Given that she's the daughter of Naomi Judd and sister to Wynonna- women known for being outspoken- it's not all that surprising that Ashley Judd couldn't keep quiet after being publicly lambasted by the media over her appearance. 
 
 Reporters have speculated that the 43-year-old actress had fillers injected into her face after she made a recent appearance with puffier-than-normal cheeks. Others have laid into the actress recently for gaining ten or 15 pounds in the last year. 
 
 Rather than ignoring the speculation, Ashley is fighting back with an op-ed piece for The Daily Beast. 
 
 After explaining that her puffy face was a result of steroid treatment for a sinus infection and her larger frame the result of "a lazy six months of not exercising," Judd has this to say: 
 
 I hope the sharing of my thoughts can generate a new conversation: Why was a puffy face cause for such a conversation in the first place? How, and why, did people participate? If not in the conversation about me, in parallel ones about women in your sphere? What is the gloating about? What is the condemnation about? What is the self-righteous alleged “all knowing” stance of the media about? How does this symbolize constraints on girls and women, and encroach on our right to be simply as we are, at any given moment? How can we as individuals in our private lives make adjustments that support us in shedding unconscious actions, internalized beliefs, and fears about our worthiness, that perpetuate such meanness? What can we do as families, as groups of friends? Is what girls and women can do different from what boys and men can do? What does this have to do with how women are treated in the workplace? 
 
 It's certainly food for thought -- but while I see her points, I think that, given her profession, the lady doth protest too much. 
 
 Ashley Judd is a Hollywood actress, one who has played the appearance game for years. She has turned up at many a red carpet event dressed to kill and looking fabulous, even by Hollywood's difficult-to-meet standards -- and she certainly didn't seem to mind the positive media attention then. 
 
 Like it or not, Hollywood actresses are aspirational figures -- They are thinner than normal, less wrinkly than normal, more glamorous than normal, and they are paid more than normal to look that way. They also get a more-than-normal amount of criticism when they're not meeting Hollywood's standards for beauty. 
 
 That doesn't mean I like mean-spirited criticisms of an actress's appearance, or that I would tolerate them if they were directed toward a woman who's a public figure in a more serious and less appearance-based line of work. But I think that any woman who chooses to be a movie star also chooses to take the media knocks that come with the job. If she can't take the criticism, she should probably, with all due respect, choose another line of work. 
 
 I fully support a woman's "right to be simply as we are, at any given moment," as Ashley puts it, but doesn't the nature of her profession mean that she has knowingly traded that right in exchange for fame and fortune? 
 
 That's my take on the situation -- What's yours? 
 
 Image via Splash News ||||| I've never thought much about Ashley Judd beyond the blandest adjectives—she's pretty, she seems nice, her pores look really small—but it turns out she's also a smart, bold, kickass feminist. In an essay for the Daily Beast today, following weeks of tasteless speculation about the puffiness of her face, Judd smacks down her detractors and frames the entire kerfuffle (along with our celebrity-shredding culture at large) as "a misogynistic assault on all women." Which it is. My love for Ashley Judd grew three sizes this day. 
 
 In case you haven't been obsessively following Judd-puff-maggedon 2012 (because you possess actual priorities, a conscience, a desire to take a nap, or literally anything else to do), here's a brief refresher: The tabloid press—and, by extension, the entire internet—recently noticed that medium-famous celebrity-woman Ashley Judd went from having a regular beautiful face to a very-slightly-puffier-than-average beautiful face. And everyone went fucking apeshit. 
 
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 Ashley Judd had work done! Ashley Judd is filling her face with facial fillers! Ashley Judd gets her face stung by therapeutic bees! Ashley Judd is injecting butt-fat into her face so her face looks more like a sexy butt! Ashley Judd is a liar and a coward who is terrified of aging! Ha-ha, women, we tricked you! The only thing worse than looking old is trying not to look old because we told you not to look old! Also, you're fat! 
 
 Um, no, says Ashley Judd. Ashley Judd's face is puffy because Ashley Judd is sick and on fucking steroids, you intrusive, judgmental dicks. 
 
 The typical celeb response to mean, speculative shit like this is "Dehydration! Respect my privacy! But also I'm totally not mad and my new single drops next week so please buy it and I'm sorry I was so very very puffy and it won't happen again and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD JUST DON'T STOP LOVING MEEEEEEE!!!" But Judd skips that equivocating bullshit entirely and engages the broader issue with a level of sensitivity and personal transparency that we, the public, definitely don't deserve: 
 
 The assault on our body image, the hypersexualization of girls and women and subsequent degradation of our sexuality as we walk through the decades, and the general incessant objectification is what this conversation allegedly about my face is really about. 
 
