Kathy Griffin’s ‘Fashion Police’ Exit: Body Shaming Is Going out of Style

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/03/13/kathy-griffin-fashion-police-exit-body-shaming-women-out-of-style?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-03-13

The era of entertainment reporters dissing women’s bodies and fashion choices could be coming to a close. Or at least, Kathy Griffin’s announcement on Thursday that she’d be exiting E!'s Fashion Police—after three months on the job—seriously disrupted the acceptability of criticizing stars’ outfits and bodies.

“Listen, I am no saint…. But I do not want to use my comedy to contribute to a culture of unattainable perfectionism and intolerance towards difference,” wrote Griffin in a statement she posted to Twitter. “I want to help women, gay kids, people of color and anyone who feels underrepresented to have a voice and a LAUGH!”

Griffin, who was a close friend of late Fashion Police host Joan Rivers, wrote that she joined the show to continue Rivers’ “legacy as a woman being brash and eccentric on television.” However, Griffin has found that her eagerness to engage in a bit of good-humored roasting of Hollywood stars is at odds with the desires of the show’s producers.

Griffin’s exit comes on the heels of a racially charged controversy that followed the show’s Oscars coverage. Fashion Police cohost Giuliana Rancic said that actor Zendaya Coleman’s dreadlocked hairstyle probably “smelled of patchouli oil. Or weed.”