Pop Quiz:

What’s the first thing you think when you see this picture?

A) Isn’t that Jennifer Love Hewitt?B) Hey! Engagement ring!C) Damn that’s a fat ass.

Well, whatever you would have answered? TMZ.com and many of it’s readers went with option C.

What the ACTUAL fuck?

I think it’s a testament to the cult of thin in our society that a woman who looks like THAT is considered to be “fat.” Not just that a gossip site posts such a ridiculous opinion, but that people actually AGREED with it. If that’s fat? I’d KILL to be fat.

But it’s not just that isolated incident. People were going on and on about Britney Spears at the VMA’s, criticizing not her half-hearted routine or her drugged and confused appearance, but instead attacking her weight and calling her fat. While the outfit was not flattering, while she did not have her toned and flat abs, Britney was anything but fat.

What is the public’s obsession with attacking women’s weight? And it’s not even men doing it, it’s other women! Is it because we are so insecure in ourselves that we lash out, and that weight is a convenient target?

As much as we rant and rail against the “Hollywood Body” it’s not just Hollywood telling us how to look. It’s girls on the street who glare at anyone over 100 pounds as if they can’t figure out why they leave the house looking like that. It’s girls who comment on the internet about not being able to stand fat people and insisting that there’s no excuse for it. If you’re unhappy, just lose weight.

If only it were that simple.

But at least Jennifer Love Hewitt didn’t take the ridicule lightly. Not only is she currently on the cover of People magazine but she responded directly to the commentary with a blog on her official website:

This is the last time I will address this subject.

I’ve sat by in silence for a long time now about the way women’s bodies are constantly scrutinized. To set the record straight, I’m not upset for me, but for all of the girls out there that are struggling with their body image.

A size 2 is not fat! Nor will it ever be. And being a size 0 doesn’t make you beautiful.

What I should be doing is celebrating some of the best days of my life and my engagement to the man of my dreams, instead of having to deal with photographers taking invasive pictures from bad angles. I know what I look like, and so do my friends and family. And like all women out there should, I love my body.

To all girls with butts, boobs, hips and a waist, put on a bikini — put it on and stay strong.

Xoxo

JLH

Amen, sister. Amen.

EDIT: Buzznet memeber ztnarfnc has started a group for all of us girls out there who disagree with this bullcrap!