America Ferrera Gets Real About Hollywood’s Unreasonable Body Standards
In our newest Women in Hollywood issue, trailblazing talent America Ferrera gets candid about the utterly “ridiculous” fixation on her curvy figure throughout her stellar acting career. “What’s so insane is, you go back and look, and I had a very average-size body. And so the idea that people were looking at me and saying, ‘That’s curvy’ is crazy. Not that I care, but it’s like, that’s insane that we thought that was so groundbreaking,” she told ELLE in an empowering interview.
As the 39-year-old superstar rose to fame in hit films like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and her breakthrough role on Ugly Betty, Ferrera was perplexed that her normal, healthy body type was seen as some sort of radical statement in an industry obsessed with unrealistic beauty ideals. “I was Hollywood’s version of imperfect, which seems so ridiculous,” she added insightfully.Now, the fearless performer and activist is blazing new trails while taking a thoughtful stand against the reductive ways women are still judged in entertainment and beyond. “What I continue to wish for my career, and women’s careers and people of color’s careers, is that we don’t have to exist inside of these boxes or these lanes — that we don’t have to be relegated to represent just the thing that the culture wants us to represent,” Ferrera declared.
She went on to emphasize, “I want to be more of who I am as a person, and to get to make art that doesn’t fit into any of the boxes and isn’t about the dominant conversation people have wanted to have about me because I’m a woman who doesn’t fit into stereotypical Hollywood.” From her scene-stealing role in this summer’s Barbie film to bringing to life the complex lead character in her upcoming Apple TV series Dumb Money, Ferrera is undoubtedly breaking the mold and evolving the roles available to talented women in Hollywood who refuse to be pigeonholed.“
As women, you’re taught that your value is all about your appearance, not your ideas and your tenacity and your courage and your bravery and your adventurous spirit. Look, I love getting dressed up and looking beautiful. But that’s one tiny piece of me,” Ferrera astutely added. Her razor-sharp commentary prompts a much-needed examination of how we discuss women’s bodies, abilities, and self-worth on the world’s largest stages and in our everyday lives. Kudos to Ferrera for promoting body positivity and gender equality through her words and groundbreaking work. She inspires us to reframe outdated narratives and make room for the multi-dimensional magic that women have to offer.
