The fat shaming that Winslet had to endure from that point onwards was both vicious and personal. She had already been told by a drama teacher that she would have to “settle for the fat-girl parts,” but the collective obsession with her weight increased exponentially after Titanic came out. At one point during the 60 Minutes interview, a clip is played of a red-carpet commentator telling Kate that she had been “melted and poured” into her dress, and that she should have worn one two sizes larger.
Such offhand cruelty is hard to fathom now, in an era of increased body positivity. It’s difficult for a young girl in 2024 to really understand what it was like back then, how acceptable it was to comment publicly and ruthlessly on someone’s size, not to mention how fetishized extreme skinniness was—especially in the pages of fashion magazines. As someone who, in the 2010s, set up satirical blog The Vagenda to critique media sexism, it’s astonishing to me the journey that so many publications have been on, and how different a climate the next generation of girls is being raised in. That’s not to say that they aren’t facing their own challenges, of course, but the media environment today is barely recognizable, and I call that progress.
True liberation, however, is still a long way off. I believe that it will come when women in Hollywood, and their female audiences, are given the respect that they deserve. This includes not having to battle to get films like Lee made. As a former model, Miller’s own career as a war photographer for Vogue was hard won, and she faced objectification throughout her life. It’s no surprise that her story resonated with Winslet, who threw herself into the performance as she always does, getting an exact replica of Miller’s camera made and learning how to use it.
