Hollywood blogs referring to her as having "lingering baby fat" or as being "big-boned," or the New York Times simply stating that she didn't look "hungry enough" to play Katniss Everdeen, the resilient hardscrabble heroine of "The Hunger Games," all eyes are on Lawrence's body. And, predictably, critics of the critics were quick to jump in to point out the ludicrousness of essentially calling Lawrence too hefty to play Katniss.

I'm just as tired as the next film-loving feminist of seeing the beauty myth played out ad nauseam on screens big and small. But the story here is neither Lawrence's size nor even the Hollywood thin imperative, but rather why Lawrence was cast in the first place.

Read more on Salon