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Demi Moore and her friend Amanda de Cadenet are co-producing a new “alternative television” series called The Conversation that will premier on Lifetime this spring, and to give a sneak preview, they interviewed each other for Harper’s Bazaar. They both shared personal information about themselves, and Moore was surprisingly frank about how she’s feeling post-divorce. But on the topic of body image, she has a shaky point of view, at best. If her current incarnation as a rail-thin, surgery-enhanced Hollywood actress didn’t tell you that she’s become overly obsessed, the interview spells it out.
Here’s what the two had to say about their bodies:
DEMI MOORE: So how about I begin and ask you, how do you feel about your body?
AMANDA DE CADENET: You know, not great. From an aesthetic standpoint, I battle with it. It’s an ongoing challenge for me that I don’t think my body looks how I want it to. If I could wave a magic wand, I would be a size 6 and still be able to eat cake every day. How do you feel about your body?
DM: I have had a love-hate relationship with my body. When I’m at the greatest odds with my body, it’s usually because I feel my body’s betraying me, whether that’s been in the past, struggling with my weight and feeling that I couldn’t eat what I wanted to eat, or that I couldn’t get my body to do what I wanted it to do.
ADC: I think it’s worth mentioning that you love french fries and I love cake.
DM: Sweet and savory. I think I sit today in a place of greater acceptance of my body, and that includes not just my weight but all of the things that come with your changing body as you age to now experiencing my body as extremely thin — thin in a way that I never imagined somebody would be saying to me, “You’re too thin, and you don’t look good.”
I find peace when I don’t see my body as my enemy, when I step back and have appreciation and look at all that my body has done for me. It’s allowed me to give birth to three beautiful children, allowed me to explore different roles as an actor, allowed me to be strong. You can’t look at yourself in the mirror and tear your body apart. You have to look at it and go, “Thank you. Thank you for standing by me, for being there for me no matter what I have put you through.”
She’s clearly versed in some great body-positive pep talks, but her message gets muddled when she says she’s found acceptance with her body, and in the same breath admits that she’s too thin. The sad thing is that most of us probably have similar thoughts; if anything the mixed messages she’s sending about her body image are evidence that, in all likelihood, she’s being honest. Which is better than a fluffy quote about feeling great in old age, but it’s still sad.
Moore’s body has always drawn attention; it was practically unavoidable in the ’90′s. But back then, she wasn’t getting adoration or scrutiny for being rail thin; she was either doing one-armed pushups on the Late Show or proudly appearing nude and pregnant on the cover of Vanity Fair. Whether you liked her or not, back then the last thing she seemed concerned with was building herself in the cookie cutter image of a thin, attractive Hollywood actress. As Mark Morris observed:
Striptease was the nadir: far from the public demanding nudity, people felt Moore was imposing her increasingly weird, muscle-bound body on them. Like Madonna’s behaviour a few years earlier, Moore’s exhibitionism seemed to be less to do with sex than a kind of Nietzschean feminism. [...] But Moore wasn’t taking on board what the real criticisms were. ‘There’s this idea that if you take your clothes off, somehow you must have loose morals,’ she said. ‘There’s still a negative attitude in our society towards women who use a strength that’s inherent – their femininity – in any way that might be considered seductive.’
Then she disappeared for awhile, and made her comeback by…building herself in the cookie-cutter image of a thin, attractive Hollywood actress. She’s admitted to plastic surgery, and now, to the complicated feelings she’s always had towards her body; at least she’s honest. It’s just unfortunate that even the Demi Moores and Madonnas of the world are now growing into older women whose bodies, once symbols are power and strength, are now just making them insecure.
Photo: Harper’s Bazaar
