BACK IN 2014, actress Renee Zellweger became the subject of scrutiny after appearing at an event looking a little different.
Celebrity gossip websites and Twitter users immediately speculated that Zellweger had undergone plastic surgery – when asked, she said, “People don’t know me in my 40s.”
The rumour resurfaced in June when Variety’s Owen Gleiberman wrote a piece entitled ‘If Renee Zellweger No Longer Looks Like Herself, Has She Become A Different Actress’?
Zellweger addressed the accusations in an essay for the Huffington Post, calling out tabloids for conjuring a “massive smut pile” of “chaos and scandal”.
In our current culture of unsolicited transparency, televised dirty laundry, and folks bartering their most intimate details for attention and notoriety, it seems that the choice to value privacy renders one a suspicious character. A liar with nefarious behaviour to conceal.
“Not that it’s anyone’s business, but I did not make a decision to alter my face and have surgery on my eyes,” she writes.
“Although we have evolved to acknowledge the importance of female participation in society… the double standard used to diminish our contributions remains.”
Maybe we could talk more about why we seem to collectively share an appetite for witnessing people diminished and humiliated with attacks on appearance and character…
Zellweger follows in the footsteps of fellow actress Jennifer Aniston, who penned an op-ed about the tabloids’ treatment of her last month.
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You can read Zellweger’s full essay here.
