I forget that people don’t know Melanie Lynskey is a New Zealander. Her American accent is so good, most haven’t heard her normal accent. So all of those just getting to know her through Yellowjackets have no idea that our Shauna is not ours at all. We only get her by marriage. But since her husband, Jason Ritter, is American royalty (John Ritter lineage), she’s kind of ours.
Anyway, because we’re claiming her, we’re going to clack a few heads together for Melanie as well. Especially because they won’t shut up about her body, apparently. Melanie said it was really important to her that she played her Yellowjackets character, Shauna, without any mention of weight. She wanted to be a sexually viable woman who didn’t talk about wishing she looked other than she did. And she got that. But we know now that it was a battle that Melanie fought as soon as she walked on set, with a member of the producing team shaming her. Unfortunately, the shaming didn’t end there. On Friday, author Ashley C. Ford, who is a big body positivity advocate, wrote in a since deleted tweet how annoyed she gets with people who shame her under the guise of being concerned about her health. Melanie responded that this has been her life since Yellowjackets aired:
The story of my life since Yellowjackets premiered. Most egregious are the “I care about her health!!” people…bitch you don’t see me on my Peleton! You don’t see me running through the park with my child. Skinny does not always equal healthy https://t.co/W2poMmsv1p
— Melanie Lynskey (@melanielynskey) January 29, 2022
I don’t know why Ashley deleted her initial tweet, but I’m worried it’s because she got flooded with concern-trolls and probably just regular old trolls. Melanie’s tweet took on a life of its own, though. Fortunately, most of the comments I saw were supportive. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels what Melanie is saying. People come in different shapes and sizes. We shouldn’t all have to have a perfectly flat mid-section to pass society’s purity test. And, as Melanie said, “skinny does not always equal healthy.” Sometimes it does. But sometimes skinny comes at a very high cost to the skinny person. And sometimes the person is not skinny but is still perfectly healthy. All of those scenarios, however, should be discussed between the person and their doctor. No one else needs add their “medical” concerns.
I also felt it when Melanie talked about being on her Peloton. I could up my cardio game, certainly, but I often meet my step goals and double them on the weekends. Menopause and my love of food, however, combats those steps. I’m not unhealthy, but I’m sure I don’t look the way certain spectators think I should. But because of efforts like Melanie, I’m starting to feel better about myself. I like watching characters that don’t have to answer for feeling good about themselves. Like Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu on Emily in Paris. Yes, she’s amazingly attractive, but her age and her sexiness in relation to her age wasn’t the point of her character. She just was. I say we need more confident and sexy female characters without needing a major plotline around the fact that they dare to feel good about themselves despite being larger than a size two or older than 30.
Melanie’s husband Jason also came out against the body shaming as well. And he did it by being supportive rather than patronizing. I’ll state again for the record – I love these two!
Photo credit: Instar Images, Avalon Red and Instagram
I want to say “IN WHAT WORLD is Melanie Lynskey considered FAT?!?” but then I remember the world we live in. This one…she’s considered fat in THIS world :eye roll: She is beautiful and healthy and I’m sorry she has to deal with this crap! Love her and her hubby!
Also really want to start watching Yellowjackets!
I don’t even get this, she looks like a totally average sized person?!
We’re talking about Hollywood. My guess is at least half (probably more) Hollywood actresses have severe eating disorders and/or starve themselves to keep looking slim. Hollywood actresses aren’t normal people skinny. They are 20 pounds less than that. The majority of the people I know in my personal life who lost a significant amount of weight did that in a very unhealthy way and are left with disordered eating patterns. Some people are skinny because of their eating, excercise and genes. Some people aren’t.
Christina Ricci is a perfect example of that, sadly. She was naturally a lot like Melanie Lynsky in the late 90s/early 00s. Then one day (I think it was Black Snake Moan) she was just a completely different person. I know she did what she had to have a career, but I’m a little sad every time I see her. She had such a unique beauty. Hollywood SUCKS!
But see, this is exactly what Melanie also criticizes. You don’t know why Christina Ricci is skinny, so why insinuate that she had to do it/is being forced to? Whether skinny or not, maybe we can just stop commenting on people’s weight and even more so, stop speculating whether they have eating disorders or some such.
(this also goes to the other comment. Don’t guess how. many actresses have eating disorders, it’s just as bad as calling actresses unhealthy because of their weight.
I didn’t speculate on whether she had an eating disorder or even come close to suggesting that. You’re right, though, I don’t know why she has a different face and body now than she did then. But I do know that Hollywood pressures women into being very skinny and very blonde. Christina Ricci went from dark-haired and curvy to skinny and blonde. While working in Hollywood. But sure, maybe there’s a completely unrelated reason having nothing to do with fucked up standards in Hollywood. In fact, let’s none of us comment on anything here at all because we’re not allowed to say Hollywood has fucked up standards that have obvious outcomes without being accused of body shaming for even mentioning those fucked up standards.
Mhm. Lynskey has discussed her own eating disorder in the past. She’s conspicuously not bringing it up now, but it’s right there in her remark “skinny does not equal healthy.”
@Lucille
I live in Hollywood and have worked in the industry, married to the industry and been around it for over 30 years. Yes. The women are super skinny. Big heads and super skinny bodies, (And they get called lollipops for this reason). Don’t ever buy into this thinking that there is ANYTHING healthy about the weight game in Hollywood. It’s the next me too of toxic abuse that causes health and mental health problems for years. It’s both hilarious and sad it’s not talked about more openly.
