What the body is meant to look like

THANK YOU, Rachel Abramowitz, for giving us “The Skinny on Hollywood,” (Aug. 19)! As a 65-year-old size 20 actress who has been slogging through the showbiz world since 1965, I commend her. Indeed, I give her an oversized Oscarette! And hoo-hah for Jodie Foster for standing up for those of us who refuse to become what I can only call caricatures of human beings.

On British TV you see actresses who have worked their entire careers in various sizes and at various ages, and the product is a lot more interesting because of it.

Judith Drake

Burbank

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Thanks to Rachel Abramowitz for so thoughtfully reporting about accelerating media pressure on young actresses to be bone thin. But shame on the L.A. Times for recent moves into that same trash journalism, including photo-driven online sections like “Celebrity News.”

For adults, this may just be mindless diversion, but to preteen girls like my daughter and her peers -- inundated with endless paparazzi images -- these anorexic icons are presented as the norm.

Skeletal celebutantes are now your primary representation of a young woman’s success in our culture.

Mark Schubb

Santa Monica