Ellen DeGeneres is sick and tired of the double standard when it comes to women and body image. The talk show host and “American Idol” judge discusses the issue with Katie Couric on CBS Evening News saying, "It's a double standard because there are men with really beautiful women that don't have great bodies, and yet nobody's saying anything about that. Women [think they] need to keep themselves up to look good for a man or for society. It's not fair."
In the interview with Couric, Ellen says airbrushing is one of the things that really bothers her the most. "Women are looking at bodies like that and going, 'My stomach doesn't look like that. I'm supposed to look like that?! So they starve themselves and they work out like crazy."
Beauty isn't about being stick-skinny, Ellen says it's about being healthy and happy. She adds: "It's not important. We put the wrong emphasis on what beauty is and what health is. Health is being vibrant and having energy and being happy. If you're healthy, it's got nothing to do with how much you weigh."
Ellen tells CBS Evening News that her relationship with wife Portia de Rossi is what keeps her healthy and happy.
It also sounds like Ellen is bringing the same attitude of acceptance and kindness to the “American Idol” set. She says she is finding it difficult to be critical of the contestants. "I'm getting good at delivering bad news, myself, but I'm trying to do it in a tender way. … I hate hurting people's feelings, so that, I think, is the hardest part. I think we have good people … I'm going to fight very, very hard to keep the people that I believe in, so that we have a wide variety … somebody for everybody, I hope."