Kate Winslet

Julia Gorin’s defense of the zaftig Kate Winslet in “Titanic” (Commentary, March 9) missed one point. Not only was she a healthier-looking leading lady, the softer-faced and fuller-figured young woman was the ideal of beauty in that era. The female lead also had to be believable performing feats of strength unusual for any upper-class woman of the time. No bird-boned actress could be believed bodily hauling even the exceedingly boyish Leonardo DiCaprio over the front seat of a car into the back.

There was one glaring glitch--the millionaire fiance still willing to marry the Winslet character, although he was already sleeping with her. This was a time when the Victorian mind-set almost certainly would have made him write her off as a loose woman, fun, but not suitable to be his wife. She, primed to marry him for his money, not for love, was not likely to have taken that chance.

Standards of beauty seem to be based on what is rare, and today all but impossible to achieve. A big cheer for the more lushly endowed actress on the screen, and healthier role models for young women.

KAYE KLEM

Mission Viejo

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I find it sad to note that in her defense of a relatively normal figure, not even Gorin could avoid writing, “She was pleasantly plump in scenes.” Is the disdain for the female figure so great in this society that even a writer criticizing this disdain cannot resist an unwitting slap?

Less that a decade before the Titanic went down the hourglass figure was the rage--women were removing their floating ribs so that they could have a wasp waist of 14 to 16 inches. All of this contorting of the female figure will stop only when women learn to appreciate themselves--not what others think they should be--and say, enough.

DEBRA L. WILEY

Inglewood

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I have been increasingly infuriated and disgusted to read so many reviews savaging Winslet for the apparently unforgivable crime of not being anorexic. I have been following Winslet’s career since her astonishing work in “Heavenly Creatures.” I think she is both talented and beautiful, and my boyfriend thinks the same. Perhaps movie critics should be required to publish a photograph of themselves next to their reviews, as well as a listing of all vital statistics. Then the public can decide whether or not to listen to the reviews based solely on the critic’s physical attractiveness, weight or (gasp!) amount of remaining hair.

SANDRA WILLARD

Los Angeles