Renée Zellweger pens essay slamming ‘double standards,’ plastic surgery rumors

MANILA, Philippines – Renée Zellweger, an acclaimed actress and star of the upcoming Bridget Jones’s Baby film, has written a powerful essay, saying that scrutiny of her physical appearance hints at deeper, wider societal issues that women face.

In an essay published on The Huffington Post, Renée acknowledged and lamented how “a woman’s worth has historically been measured by her appearance,” at the same time debunking rumors that she had underwent plastic surgery for her face – which, according to People magazine, may have been stirred up by a 2014 red carpet appearance.

She criticized some of the tabloid journalism that has fueled such rumors – “which profits from the chaos and scandal it conjures and injects into people’s lives and their subsequent humiliation, the truth is reduced to representing just one side of the fictional argument.”

The actress added that at first, she didn’t feel inclined to respond to any of the rumors: “It’s silly entertainment, it’s of no import, and I don’t see the point in commenting.”

She explained why she chose to speak out through the essay, saying that “choosing the dignity of silence rather than engaging with the commerce of cruel fiction, leaves one vulnerable not only to the usual ridicule, but to having the narrative of one’s life hijacked by those who profiteer from invented scandal.”

Renée said she was not writing her essay because of being “publicly bullied” or “questioned by a critic whose ideal physical representation of a fictional character originated 16 years ago, over which he feels ownership, I no longer meet.”

She also said that she is not writing the essay because of any “societal pressures” or because she’s a expressing a belief in “an individual’s right to make decisions about his or her body for whatever reason without judgment”

Renée explained her reason thereafter: “I’m writing because to be fair to myself, I must make some claim on the truths of my life, and because witnessing the transmutation of tabloid fodder from speculation to truth is deeply troubling.”

The actress also laid to rest the rumors about going under the knife, but said that “this fact is of no true import to anyone at all, but that the possibility alone was discussed among respected journalists and became a public conversation is a disconcerting illustration of news/entertainment confusion and society’s fixation on physicality.”

She wrote, “The double standard used to diminish [women’s] contributions remains, and is perpetuated by the negative conversation which enters our consciousness every day as snark entertainment.”

Later, Renée continued: “It increasingly takes air time away from the countless significant unprecedented current events affecting our world. It saturates our culture, perpetuates unkind and unwise double standards, lowers the level of social and political discourse, standardizes cruelty as a cultural norm, and inundates people with information that does not matter.”

“What if immaterial tabloid stories, judgments and misconceptions remained confined to the candy jar of low-brow entertainment and were replaced in mainstream media by far more important, necessary conversations? 

“What if we were more careful and more conscientious about the choices we make for ourselves, where we choose to channel our energy and what we buy into?

“Maybe we could talk more about our many true societal challenges and how we can do better,” Renée ends her essay.

Prior to writing her Huffington Post essay, Renée’s appearance has been the subject of discussion in tabloid and mainstream media.

She told People, “I’m glad folks think I look different! I’m living a different, happy, more fulfilling life, and I’m thrilled that perhaps it shows.”

“My friends say that I look peaceful. I am healthy,” Renée added. “For a long time I wasn’t doing such a good job with that. I took on a schedule that is not realistically sustainable and didn’t allow for taking care of myself.

“Rather than stopping to recalibrate, I kept running until I was depleted and made bad choices about how to conceal the exhaustion. I was aware of the chaos and finally chose different things,” she said. – Rappler.com