If Cleavage Is Currency, Celebs Are Cashing In

By Jessica Mahler Posted Mar 12th 2011 06:00PM

Flip through your favorite magazines and TV networks, and you're bound to see cleavage just about everywhere you look. It's all part of the constant exposure plan: The more a woman bares, the more work she'll get. Celebs are cashing in on cleavage to grab our attention, and in the celebrity equation, the more interest we invest in a certain star equates to increased fame, raising her score on the popularity scale.

Bonnie Fuller, editor-in-chief of HollywoodLife.com, visited the 'Today' show this week to talk about celebrities baring cleavage on the red carpet and on the covers of magazines and how it affects their success. A woman in a low-cut dress or top will no doubt draw some attention, and we Americans do love breasts; the strategic placement of the ads, photos, TV shows and movies we constantly see these cleavage-baring women in have normalized a look that at one time -- believe it or not -- was considered risque. It's like supply and demand: If people like what they see, they are going to want to see more of it.

"There's never been so much pressure on actresses as today to bare it all. They think they have to do it," says Fuller. "There's enormous pressure on these women."

But does this pigeonhole a celebrity into the sultry category? Will her breasts, if she leaves little to the imagination, keep her from landing more serious work? Helen Mirren has angrily recounted the fact that her girls were what kept her from the more serious roles she coveted when she first started out.

Shannon Elizabeth plays the sexy exchange student who walks around Jason Biggs' bedroom topless in 'American Pie,' then got knocked up on 'That '70s Show' by Kelso, who drools over her body much like her co-stars from 'American Pie' for all nine episodes she guest stars.

Katy Perry's Bothersome Boobs

An entire show was created around the idea of women's bouncing breasts wearing nothing but bathing suits. Tommy Lee and Kid Rock aside, what else is Pamela Anderson known for? And Kim Kardashian's breasts are not-so-subtly hinted at on countless covers of magazines, but we're still wondering why the world should want to keep up with the Kardashians.

Then there are celebs like Halle Berry, who has long displayed her talents on the big screen without ever having to do a nude scene. That is until she landed her role in 'Swordfish,' finally daring to bare for a hefty price tag. Yes, the world waited a decade for the star to take her clothes off on film, and all we got was a gratuitous shot, to say the least -- it wasn't exactly a necessary scene for the film. But it wasn't until after she bore her breasts as Ginger Knowles that she was nominated for an Oscar her next go-round for her performance in 'Monster's Ball' -- and won.

So it would seem that stripping on film poses a double standard to female celebrities. You're not taken seriously as an actress if you start stripping Day One, yet aren't considered legit with impressive titles and performances under your belt until you do. Damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

Even with millions of dollars in the bag, a girl just can't seem to catch a break, which makes normal, middle class women feel hopeless.

Tags: breasts

Comments

(37)

Sunday 13 March

By AMack118

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I agree with you about Jennifer...I absolutely loved her before somebody convinced her she had to be a size two. She was the hottest thick chick on the planet! (she was like a sexy teddy bear that just needed to be squeezed!)

By JEB BUCKINGHAM

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Some guys love womens' legs, some like faces, some like breasts.I must be an a-- man, because people are always telling ME, "You're an a--, man!"

By tom

No wonder the value of the dollar keeps falling then if that is our currency. Skankboobies

By Zero

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Canada is like Hawaii, they're stuck in yesterday.

By butterfly666

When you have money, you buy FAKE breasts. Except for Jennifer, they all have to show some cleavage to get noticed, god knows they won't get noticed any other way.

By Dan Jones

false advertising, take off the clothes and some are real ugly

By grapost

Women are Psychos. They are constantly pushing their boobs in our faces to get attention, and then when men look or stare at them they call use perverts. They are the ones that are sick with their constant need to expose themselves to get attention.

By Sandy and Sue

I simply cannot understand what people (men?) find interesting
or erotic about big plastic tits.

By pete

It is shameful how hollywierd, the setter of the basis of our national morals is about as base as one can be. It's also shameful how so many women feel they have to degrade themselves to keep a job. Any job that asks you to crawl in sh!t isnt' worth having.

And Kathleen Turner stripped bare for her first movie role, and didn't get a nomination until she voiced a cartoon character, proving that good skills are more important than a naked body.

When are these people, both men and women, going to return the displaying their talent and not their bodies? What ever happened to the actors of the first half of the twentieth century? NONE of them had to expose themselves to win an award. Maybe they just had more pride in themselves along with the confidence in their abilities.

By courtney

um there's always been some women in hollywood that have fake breasts and ones that retain naturally bigger boobs afrter their finished nursing their kids like Joanne Woodward & Vanessa Redgrave both of whom nursed all three of their children. then again there's some in hollywood that have breast implants for reconstructive reasons like breast cancer or if you had a miscarriage that left your boobs asymetric like Adriene Curry

Monday 14 March

By Pat Wright

Men are Pigs!!!

By tdu1vme

God bless them all, the large and small !! And God bless the souls of those wonderful trendsetters for such beauty, the late Betty Grable, the late Marilyn Monroe, and the late Jayne Mansfield !!!

By Eric the Great

Lets all feel bad for the poor little rich girls. First of all, they're women, which automatically makes men want to see them naked. Secondly, if they choose to give them what they want, who's decision is it? I don't see anyone forcing them to take their shirts off. If you think that you have to take your top off to get an oscar and you DO it, then congrats on the oscar. But don't go around talking trash about the industry that paid for your mansion and exotic sports car. You undoubtedly knew the rules a very short time after entering the entertainment industry and you stayed in. If you didn't like it, you could have pursued a different career.

By sharon

I wished I had some "natural" cleavage to show. I would love to be able to fill out a bathing suit top.

It's not just men, you idiot. The Academy consists of many females as well. You're not getting tapped for an Oscar without the approval of women, too. The "Pig" is the industry and the audience.

Wednesday 16 March

By Edward

BORE her breasts?
So she gave birth to them?
Dude, it's BARED her breasts....

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