And her body is nobody's business but hers.

Is that true for people in the public eye?

Yes. Unequivocally. I'm not sure how, because someone is in the public eye, their body is anyone else's business. It's that person's body. Not mine. Not yours. Not anyone else's. We don't actually own that person, despite paying (in some form or another) for the product that person helps create (TV, movies, advertisements).

Her body. Her business.

I apologize. You are right that that phrasing is offensive and unnecessary. I succumbed to a popular phrase that, in retrospect, I do not think is fair.

I do not know if Lea Michele has an eating disorder, as I do not know her personally (and sometimes you don't even know then). I can tell, however, that she's lost a significant amount of weight since she was on Broadway - and this is a woman who probably weighed less than 100 pounds then. I suspect, though I am admittedly unsure, that this is a decision she has made (to eat less, work with a personal trainer, whatever) and not based on other factors such as stress. I don't know if that's entirely her decision or one encouraged by her agent / the show's producer's / the Hollywood life in general, but I personally find her current appearance to be significantly less attractive than before - as le nubian stated, I think it makes her look unhealthy. In fact, she's almost certainly severely underweight, which IS unhealthy. If her current weight is intentional, I think it's a bad medical decision, and I am sad that she (or the people around her) think that it is necessary. If it is unintentional, due to metabolism and stress, etc, then I think she needs to try to correct it as best she can. Unfortunately, her support system is probably not designed to help her gain weight - that's not the Hollywood way.

I think it's important to try to make it clear that I, for one, do not support the Hollywood culture of taking attractive young women and convincing them they need to be a size negative 8 to make it. There are body types that are attractive beyond Twiggy. And because I am invested both in Lea Michele and Rachel Berry, I wish I had a way, beyond posting on the internet, to make it clear that I don't think that look works for her.

Steph,

So we can comment on other parts of a person but not their body? I don't get your larger point. Would you make it clearer?

So we can comment on other parts of a person but not their body? I don't get your larger point. Would you make it clearer?

I'm not sure I can be clearer than to say that someone else's body is their business. It is not my place, or yours, or anyone else's, to decide that someone who is thin and/or appears to have lost weight should "eat a sandwich."

Let me ask you a question: it seems that you think it's okay to police other people's bodies, or at the very least, police the bodies of those in the public eye. Is that correct? Do you think that, and if so, why?

Steph, if, instead of the flip sandwich comment, Gris had said, "She looks so thin now that she looks unhealthy," is that the same thing to you?

Steph, if, instead of the flip sandwich comment, Gris had said, "She looks so thin now that she looks unhealthy," is that the same thing to you?

Eh, I still feel that, unless we know she really is unhealthy by medical standards, then why is it our judgment call?

What if he had just said "Wow, so-and-so's weight loss is kind of shocking?" as opposed to "eat a sandwich?" Because I have definitely had that thought about some actresses, especially if I haven't seen them for a while, but I'm not, consciously at least, trying to be the boss of them. Despite our parasocial relationship that I learned about on HBO this week.

I'm a feminist so of course I fundamentally believe we have control over our own bodies.

So what I don't understand is why your emphasis is on bodies and not behavior, personality, etc. By definition we as human beings control. We live by rules and what is considered "socially acceptable." So why is your emphasis on a body and not other aspects of a person? All kinds of negative stuff gets posted about people around here and I haven't seen this kind of strong negative reaction so I'm wondering why this pinged.

Or is it the phrasing? Would you have preferred that the comment be: "she looks a little thin" to me.

You use the term "police" and I am not sure how making a comment about a public figure is policing said public figure when there is no indication she will ever read what is posted. This cuts all ways. I saw comments about John Goodman 10 years ago that he looked very unhealthy. And I would agree with that.

I guess I'm trying to figure out where the line is, because we do judge the looks of actors all the time. If we say, "he put on some muscle and now he looks hot" it's the other end of the spectrum (male, a complement) but still a judgment call on looks. We could also say, "he put on some muscle and now he looks hot, but it's got to be steroids," and then we're inferring something, not just asserting a personal preference for what's attractive.

By saying she looked too thin, I did not truly intend to be "policing." I admit, again, that the flip statement I made was wrong. But I don't think that her current skinniness looks good on her.

I assume I would be allowed to comment on an actress's haircut, or her clothing choices, or her plastic surgery. These are also her business. Why aren't they also off limits?