Kate Beckinsale has slammed the “ridiculous” expectations put on women over body shape.
The actress, 44, discussed body image when asked about the advice she had given her 18-year-old daughter.
She told US talk show host Chelsea Handler: “Now you’re supposed to have…a ridiculous ass and ridiculous boobs and a tiny waist and everything else.
Kate Beckinsale arriving for the Vanity Fair Oscar Party (PA)
“And meanwhile a lot of political s*** is happening…. maybe we can’t have abortions anymore, that sort of thing.”
The Underworld star told her daughter to read Susan Faludi’s book, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women.
“She talks about how when, politically, women make big strides it seems to always happen that the fashion becomes for a completely unattainable body type,” Beckinsale said.
“It’s a sort of unconscious way of controlling women to distract them into a kind of self-loathing. You get the vote, but it means … you can’t have any boobs”.
She added that “the more we get sucked in and concentrate on our own a**, the more stuff can happen to us”.
Beckinsale also discussed on the show, streaming on Netflix, what it’s like co-parenting with her ex Michael Sheen, who’s now dating comedian Sarah Silverman.
“If you both really put your kid’s well-being first, and share a sense of humour, you’re sort of halfway there,” the star, who’s dating 21-year-old actor Matt Rife, said.
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