An Open Letter To Jamie Lee Curtis

by

Dear Jamie (May I call you Jamie?)

you make me laugh.

you make me cry.

Yet I struggle with you.

I love that youre now a role model for women. youre encouraging us be authentic, love the skin we’re in and (these are the MizFit’s words, JLC. Please to not go stealing em for your next picture book as Ill have nothing with which to launch my tween self-help series!) to be unapologetically ourselves.

BRAVO to you.

What are my struggles then? (thanks for asking. I know this must be difficult for you.)

They all stem from here.

You see, it feels (and I mightcould say FELT after watching you speak yesterday. it’s still an internal struggle.) as though you are tying to hide the fact that you had plastic surgery.

To the MizFit it rang quite hollow when you announced (to paraphrase) LOOK AT ME! I LOVE MY BOD!! FLAWS AND ALL, PEOPLE! Please to emulate me after already having had the niptucks (on your triceps no less?! For shame, JLC. Did you even try these?).

Then, when questioned about them, you responded with this:

“I’ve had a little plastic surgery. I’ve had a little lipo. I’ve had a little Botox. And you know what? None of it works. None of it.”

Really, JLC?

Is that the reason not to do it?

Youve given MizFit quite a lot to ponder lately (if by ponder you mean debate with various & sundry people all of whom seem to think Im not nice—-which I do).

I appear to be alone in my view that you might not be the ultimate role model for aging gracefully (hello? Susan Sarandon anyone?) but all I can do is let my own triceps go flabby when they choose, embrace the duffel bags under my eyes and trudge down the path toward old age (G-d willing!) with my head held high.

Even if it does mean that I give in to the fact that, despite lunging my way to heaven, my ass glutes are trying quite hard to make friends with my shoes.

Love,

MizFit

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Comments

  1. Seems to the Bag Lady as though JLC (who I actually quite like, tyvm) is trying to make money from proving that she’s just like the rest of us.
    Susan Sarandon, on the other hand, just IS just like the rest of us.

    And if the Bag Lady thought she could make loads and loads and bags and bags (teehee) of money by baring her belly for the world to see and remark upon (“she’s just like me”, says Willie the Whale!), there is NO way in hell. There just isn’t that much money in the world!!!!!

  2. As far as I knew, JLC was always up front about her “enhancements.” I remember seeing an interview with her quite a while ago where she openly talked about her boob job and lipo. And while, yes, that isn’t the best role model for teaching people to accept their bodies flaws and all, at least she was honest.

    I give her a lot more points in the good role model column than I do all the other gals who don’t eat, work out 6 hours a day, and then tell people they are genetically blessed. In my opinion, that type of role model is so much more damaging than one who admits to enhancements, but also admits to having physical flaws and a team of workers to hide them for the red carpet.

  3. LOL…nice is overrated. 🙂

    You know who’s my role model for aging gracefully? A lady I work with. I found out the other day that she’s 63. Can you say shocked? I mean, sure, she has greyish-blonde hair. She doesn’t look like a spring chicken. But she’s active, she’s lively, she frankly looks rather ageless to me. I’d have guessed maybe, at the most, mid-50s. Maybe. And that’s based on the fact that I know the ages of some of her children. If I didn’t…I’d probably have to go mid-40s.

    The point is it isn’t how she looks that made me think that. It’s how she behaves, and how she treats herself. THAT, ladies and…well, probably just ladies…is how I want to age. As if it really and truly doesn’t matter.

    But having said that, lunging my way to heaven is one really great way to help keep it from mattering! 🙂

    V.

  4. I’m guessing this was spurred on by her Oprah appearance on Monday? She was driving me nuts. She comes off very much holier than thou to me. For the most part, I think it is hard to buy the “I’m just like you” sell from a beautiful movie star. That seemed to be her whole reason to be on, yet I didn’t feel one bit better about myself after listening to her. She seems to be failing on her mission in my opinion.

  5. I sooooo love “Tell Me Again About The Night I Was Born.” So does Lukie.

    I thought she looked way cuter in the un-done-up photo.

    I want to not have an opinion about the rest. But I don’t like the way she describes herself as imperfect (not *that* she does, but the *way* she does). What’s wrong with her thighs, breasts, or stomach? Shouldn’t she be all about loving herself, not complaining, but posing for a magazine anyway?

  7. I love that a few of you dont agree with me (and yes youve made me *think* as well).

    valerie, Im too tired to think of the ad campaign (dove?) with (fingerquote) real (unFQ) women but that’s what your comment brought to mind.
    that the ageless feisty and lively are all around us—–not necessarily in hollywood.

    Gena? let’s spread it to the masses!!

    M.

  8. okay, soooo…….the lipo, the nip tuck, the botox…she tried that and none of it worked……so now she’s gonna try…….uh…….acceptance………WOW……..how profound……….

