Christina Hendricks at the Emmys 2011
Being married, I spend more time watching post-Emmy fashion reporting than I used to. Not an inordinate amount. It’s not like my wife sits around watching E constantly. (Is E even still around? I’m so out of touch on that one.) Maybe that’s what makes this situation that much scarier, because it happened on a much more mainstream show. It was on the Today show that I first heard about the controversy surrounding Christina Hendrick’s Emmy dress.
First, a few facts: I’ve known about Christina Hendricks since she appeared on Firefly back in the early oughties. And since then, I get a special thrill whenever I hear the name of any actor that had anything more substantial than a bit part on that show. Especially should one of them be nominated for an Emmy. So there’s a bit of a bias going on here. I was excited that Hendricks would be nominated for an Emmy—even if I did have my head under a rock and miss her nomination for Mad Men last year.
No really. A rock. With my fingers in my ears, going Tra-la-la-la-la.
Apparently, my head was in the same place this year, because until this Monday, the morning after the Emmys aired, I had no idea that her dress had caused the kind of stir it did. I expected, on Monday morning, a rundown of the best and worst dressed, as tends to be the standard after any of these red carpet events. And the standard look back at the highlights, the tear jerking moments from the night before, how drunk Charlie Sheen was when delivering his apology to the Tro—I mean Jon Cryer.
What I got was a diatribe on Christina Hendricks’ boobs.
I’m not a fashion expert. And I don’t really care if someone wants to call a dress good or bad. I can offer no opinion on that count.
What does bother me is when I see a female reporter taking an actress to task for her irresponsible choice in a dress.
Drug use? Rant away. Drunk driving? Cursing the Jews? All condemnable offenses for highly visible people such as actors and actresses, people who should be role models, not cautionary tales. But when you start to critique another woman for showing off too much skin? It just seems like too many steps back for me.
Let’s give credit where credit is due: women have worked hard to earn their place anywhere in our society, and the screen is no exception. Perhaps even more importantly, women have worked hard to earn respect. So that even I got a little misty eyed when all five women nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy got up on stage before any winner had been announced. It was a big f**king deal. (It was an even bigger deal when Melissa McCarthy won, but that’s another story.)
Instead, we get an actress who has already earned no small amount of respect from her peers being reduced to a pair of breasts.
And don’t tell me that she asked for it. That’s like saying a rape victim asked for it because of what she wore. It’s disgusting, and it smacks of mid-century chauvinism, something we claim to have left behind as a culture. I think the real reason we’re okay with attacking Hendricks for her dress choice is that, for all our progressive rhetoric, we still live in an either/or society. Everything for us is black or white. You can be either an actress or a woman. And god help you if you try to be both, or if you try to give us even a hint of womanness in your actor.
Because that’s what’s at stake. Christina Hendricks wore a dress that showed off her breasts, a highly female…asset. And so many people are uncomfortable because it supposedly takes attention away from her acting skills and refocuses it on her chest. I think the problem is not that she’s trying to show off her curves—and let’s face it, Hendricks is probably one of the curviest women on TV at the moment. No, I think the problem is that we’re still not comfortable with anything that doesn’t fit in our either/or mold. That’s what we’re faced with when we look at Christina Hendricks on Emmy night. A woman who is not either an attractive woman or an actress, and never the two shall meet. Instead, we get someone who is both an attractive woman, comfortable enough in her sexuality to show off her assets, and a highly skilled actress.
I’m fairly sure Hendricks didn’t mean to spark controversy with her dress. But maybe, hopefully, we can use this as an opportunity to grow as a society, to accept more of these both/and situations.
Or maybe we can go back to women not showing their ankles and being barred from the theater.
In the end, it’s our choice.
PS–For comparison, here’s last year’s dress. How come we weren’t making a fuss over this?