I totally agree. Often you see it happening before your very eyes. Young actresses starting out in a role that gets them attention, and they are beautiful and look like a healthy body weight. Which is already on the small side because if they look fit on screen they are probably 10+ pounds thinner in real life. Then a few years later they have started to disappear, getting thinner and thinner… good example: Emma Stone. Anna Kendrick. Kate Bosworth. And don’t tell me they “developed” into those bodies, or it happened naturally. They were advised or felt pressured to lose weight and they complied.
Jesus, the way her weight is being talked about, you would think she is obese. She is an average sized person, not skinny, but very far from fat.
I refuse to even comment on her body other than to point out the absurdity of body fashion trends. When I was first entering puberty we were in the last days of voluptuous being the desired body type. When Loni Anderson was the sexy one on the show. I was never voluptuous or svelte. Just average but I never craved being svelte. Never occurred to me to diet or excessively exercise. I envied the 90210 girls because they were so pretty but they weren’t skinnier than typical teens. They weren’t even teens at all. When did the world go off the rails like this?
It comes in cycles. I was a young kid when Twiggy burst on the scene, and even in my lower elem. school classes if you weren’t a “waif”, you were F-A-T. God forbid you spouted breasts bigger than buds going through puberty!!
Cycle into the 90s for the “Heroin Chic” of models like Kate Moss, again, the “strung out waif” look. If you weren’t looking like an underweight addict, you were F-A-T.
The only “good” model bodies in “recent” times, was the 80s “Super Model” bodies, athletic, toned and *slim*, but not wasted away skin and bones.
And God help the rest of us who didn’t fall into those “types”…we were made to feel like failures.
“I refuse to even comment on her body other than to point out the absurdity of body fashion trends.”
I endorse this, BettyRose. I don’t want to play those hateful commenters’ game, which is what I’d be doing if I said their conclusion was wrong. The gatekeeping of women’s bodies is positively frightening.
I encourage everyone to listen to the BMI episode of Maintenance Phase. Really eye-opening.
Co-sign this. Along with any of the other weight-related episodes (although all of them are good). I’d love if we could more to a less fat-phobic world, but if I’m throwing down wishes, we could also drop the “as long as you’re healthy” bit, too. I understand where it comes from, but honestly – no one owes us healthiness, either, and it’s a real slap in the face for people with chronic health or ability issues.
That podcast is delightful and wicked smart! I love it
My doctor mentioned my BMI last fall. I said to her, “The Prussian army of 1840 would be very glad to hear it.”
I do love MP.
YES. I cannot recommend this pod enough to *everyone* to understand institutionalized and their own individual anti-fat bias.
Wait. People are calling her fat? She’s probably a size 6-8 , so if you’re not a size 0 you’re fat?
When I was 14, I was 5’7” and weighed 121 pounds.. I was a size 36, your 4 in the USA. But I was 14 years old…Then I grew up and became a size 38 – USA 6…
Your hips change, your bone structure changes, you may not have an ounce of fat in your body, but you can’t cut your hips, and shoulders, and ribs… God…
I won’t even lie I’m a 29 year old female and I’m 5’2 and I gained a bunch of weight years ago and still haven’t lost it and am super depressed lately about my weight. Just super super down. It’s easy to get sucked out into the diet culture. Trying to be healthy and lose some weight. It’s hard. Sometimes I just think to myself just why. WHY
I absolutely love her as an actress and have always wished she and Megan Mullaly would work together. They have similar voices and it would be so fun.
Same!! I always thought they could be sisters, they look and sound SO similar!!
She looks like a regular, healthy person. I don’t understand why anyone is discussing her body in any way at all. Are people upset because she’s a regular looking person having an on screen affair that shows how desirable she is? I’m so flummoxed.
Yes. People who believe the reason they’re lovable is because they’re thin (or the reason they aren’t lovable is because they *aren’t* thin) get Big Mad when they see even a fictional depiction of someone else leading a full life.
“Health” includes mental health. While I *do* believe that, generally speaking, it is healthier to have a normal BMI than be overweight, it shouldn’t come at a cost to your mental health. And some women who are too thin for their body frame may have mental/emotional issues that are not being addressed, it’s not only overweight people who have “health” risks.
Melanie is SO GOOD in Yellowjackets…such a complex character whom she’s playing so well. I can’t say I love the show, because it is disturbing AF, but she’s great in it.
I have to point out, she said it was a “production team” member, not a “Producing team” member. They are very different.
From the way she discussed it, with the person asking if the producers would get her a trainer, I don’t think it was a producer. It was probably a costumer/hair/make-up, crew member. I keep seeing the phrase “Producer” instead of “production” on Celebitchy in regards to this story, and it is inaccurate.
What she said the person told her, copied from the 1/19/22 post:
“What do you plan to do? I’m sure the producers will get you a trainer. They’d love to help you with this.”
She’s right. Weight is simply not an indicator of overall health and concern trolling about it is so, so damaging. I’m fat AND very healthy, and been told off in comments on this site for even suggesting such a thing exists. Comments like “It’s just not healthy!” etc are why fat people delay seeking medical care and are told to just lose weight when they do. Stop that.
Hard agree!