    But okay…….Yay for her.

  9. I agree! She lost me yesterday when she made some comment like “I’m not talking about moms who have had several babies and want a tuck to make them feel better”
    huh? isn’t that contradicting herself?

  10. maybe i’m just mad at her for getting into picture books. i’m mad at all celebs who get into picture books.

    Except John Lithgow. He rocks and actually has talent as a writer.

  12. As Meribeth says, botox and plastic surgeries are quick fixes. Perhaps JLC meant that they don’t work to make you feel better about yourself? That perhaps the real answer is to age gracefully and accept what you have?

    Although that does contradict the tummy tuck statement. Maybe she means it will make some people feel better, but it didn’t for her?

  13. Gena, I do think you’ve nailed it with this:

    Perhaps JLC meant that they don’t work to make you feel better about yourself? That perhaps the real answer is to age gracefully and accept what you have?

    but then, perhaps, she should be far more clear with it/about it AND I still think the notyoungandstillFABS like diane keaton and susan sarandon and judi dench mightcould be better role models.

    M.

  15. “but then, perhaps, she should be far more clear with it/about it AND I still think the notyoungandstillFABS like diane keaton and susan sarandon and judi dench mightcould be better role models.”

    I couldn’t have said it better myself, MizFit. 🙂

  16. Oh, yes, those ladies are definitely better role models! And I’m with Meribeth (again!) that I’ll just keep what I do and don’t have, and work with it.

  17. Is this the Oprah interview you’re talking about? Or is there something else I missed?

    (I’m off to watch it right now. gotta love Tivo)

  18. I’m back.
    I don’t love Jamie Lee Curtis. She’s a little too over-dramatic for me. 1) She used too many big words that normal people don’t usually use (uh. When was the last time you used “subterfuge” in a sentence? Yes, I know what it means, she just looked like she was trying to appear intelligent.) 2) I agree with her point about being your authentic self and that media is selling all of us a load of bunk. 3) But she annoys me. 4) And while I generally agree with many of her points…I kept thinking, “You’re just figuring this out NOW woman?? You’re almost 50!”
    “that the ageless feisty and lively are all around us—–not necessarily in hollywood.” AMEN.

    My heros/role models don’t fall in the category of celebrity. Even the socially active smart ones who are aging gracefully just don’t really cut it for me. Yes, it’s nice to see some of them out there, but hello. I know a handful of women who AMAZE me with their strength, ability, grace, etc. Maybe I’d feel that way if I knew more celebrities personally, or saw the way they’ve raised their children, or seen then in the most impossibly stressful situation. But for now I’ll stick with the ones in real life.

  19. Just to clarify this wasnt triggered by Oprah per se.
    Ive been carrying this around in my head for far too long (2005 I guess given the date on the USA Today article!)

    M.

  20. Maybe we can give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that when she says, “I tried them and they don’t work,” she means EMOTIONALLY? As in you can “fix” some things on the outside but that doesn’t mean, say, lipo will make you happy. Just trying to see the comment box half full.

    I do like what Valerie said about using real women in our own lives as role models. I’ll never forget being at the gym in high school with my grandpa (who actually invented jogging but that’s a different blog for another time) and we were sitting in a coed sauna (not nearly as perverted as it sounds) and a woman was sitting in there. She was African-American, wearing a bathing suit, just drenched with sweat. Her skin was near-flawless. We all got to talking and it turned out she was in her mid-60s. I swear, she looked about 34. She said she has always used the sauna to help her skin look good…and I’m sure she has a lot of other things working for her (genetics, environment, etc) but DAMN – I’ll never forget that. How beautifully we CAN age.

  21. Weighting Game?

    I do think that’s precisely what JLC meant when she said that the procedures didnt work.

    I just struggle with (because in Chez MizFit we dont ever use the i-word. the one which rhymes with TISSUE. or else Id use that phrase take _____ with) the fact that THAT could have been her platform.

    Espousing self love.

    acknowledging the fact that she hadnt found it when she did the procedures, has found it now, and DO AS SHE SAYS NOT AS SHE NAIVELY DID.

    she always seems to admit to the procedures *after* interviewers bring them up….which is, I guess, what chafes me

    and yes KATIEO—I thought the same bigwordthing!

    and yet, it bears repeating, her acting & her writing I really thoroughly enjoy.

    sometimes we just outta dance with the ones who brung us.

    Signed,

    MizFit, who promises never, ever to design a clothing line or somesuch other random IF I CAN BLOG THEN I CAN ______ tangent.

  22. Both hilarious and poignant as always, Madame F. — I guess the question comes down to if its actually ok that lipo/botox/physical augmentation be part of what it means to age well?

    For me, not at this juncture, but who’s to say? Maybe a nip here and a sharp pointy hollow poke there should be part of that million-mile checkup? 🙂

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