Body image bombshell

Earlier this month, actress Eva Mendes entered rehab for, among other things, help with her poor body image. She checked in on the same day Calvin Klein announced she would be the face of their new perfume.

Eva was on the August 2007 cover of Jane Magazine - its "Naked" issue - wearing nothing but two blooming flowers over her breasts.

She is constantly hailed for her luscious, curvy figure; for not bowing to Hollywood's pressure to conform to a rail-thin ideal. An incredible sex symbol, she literally stopped people in their tracks with her recent PETA ad, in which she (again) was featured naked.

Is this the face of poor body image?

Apparently so...and her feelings should only highlight the fact that seemingly no woman is immune from self-loathing, from wishing a certain body part were smaller or stronger or more "perfect." It's not just skinny celebs and that girl in your locker room who has a huge gape between her thighs whom we need to look out for - eating disorders and poor body image come in all shapes and sizes. I feel like Eva slipped through the cracks with this problem because everyone alwasy assumed, "She's flaunting a gorgeous figure...she's every man's fantasy...she must be secure in the way she looks."

Quotes like these fueled the fire:

“I’m very healthy-looking. I’ve never fallen under that skinny mold. I have a very healthy self-image. My mother gave me that.”

"For some reason, tacos from Jack in the Box really do it for me. The combination of tacos and French fries, it’s heavenly. Throw an Oreo shake in there, and you’ve got a party."

"I’m thankful that I’m healthy and that I have my limbs and a nice physique. Of course, there are things anybody wishes they didn’t have or wishes there were more of, but why even bring that up? I think it comes off as bratty."

"Once you start doing the red carpet thing, you can become very critical of yourself - it’s very easy. I decided, I’m not falling into that. It’s just not healthy. I recently visited this Korean spa and there were all these beautiful Korean women bathing, being totally comfortable, no matter what type of body they had. I thought, 'This is what it must have been like back in the Roman-bath days.' And you feel like you’re all in it together, in a weird way.”

Eva is a woman whom, to us outsiders, seemed happy and yes, proud of her body. How on earth could she have body image issues?

Looks like no one is immune. I'm sending good wishes to her, and to all women struggling like this.

Comments

Just a tip: Remember Polly from the Thin documentry? She committed sucicide recently. On Lauren Greenfield's site there is her obituary.

wow to the above comment. That just breaks my heart.

as far as Eva goes, I feel for her--but reading this actually makes me feel worse about myself. Like you said, how can SHE have body image issues?!

yes, i heard about polly, so sad. but back to the topic, many women have poor body image issues. sometimes flautning them the way eva did is their way of coping, you know a way to prove to themselves that someone out there thinks they're sexy. I have a feeling though thats not the sole reason for her rehab entry, i think she's had some substance abuse issues as well (again, a coping mechanism).
Workout mommmy: I m sorry she made you feel worse about yourself, but its so rare to find a girl her age without some sort of body image issues. No one's immune, sometimes we feel great about ourselves, but its more often then not that we find our flaws and magnify them.

This news about Eva Mendes sort of makes me sad, but I read a cool article in Oprah that made me happy. It's talking about a rehab program that has recovering anorexic and bulimic girls buying food and preparing meals for homeless people. It's a really interesting read, and an interesting perspective -- women who deprive themselves of food being forced to interact with people who desperately need food. I like the concept of getting people outside their own heads and maybe looking at food in a different way. Like, a homeless person is probably not that concerned with how they look but more concerned about survival.

Oh, and I started watching the documentary Thin on YouTube, scary, scary, stuff.

Wow. That's really sad. She's so beautiful and seems confident and self-assured. But I guess no one ever really knows what's going on inside another person's head...

It's so sad. But when you're in the public eye, and after every awards show people sit around on TV and pick apart every piece of you, as they show you walking down the red carpet in slow motion, and designers are making veiled comments about your shape because you're NOT one of the pencil-thin models they're used to working with, it gets under your skin.
EVERY woman I know who moved to L.A. from somewhere else, no matter how good her body image was before, developed anxiety over her body after living in L.A. for a while. Even women who weren't in the entertainment industry.
I wish that powerful women in the industry would band together and just refuse to be manipulated. But it's hard, because they are already seeped in that mindset, and they want to have careers.
That was the thing that gets under my skin the most; the fact that I was not able to pursue my craft because I wasn't considered attractive enough, AND I BELIEVED IT.

re: Polly. Wow. I'm kind of in shock. I haven't read her obit but I'm hoping the stress from the show didn't contribute to her suicide. She did seem to be the "weaker" of the two, mentally.

re: Eva Mendes. I didn't know they even had rehab for body image problems! Maybe I should go. Maybe every girl I know should go;) Not to be the cynic here but I hope that isn't just publicist double-speak to garner sympathy and gloss over the fact she is in rehab for substance abuse. (Not that there is any shame in going to rehab for substance abuse but it just seems like people try and spin it more to their advantage. "She drinks too much! But only because she wasn't loved enough and now can't love herself! Not because she's an over-indulged, rich starlet with a sense of entitlement that dwarfs Putin's. No, poor girl, she really just needs more love.") I don't have anything against Eva Mendes in particular (she IS gorgeous), just hollywood types in general.

Nikki - I LOVE love love that Oprah idea!

Oops - I just realized that Polly isn't one of the two brits from the BBC's Super Skinny Me. Different show entirely! So please disregard my earlier comment (both parts, apparently I'm crabby today).

Sigh...this makes me sad. I was Shape magazine's Weight-Loss Diary columnist in 2007 and I think Eva was on one of the covers during the year. I'm certainly no Hollywood star or celebrity, but appearing in a magazine does open you up to a lot of scrutiny. I got a very mild taste of the pressure and it's given me a whole new perspective on the celebrity thing.

I'm in the best shape I've been in for quite some time, but it's still a conscious choice to embrace where I am now and let go of obsessing about what I'm not or what I could be. As the mom of a daughter, my number-one goal now is to teach her to make healthy choices, to take the best care she can of the body she has and to help her let go of the pressure to attain an ideal that doesn't even exist. It's not always easy, but it's the most important thing I can do.

I just watched "Hitch" this weekend and had no idea who "she" was - but during the entire movie I was saying "God she is beautiful - I want to look like her." After reading this I wanted to cry - if she isn't happy with herself is there hope for me? I do know that being in the spotlight makes life difficult!

Your environment and where you constantly spend your time will greatly affect how you feel about yourself. Eva works in a profession that is all about looks and beauty, and women in Hollywood are in constant competition to be the best looking. Look how actresses have replaced supermodels on mag covers. I'm not that shocked about this news. I am very glad though that Eva is getting help, and I think she would make for a great role model to share her story with younger girls to help them gain perspective.

I actually saw her walking around Soho a few years back and I was so happy that she had a big butt like mine. I always thought of her as a good example of what more real women look like, I hope she can get back to feeling good about her body.

I'm in the best shape I've been in for quite some time, but it's still a conscious choice to embrace where I am now and let go of obsessing about what I'm not or what I could be.

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