A few months ago, we appeared on GMA Now and right here on the HuffPo to talk about the crazy story of size 2 Jennifer Love Hewitt being called fat. We were thrilled to see Jennifer stand up for herself and her body, but also furious that she was put in a position where she needed to defend her beautiful, curvy and natural body. She is gorgeous and healthy and we all know that most women out there would kill to have her body, slight imperfections and all. And it was important for Jennifer to remind the tabloids that by calling her fat, they were setting up millions of young women for a lifetime of eating disorders, body image issues, and thoughts like, "If that beautiful, thin celebrity is fat, then what am I??"
Suddenly, though, things have changed. It seems that Jennifer's skin isn't as thick as we had hoped, and like most women would, she took those nasty comments to heart. Anyone who thinks that beautiful women don't share the same insecurities as everyone else is wrong, and here's proof. Just a few months after J-Love defended her body to the world, she is on the cover of magazines talking about how excited she is to be eighteen pounds skinnier. Look, we're not judging her for losing weight. We know that there are all kinds of reasons she may have dropped eighteen pounds - for a role, her wedding, or some sort of stomach illness for all we know. It's none of our business how or why she lost weight. What we're upset about, though, is the way she is advertising this weight loss. She went from publicly defending her curvy body to making a public statement that skinnier is better.
It's articles like this one that perpetuate the vicious dieting cycle, because they make women feel like they're never good enough. Now, women who are heavier than Jennifer was back in that swimsuit are made to feel even worse about their bodies by seeing that, in fact, the size 2 wasn't even good enough. And because of Jennifer's flip-flopping, girls who do look like she used to now have to look at her tiny frame in that purple dress and think, "I guess that's my new goal."
Honestly, we don't completely blame Jennifer. We know that it's hard to be scrutinized and have the thing you're most insecure about - your body - criticized openly. We just want to take whatever voice we have to say to you that skinnier is not necessarily better. Losing eighteen pounds will not make you love yourself more in and of itself. Being healthy, treating your body well, and allowing yourself to experience pleasure are the only ways to truly feel good about yourself. While some people have accused us of propagating standard beauty myths, we do not define a Hot Chick as any particular size or shape. Our definition follows, and as you read it, think about which Jennifer Love Hewitt was actually hotter - the curvy and confident one who claimed to love her body, or the new smaller version, who likes herself better skinnier.
Hot Chick: A confident woman. She knows what she wants and gets it. She is aware of her flaws, but she doesn't obsess over them and instead thinks that maybe (just maybe) they actually add to her unique beauty. She is passionate. She loves life. She is comfortable in her own skin and owns her sexuality, but uses it purely for good. She does not see other women as her enemy and competes only with herself to do her best at all times and to be her best at all times. She is forthright, honest, disarmingly herself and tries to be no one else. She is having fun and she is sexy and you just want to be around her to soak up some of those good vibes. She isn't perfect, but she doesn't care because she is hot. And so are you.