FEEDING THE BEAST

‘Stranger Things’ star Millie Bobby Brown has started a viral conversation on the way we talk about women online. But, asks Olivia Petter, has she accidentally helped build a culture in which people feel at liberty to rip into how women look?

- Olivia Petter

No woman deserves to be scrutinised over her appearance, least of all when she’s just 21. And yet, this is something Millie Bobby Brown has been forced to contend with since the age of 12 when she first shot to stardom thanks to her role as Eleven in Stranger Things. Recently, though, things have taken a darker turn, with the actor facing such a tirade of criticisms following red-carpet appearances that she felt compelled to issue a statement in response.

“I want to take a moment to address something that I think is bigger than just me, something that affects every young woman who grows up under public scrutiny,” Brown began in a video shared on Instagram. “I started in this industry when I was 10 years old. I grew up in front of the world, and for some reason, people can’t seem to grow with me. Instead, they act like I’m supposed to stay frozen in time, like I should still look the way I did on Stranger Things season one. And because I don’t, I’m now a target.”

She went on to read headlines that described her as “ageing so badly” as well as naming the journalists behind them who were “so desperate to tear young women down”, accusing them of “bullying”. Brown continued: “The fact that adult writers are spending their time dissecting my face, my body, my choices is disturbing. And the fact that some of these articles are written by women makes it even worse.”

All of this is grim, not least because it’s nothing new. These fault-finding missions are something almost every young woman in the public eye has faced, with everyone from Kylie Jenner to Selena Gomez having been consistently, and ruthlessly, targeted by those who feel they have the right to dissect and analyse women’s faces and bodies. Nothing guarantees immunity, either. There’s always something somebody will have a problem with; if you’re not beautiful enough you’re probably too beautiful. And so on.