Ashley Judd Fires Back at Gossip Columnists Over Plastic Surgery Speculation

Last month, gossip columnists began speculating that Ashley Judd had plastic surgery performed after she was spotted with her face being a little more “puffy” than usual. Judd’s publicist was quick to shoot the speculation down, but, unsurprisingly, it kept going anyway.

Now, in an op-ed article published on The Daily Beast, Ashley is firing back at gossip columnists, taking them to task for their “pointedly nasty,” “gendered,” and “misogynistic” speculation which, she says, “embodies what all girls and women in our culture, to a greater or lesser degree, endure every day.”

“The assault on our body image, the hypersexualization of girls and women and subsequent degradation of our sexuality as we walk through the decades, and the general incessant objectification is what this conversation allegedly about my face is really about,” Judd wrote.

After rather impressively tearing apart the flimsy evidence that some used to suggest that she underwent plastic surgery, Judd tries to make something good out of the situation by generating new conversation.

“Why was a puffy face cause for such a conversation in the first place?,” Ashley asked. “How, and why, did people participate? If not in the conversation about me, in parallel ones about women in your sphere? What is the gloating about? What is the condemnation about? What is the self-righteous alleged “all knowing” stance of the media about? How does this symbolize constraints on girls and women, and encroach on our right to be simply as we are, at any given moment?”

Source: The Daily Beast