A Courageous Letter to the NYT From Amy Farah Fowler

Otherwise Known as the Wonderful Actress Mayim Bialik

In the midst of the chaos that is the revelation that Harvey Weinstein is the biggest pig in Hollywood, a designation not easily achieved is a great piece in the NYT from an actress who portrays a character on The Big Bang Theory.

Mayim Bialik is a real person. She looks like a real person. After a successful career as a child actor she left the entertainment business to obtain a Ph D. in a difficult science area. She returned to acting to great acclaim as the girlfriend of Sheldon Cooper in a hit TV series. She writes of the pain of not being one of the glamorous people.

I grew up constantly being teased about my appearance, even from members of my family; my nose and chin were the main objects of discussion. As a teenager I started obsessing over the possibility of a nose job so that I would look more like Danica McKellar, with a chin job to balance things out. Soon I wondered if I should get breast implants to look more like Christina Applegate, who got so much attention for her curves. I consistently felt like a troll compared to many of my contemporaries. A “TV Guide” critic described me, in a review of the pilot episode of “Blossom,” as having a “shield-shaped” face of “mismatched features.” I never recovered from seeing myself that way.

A beautiful young actress

This should never happen in America. The nation is built on the principal of the supremacy of the individual and personal appearance has no place in the evaluation of a person, Trumpie be damned. Ms Bialik rightfully condemns Hollywood and more rightly calls on the nation to change.

I believe that we can change our culture, but it won’t be something that happens overnight. We live in a society that has treated women as disposable playmates for far longer than Mr. Weinstein has been meeting ingénues in luxury hotel rooms.

One major bright spot: We are seeing more women taking on prominent roles behind the camera. Women like Jenji Kohan and Jill Soloway are showing the kinds of female characters on their shows that we all know in real life but never got to see on TV. And more women and men are waking up to the fact that it is on us all to sound the alarm on unacceptable behavior.

In the meantime, I plan to continue to work hard to encourage young women to cultivate the parts of themselves that may not garner them money and fame. If you are beautiful and sexy, terrific. But having others celebrate your physical beauty is not the way to lead a meaningful life.

And a beautiful young lady in red