If it's Monday, it must be time for the Progress Prompts:

Academy Awards is this coming Sunday. What are your thoughts and feelings about Hollywood's standards on what an actress should look like? Are they still strict on the old standards, or are they finally letting plus-size actresses into movies? Name a favorite plus-size actress and tell why you like her. Do you think the standards are different for male overweight actors?

I personally don't like to watch Hollywood films. I've always been a fan of independent and foreign films. I think that Hollywood standards on most things are totally fucked up. It shouldn't be a surprise that their ideal body image is skeletal. I mean, how is someone like Lara Flynn Boyle or Calista Flockhart supposed to be representative of the female form. They both look like undernourished 12 years to me.

I think that the Hollywood cookie cutter machine only allows people who are "different" into films when it suits them and generally only as character roles. This goes for both men and women. Television has been a little more supportive of non-traditional looking people than film has been but not much. When I say "different" or "non-traditional" I'm also speaking to visible minorities and people who are differently abled.

As far as plus-sized actresses who I admire, there's quite a list: Pam St. Clement, Conchata Ferrell, Marianne Sagebrecht, Dawn French, Pauline Quirke, amongst others, they just pop to mind immediately. I like these particular women because they are real and they generally portray ordinarly women and their size isn't an issue. They just are who they are and their size doesn't limit what they are able to do. They play wives, mothers, career-women, sex pots, you name it.