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Pop Culture

Melanie Lynskey has perfect response after being told her body didn't fit her 'The Last Of Us' role

"I don’t need to be muscly. That’s what henchmen are for."

melanie lynskey, last of us hbo

"I don’t need to be muscly. That’s what henchmen are for."

In HBO’s “The Last of Us,” actress Melanie Lynskey plays Kathleen—a tough, formidable villain and ruthless leader of a rebel alliance, not to mention apocalypse survivor.

Do these attributes require any particular sort of body type? Common sense screams no. And yet, outdated views dictate that the answer must be yes.

Case in point: former "America's Top Model'' winner Adrianne Curry recently criticized the legitimacy of Lynskey for the role solely because of her naturally soft body frame, implying that only someone toned and athletic could pull it off.

Referencing a photo of Lynskey in a dress for InStyle Magazine, Curry tweeted, "her body says life of luxury...not post apocolyptic [sic] warlord. where is linda hamilton when you need her?"

Lynskey, who is no stranger to standing up to body critics, had some choice words to say in response.


"Firstly- this is a photo from my cover shoot for InStyle magazine, not a still from HBO’s The Last Of Us," Lynskey wrote. "And I’m playing a person who meticulously planned & executed an overthrow of FEDRA. I am supposed to be SMART, ma’am. I don’t need to be muscly. That’s what henchmen are for."

It’s a plague that’s been on the strong female lead since breaking away from the role of victim or the wife—this notion that she has to possess qualities we typically find exemplary in men, be it with a hardened gym body, untouchable toughness, or a solid, singular focus. And this bias in fiction spills over into the real world. As Lynksey noted in a follow-up post, “Women, and especially women in leadership positions, are scrutinized incessantly. Her voice is too shrill. Her voice is too quiet. She pays too much attention to how she looks. She doesn’t pay enough attention to how she looks. She’s too angry. She’s not angry enough.'"

But Lynskey wants to dismantle all that. The actress wrote that she felt it was important to portray Kathleen as “feminine, and soft-voiced, and all the things that we’ve been told are ‘weak,’” adding that what made her casting “exciting” was that it imagined “a future in which people start listening to the person with the best ideas. Not the coolest or the toughest person…The person who is doing the planning…The one who’s decisive.”

From being constantly reminded since the age of 17 to be “thin, confident and pretty” to having a crew member suggest a personal trainer for her acclaimed role on “Yellowjackets,” Lynskey has constantly had to address unsolicited comments about her shape. And while that is exhausting to think about, she feels that, other than the acting itself, “the most exciting part of my job is subverting expectations.”

Goes to show that Lynskey knows exactly how to be tough, whether fending off zombies or out-of-touch comments on social media.

Joy

Sorry, Labradors. After 31 years, America has a new favorite dog.

The American Kennel Club has crowned a new favorite.

via Pixabay

A sad-looking Labrador Retriever

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via Google and Freepik

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What makes the situation even worse is that our information was put online without any of our consent.

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An 8-year-old snuck his handwritten book onto a library shelf. Now it has a 56-person waiting list.

Dillon Helbig's 81-page graphic novel— written by "Dillon His Self"—captured the hearts of his local librarians and their patrons.

Dillon Helbig's 81-page graphic novel captured the hearts of his local librarians.

Writing a book is no easy task, even for adult professional writers. Many would-be authors dream of a day when their work can be found on library shelves, unsure if it will ever come.

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Dillon wrote his 81-page graphic novel, "The Adventures of Dillon Helbig's Crismis" (written by "Dillon His Self") in a hardcover journal with colored pencils over the course of a few days. He even put a label on the back of the book that reads "Made in Idho" [sic] and put an illustrated spine label on it as well. Then, without telling anyone, he brought it to his local library in Boise, Idaho, and slipped it in among the books in the children's section.

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Becca’s friend’s hotel called her an Uber so she could get to a local store to buy a new phone. The driver she was incredibly lucky to be connected with was a lot more than a guy with a car in a time of need, he was a guardian angel named Raul Torres from Fresno, California, six hours north of Indio.

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44 years ago he became her protector after a terrible act. Today, they've been reunited in love.

Betsy and Irv are finally getting the happy ending they deserve. Together.

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There’s a whole genre of music and movies dedicated to the idea of someone being swept off of their feet after circumstances tried to keep them from their true love. Romance novels could single handedly keep public libraries and bookstores afloat. Everyone loves "love" and the story of Betsy and Irv just takes the cake. Betsy Sailor attended Penn State University as a business major, which was almost unheard of in 1978 and Irv Pankey attended the university while playing football. The pair’s paths never crossed, until an unfortunate incident bonded the two forever.

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@SopheAlice/TikTok

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