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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 5, 2026

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That first Ariel Winter quote doesn't seem to be anti-sexualization, rather that she has received criticism/hate/thermonuclear online bile as a result of posting in a sexualized way. The "sexism" she points out is that people tell her to stop sexualizing herself or are mean about it. Even in that case, I don't see the issue with her being upset that others sexualize her. Obviously, sexualizing oneself is likely to produce an outsized degree of sexual attention and criticism. However, that doesn't automatically imply she's a hypocrite or stupid or what-not. To analogize: most famous people have to live with a security detail for the rest of their life, deal with stalkers, etc. I think it would be unreasonable to tell a celebrity that they should just stop being famous (even if that's a valid "solution" to the problem), otherwise they're a hypocrite. In an ideal world, they could be famous without those issues, but the whackos have to ruin it. The same goes for sexualization. People are allowed to complain about the negative consequences or risks of an act while still engaging in said act - there is nothing logically compromising in doing so, in my view.

One can always add more epicycles, carry more water, and find more ways to gerrymander as to why it doesn’t count, why there's not a disconnect between a given female celebrity's words and her actions.

Just off the top of my head, Brie Larson and Scarlett Johansson could serve as additional examples with regard to their public remarks, outfits they wear to events, their bodily displays on film, and the photos and/or videos they take of themselves privately.

I don't think it counts as an epicycle to point out "actually, she isn't complaining about being sexualized".

I don’t think it’s that hard to do a brief websearch for more quotes from Winter or other female celebrities before a contentless one sentence drive-by, if the previous example were insufficiently close to “hello, I am a female celebrity and I woud like to complain about being sexualized”:

“…As women in the industry, we are totally over-sexualized and treated like objects,” she [Winter] said in an interview with Glamour. "Every article that has to do with me on a red carpet had to do with ‘Ariel Winter’s Crazy Cleavage!’ or ‘Ariel Winter Shows Huge Boobs at an Event!’

There’s also a HuffPost article “Ariel Winter Wants To Remind You That Girls Are Not Sexual Objects” where Ariel’s IG caption is signal boosted:

When you interrupt a girl's school day to force her to change clothes, or send her home because her shorts are too short or her bra straps are visible, you are telling her that making sure boys have a "distraction free" learning environment is more important than her education.

Instead of shaming girls for their bodies, teach boys that girls are not sexual objects.

Or a People article:

But according to Winter, it’s not just the toxic self-talk and Internet shaming that women have to overcome, it’s also the lessons that are being passed down from our government directly. She says, “Our leadership is really anti-women right now. Thanks to Donald Trump, we’re being objectified and made to feel bad about ourselves, so I think it’s really important for women to stick together and do the opposite of that; to let their bodies be seen and be heard, and to empower each other; to remind each other that what they look like is not the only thing that’s important when it comes to who they are.”

Bolding above mine. Impressive Trump hyperagency.

A wild Ariana Grande quote that appeared somewhere along the way:

Grande admitted she thought the fan's urgency was "cute and exciting" until he exclaimed to Mac Miller, "Ariana is sexy as hell man. I see you, I see you hitting that!"

The pop star, who was sitting right beside Miller during the confrontation, told fans she felt "sick and objectified" and explained, "Things like this happen all the time and are the kinds of moments that contribute to women's sense of fear and inadequacy." Grande felt compelled to address this specific instance, knowing the shame women have similarly felt after being demeaned by men.

Even temporarily putting Winter, Larson, or Johansson aside, additional quotes from PopSugar by similarly aged Chloe Moretz to Winter who was reportedly at one time or different times an ally or enemy or frenemy of Winter for whatever reason:

The star called out the Miss Universe pageant for sexualizing women's bodies during the swimsuit competition, posting her inspiring points on Twitter:

Miss universe is still judging women walking around in bathing suits. If it's based on confidence, why r we zooming in on their bodies?.. — Chloë Grace Moretz (@ChloeGMoretz) December 21, 2015

It's a new time.. I think it's time we cut the swimsuit section from miss Universe .. — Chloë Grace Moretz (@ChloeGMoretz) December 21, 2015

On top of it all, the host keeps overtly sexualizing the young women. What is happening on tv right now .. — Chloë Grace Moretz (@ChloeGMoretz) December 21, 2015

Let's do a miss universe based on interviews and public speaking and philanthropic tenacity — Chloë Grace Moretz (@ChloeGMoretz) December 21, 2015

Whether historically Moretz can be commonly found in bikini or underwear in her public work and personal photos I’ll leave as an exercise for the reader.