Hilary Duff’s Women’s Health cover shoot has caused quite the stir. The star and mother of three, who found fame as a teenager in the Disney Channel’s Lizzy McGuire, is posing nude.
‘Who cares?’ we hear you say. Well, a lot of people, actually.
Though some are championing the beauty of her photos, others are questioning if it was really necessary for her to get naked.
The pictures have clearly caused a division, but do we always need to have an opinion on what women do with their bodies?
Whenever a woman chooses to get naked, there’s always a discussion around it. Of course no celebrity is exempt from critique, but why do we always feel the need to comment on their choices? Women have the freedom to be able to do what they want with their bodies, when they want.
The commentary hasn’t even stopped with the nudity thing, with people bringing Duff’s age into the conversation, even when it sounds like a compliment.
Call it Lizzie McGuire fans who can’t believe it’s been almost two decades since their favourite show wrapped, but suggesting Duff has “aged like fine wine”?
(FYI, she’s only 34).
Readers are also chewing over the contents of the interview inside the cover. The article focuses on Duff growing to accept her body and rejecting “Hollywood’s standards”.
“I’m proud of my body. I’m proud that it’s produced three children for me,” she says. “I’ve gotten to a place of being peaceful with the changes my body has gone through. I also want people to know a makeup artist was there putting glow all over my body and someone put me in the most flattering position.”
This is all good news – we’re happy for Duff, who’s spoken about struggling with an eating disorder when she was 17. And we also applaud her honesty about the way these cover shoots work.
It’s the framing that people have questions about. After all, this is a regular, cis-bodied, slim white woman.
And as many have pointed out, Duff can celebrate her body without it being held up as an example of rejecting ‘Hollywood’s standards’.
Lizzie McGuire might be all grown up, but the way we talk about women’s bodies has barely changed in decades.