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 The whole essay is great. You should read it. And in a cultural moment when "feminism" is still a "bad word" (YAAAAAAAAWN), it's incredibly rare for a celebrity to make such a concrete feminist statement. More importantly, Judd points out that it's women who drive a lot of this kind of sniping: 
 
 That women are joining in the ongoing disassembling of my appearance is salient. Patriarchy is not men. Patriarchy is a system in which both women and men participate. It privileges, inter alia, the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women. It is subtle, insidious, and never more dangerous than when women passionately deny that they themselves are engaging in it. This abnormal obsession with women's faces and bodies has become so normal that we (I include myself at times-I absolutely fall for it still) have internalized patriarchy almost seamlessly. We are unable at times to identify ourselves as our own denigrating abusers, or as abusing other girls and women. 
 
 BOOM. OMG ASHLEY JUDD JUST DUNKED ON US SO HARD. 
 
 I'm certainly not innocent of celebrity body-snarking. And this website as a whole isn't either. But I find that the older I get the more consciously I avoid it, and the more I reject the notion that when you profit from being a public figure you become public property. We've locked celebrities (female celebrities in particular) into this impossible position—they lose five pounds and they're anorexic; they gain that weight back and they might as well call Maury Povich to airlift them out of their trailer. So what the fuck are they supposed to do? There's a line between reasonable attention and unreasonable scrutiny, and, for my part, I'd rather sacrifice a few good jokes about the flavor-of-the-week's gaping coke nostril than contribute any more to the commodification and dehumanization of women. My feminism doesn't end where your celebrity begins. That's bullshit. I'm with you, Judd. ||||| Photo: Mireya Acierto 
 
 Ashley Judd has made quite the commitment. Like, as in the years-long kind that will put her in the single-digit percentage of the educated population. We’re talking, of course, about some serious PhD-getting business here. The actress and humanitarian announced in a Facebook Live video on Monday that she will be getting her third degree at UC Berkeley starting this fall. 
 
 Judd was accepted into a rigorous PhD program for public policy at the Northern California university, where she said she hopes to “do some good thinking, some rigorous research and fill it with my typical heart and soul and see how I can continue to do my little part to make the world a better place.” But she’s also experiencing some normal first day of school jitters. “Sometimes I’m really excited, sometimes I’m like ‘What have I gotten myself into?!’” she added. 
 
 
 
 Judd’s desire to pursue a PhD places her in a minority among those in Hollywood and the population at large. It’s not unheard of for universities to sometimes bestow an honorary degree on a celebrity, but that tends to happen for musicians for their creative works over the years. Seeing a relatively well-known actress decide to dedicate years to a post-doc program is pretty darn rare. 
 
 Still, Judd’s acceptance into the competitive program at Berkeley, which only accepts a handful of students every year, shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. Judd graduated from the University of Kentucky, and in 2009, she enrolled in an itty-bitty school by the grand old name of Harvard. Her master’s there was in public administration with a focus on gender equality, two issues that have been been dear to Judd’s heart for some time. 
 
 Judd has often used her celebrity status to speak candidly about the tough choices women and girls face around the world when it comes to their sexuality. At the Democratic National Convention this year, Judd spoke openly about her choice to have an abortion after she was raped in a state where, had she carried to term, the rapist could have held parental rights. Judd has also used her fame and platform to speak about the importance of education worldwide. As an UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador for the Empowerment of Adolescent Girls, she focused on traveling to 150 countries to bring attention to women’s right’s violations and lack of educational opportunities, according to the United Nations Population Fund. Her studies at Berkeley will continue in the same vein of women’s rights with a focus on the role gender plays in human trafficking, according to People. 
 
 
 
 Given that Judd was awarded also awarded the Dean’s Scholars Award at Harvard for a paper in a class titled “Gender Violence, Law and Society,” we have a feeling that she’ll fit right in among the academic crowd.
– Ashley Judd made a TV appearance last month looking larger than normal and with a puffier face, and the ensuing criticism of her appearance led her to write a scathing but eloquent response in the Daily Beast. Judd was on steroids due to an illness (leading some to assume her puffy face was the result of having had work done) and had gained a little weight over the winter (leading some to joke that her husband must be looking for a new woman). "The conversation was pointedly nasty, gendered, and misogynistic and embodies what all girls and women in our culture, to a greater or lesser degree, endure every day, in ways both outrageous and subtle," Judd writes. Particularly worrisome is the fact that women themselves jumped right into the objectification. "Patriarchy," she writes, "is not men. Patriarchy is a system in which both women and men participate." Her piece (worth a read in full here) garnered quite a reaction. Samples from both sides: "Like it or not, Hollywood actresses are ... thinner than normal, less wrinkly than normal, and they are paid more than normal to look that way," writes Lindsay Ferrier on The Stir. "Any woman who chooses to be a movie star also chooses to take the media knocks that come with the job." Full piece here. Judd is "a smart, bold, kickass feminist," declares Lindy West on Jezebel, noting that the older she gets, the more she rejects "the notion that when you profit from being a public figure you become public property." As for West, she's done with covering "the flavor-of-the-week's gaping coke nostril. ... My feminism doesn't end where your celebrity begins." Full piece here.