On Lindsay Lohan

You know, I used to have a lot of respect for her. As an actress and singer, I don't think she has that much talent, but at least she used to be healthy. I admired her for maintaining what is considered a "chunky" body in an image-obsessed society. Her weight in the below left picture was actually quite healthy, but if you were to stand her next to Calista Flockhart, yeah, she looked a little heavy. But she was beautiful. She was a real woman with a woman's curves, and she didn't seem to care that she didn't fit the Hollywood ideal. I was actually delighted to see that there was a celebrity out there that wasn't a twig. I thought, "Hey, there's a good role model for today's youth! She's happy with her body and isn't trying to conform to some unrealistic thin ideal."

Then came the "new" Lindsay of 2005, seen on the right. I'm sorry, but she does not look good. She does not look healthy or womanly anymore. And I've lost any respect I once had for her. She gave in; she caved; she let them get to her. She took her beautiful woman's body--a body which should be cherished and celebrated, not starved--and transformed it into THIS. You may think she looks great now, all skinny and pale, but I don't. That must sound weird coming from an anorexic, but I don't think she looks good at all.

And what kind of message is this sending? She's being praised for her "new" body, plastered across magazine covers and glamourized for pursuing a thin ideal. All the girls who love her are seeing this, seeing her transformation and the positive reaction of the media, and getting the idea that thin = beauty. That a woman's body cannot be beautiful. It has to be thin.

True, it has come to light recently that Lindsay previously suffered from an eating disorder (and rumoured that perhaps she still does). That does not change the fact that she and so many other celebrities are praised for abusing and destroying their bodies.