Why do we keep making thin women the patron saints of body positivity?

Jennifer Lawrence opened up Monday about being “humiliated” early in her career when a producer told her to “lose 15 pounds in two weeks." She says he subsequently asked her to strip as a means of psyching her into it.

If true, the experience she's described is shitty, it's fucked up and can also be classified as harassment in the highest form. There's nothing I, or anyone else, could say to belittle that.

But what I will say is I don't know when we collectively decided to make Jennifer Lawrence the face of body positivity in Hollywood for generations of women to come. True, just because you or I see Jennifer Lawrence as extremely fit, beautiful and thin doesn't mean that's precisely how she perceives herself, but let's be realistic about this.

Her films have grossed over $5.5 billion worldwide, and she was the highest-paid actress in the world for two years in a row in 2015 and 2016. I hate to say it, but I know that's not because every person on this planet has suddenly become so #woke we're paying that much to see someone we don't think is at least pretty hot — we don't even reply to texts from people we deem unfit.

There's a reason everyone in Hollywood is conventionally “attractive."

The only thing more mind-boggling than articles like Vogue's “6 Times Jennifer Lawrence Took a Stand on Body Positivity" is headers in the article about her “redefining what it means to have a 'normal' body."

The body positivity movement is one that needs to be spearheaded by the kind of women who don't have objectively “normal" bodies, and who have experienced serious setbacks in both their life and career because of the way the majority of people view them, not some extremely small Hollywood minority.

We want women who, against all odds, worked their way into the inner circle of that Hollywood elite, but know it's only because they're either wildly funny, or truly, exceptionally talented, because looks wise it's a cruel reality they wouldn't be there otherwise.

Every body is different, and Jennifer Lawrence is allowed to take issue with her own, but we need to stop regarding her as some wealth of knowledge when it comes to the way curvy, heavy women have been regarded as lesser over time, and particularly in industries so focused on looks and physicality.

She the same person who, on the 2013 Oscar red carpet, humble bragged about stopping at a McDonalds on her way, telling the interviewer, “I’m seeing you talk and all I’m seeing is me being pissed that I didn’t get fries.”

Liking fries isn't quirky, it isn't a personality and it doesn't classify someone as more knowledgeable on the subject of body positivity. Her capitalizing on the emotions of women who have adopted the movement out of necessity, not popularity, is just further proof she's not the right woman for the job.

@carolinephinney