Melissa McCarthy Talks Sexism, Appearance And Standing Up To Internet Bullies

The brilliant Melissa McCarthy has had it with the haters. She’s always been an advocate for body positivity; frequently speaking out on the unattainable standards women are subjected to in the fashion industry as a whole, and even designing her own inclusive fashion range?for females of various shapes and sizes.

During the promotional run for her latest film The Boss, the actress-turned-designer spoke of appearances and how the focus tends to be on her weight, over her talent. “I have [lost weight], but I’ll be back again. I’ll be up, I’ll be down, probably for the rest of my life. The thing is, if that is the most interesting thing about me, I need to go have a lavender farm in Minnesota and give this up.”

“There has to be something more,” she continued. “There are so much more intriguing things about women than their butt or their this or their that. It can’t be the first question every time, or a question at all.”

Despite her positive, empowering outlook, McCarthy says she isn’t impervious to hateful social media trolls. ?”I’ve never felt like I needed to change,” she said. “I’ve always thought, ‘If you want somebody different, pick somebody else.’ But sure, criticism can sometimes still get to me. Some things are so malicious; they knock the wind out of you.”

She addressed the sexism in the industry, adding that the entertainment business just isn’t at a place where there is equality of the sexes.?”It’s like, ‘Can you imagine them asking some of these guys I work with, ‘How do you keep your butt looking so good?'” she said. “It would be like, ‘What the f— are you talking about? Why are you asking about the shape of my butt?'”

“It can never be positive. It always has to be negative,” she continued. “It’s like whoever can throw s— the farthest gets their two minutes.”

“You know you could flip that and shine a light on something and write a great story and still get your two minutes,” she adds. “I wish it was as fashionable to raise people up as it seems to be to take them down.”

She pointed out that a recent reference to her as “America’s plus-size sweetheart” in an article did not go unnoticed. “It’s like I’m managing to achieve all this success in spite of my affliction … Would you ever put that in the headline for a male star?”

Via Refinery29