Kathy Griffin: From D-List to F-List!!!

According to deranged-lister, I mean d-lister, Kathy Griffin, Bristol Palin is overweight. Huh??? Yeah, you read that right. While addressing troops during VH1's Divas' Salute, Griffin said Bristol was "the only contestant in the history of the show to actually gain weight." The insults did not end there. Griffin went on to tell the crowd: "She gained like 30 pounds a week.... I swear to God, it was fantastic. She's like the white Precious." This is sick! Not only are Griffin's comments way off base and totally disgusting, it illustrates the blatant hypocrisy that exists in society today. Kathy Griffin is not the only individual in Hollywood throwing personal insults around. Stuff like this is happening everyday as individuals are judged on their personal appearance instead of talent, intellect and contributions to society. We saw this throughout the 2008 presidential campaign. Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton were both unfairly judged on either their looks or what they wore while out on the campaign trail. Never before, in the history of politics, did we see candidates judged on such a personal level.

Griffin calling Bristol Palin overweight is like calling an apple an orange. When did anyone give Griffin the right to throw out insults like they were water balloons? With individuals like Kathy Griffin, it is no wonder so many young women struggle with body-image issues; furthermore,it is no wonder so many young people suffer from eating disorders. As a young woman myself, I know firsthand how hard it is to live up to the perfect "Hollywood image." I work with high school students everyday, and I see firsthand the struggles they endure. When Kathy Griffin made this ridiculous statement, she not only was unfairly attacking Bristol Palin, but women of every age, race and creed. The issue of body image is not a new concept of discussion. When the racy, controversial Miss USA pageant photos were released prior to last May's pageant, I was interviewed for a story on foxnews.com, in which I said,

Many of the photos push the line between what is appropriate and what is not. As a young woman, I know firsthand how much women are judged by their appearance. I am a big supporter of pageants, and I feel pageants do help to influence women into feeling good about themselves by promoting their intelligence and artistic skills... but we live in a culture in which sex sells, and I have to wonder if the Miss USA organization is falling victim to this.

Far too often, women have fallen victim to society's expectations instead of doing what makes them happy. This is why it was so refreshing to see a young woman like Bristol Palin participate on Dancing with the Stars. We saw a beautiful young woman who did something for herself. Bristol did not give a darn about what society thought. She decided to take a stand and just dance, and dance she did. Bristol went out there, worked her butt off and danced her way into the finals. It was so refreshing to see a real-life woman on the show. It was great to actually see a woman who could care less about what Hollywood expects. I commend Bristol for shattering the the notion that one has to be a size "0" to get your groove on. Shame on Griffin for calling this average-size, beautiful woman overweight. I know a lot of Bristol's success on DWTS stemmed from the fact that modern-day women relate to her. Women, like me, relate to Bristol because she is one of us. She goes out and gets things done, just like her mama bear.

Kathy Griffin better watch out who she targets because I know I would not want to mess with the Palin mama grizzlies. Perhaps Griffin would be better suited to making jokes about her pal Ricky has-been Hollywood, but something tells me she would still end up the butt of all of the jokes, given the fact that Ricky's two minutes of fame pretty much ran out a while ago, and Kathy's fame value really never was worth much anyway.

(Follow me on Twitter @RachelleFriberg.)