They’re both being too hard on Amanda Seyfried.

Perez Hilton is a huge misogynist.  But this isn’t groundbreaking; it’s actually fairly old news, or at least, fairly obvious. But his latest reasons for taking Seyfried to task infuriate me in a different way than his constant doodling on Vanessa Hudgens.  He most recently lambasted her for saying that she doesn’t know if her boyfriend, History Boys thespian hottie and Mamma Mia co-star Dominic Copper, is the One.  ZOMG!!! She’s 24, and she’s not sure if she wants to get married and spend the rest of her life with the guy she’s dating.  SLUT!  He then lumps this as the latest TMI from her, the last of which was Seyfried revealing that her tattoo means vagina, at least in British slang.  It can also refer to pubic hair on a vagina, which kind of makes me happy because that means enough woman still have pubic hair that we still need slang for it, but that’s a different post…Again, ZOMG!!  A woman used the word vagina, in an empowering, positive way. AWFUL. It’s not like Perez would use such crass language, like cunt or pussy, or pussy again.  Oh. Wait. Hm.  So let’s get this straight, using slang for the word vagina to degrade or mock someone is okay, but not when a women takes control of her sexuality.  Right.  I know that one.  I’m all to familiar with that one actually.

The thing is though, Amanda Seyfried has been taken to task before this, and not just by Perez, but again for all the wrong things.  She recently gave an interview to Esquire in which three things occured that garnered media attention. She took her Birth Control Pill.  She took a prescription anti-anxiety medication.  And, she talked about how miserable she was on her raw food diet of spinach and nuts.  First, she was criticized for taking Birth Control in public (public being a reporter and being comfortable enough to admit to being on the pill when he questioned her about it).  I think this is a personal thing, whether a woman feels comfortable taking her pill in front of others or in the privacy of wherever, but it’s been 50 years since the pill revolutionized reproductive rights and when a young starlet shows she’s responsible for her sex life and not getting pregnant accidentally, this is something to be outraged about?

Second, she took a Lexapro for anxiety.  However, Lexapro is taken daily to treat anxiety disorders over the long term, and therefor cannot be abused in the way Xanax can.  So, she’s taking a medicine she needs and not snorting coke at the Chateau Marmont, and she gets called out.  The stigma surrounding mental health disorders and diseases has long irked me, as I was raised by two mental health professionals, again another post, or really, another 500 posts if you want me to really get into being the progeny of a house of Psychiatry.  (Sidenote: Here’s a great campaign featuring Glenn Close about combating said stigma.  It almost makes up for that one movie she did in the 80s that one time that is probably the single worst portrayal of women to come out of that decade.  A difficult feat since the era is known for making women in film look awful.)   And finally, now that I’ve digressed for the last time, she was criticized for giving the raw food diet a bad rap.  Too be fair, raw foodies do eat more than spinach and nuts, but is that the real issue here?  This poor woman is starving herself to conform to Hollywood’s standards.  She admitted she was eating that way  to keep landing roles (and specifically mentioned Mamma Mia) and that her diet is “awful.”  Eating only spinach and nuts=eating disorder, but eating for Amanda Seyfried=losing jobs.  No one really seemed to be talking about that, or how they seemed to have used photoshop to remove her nipples in the Esquire spread, which is just creepy.

Well, I’ll admit that was a rant, but believe it or not, I still have two things to say:  One, the Jewish mother in me really wants to make her a sandwich.  And two, Oy Vey.

This post originally appeared as “Perez Hilton STFU and leave Amanda Seyfried Alone!” on my blog womanofsteele.