Ashley Judd made headlines last week when she addressed criticisms of her appearance in an essay written for The Daily Beast. The essay addressed the offensive, sexist nature of the media’s speculation about her face looking “puffy.”  In her essay she explained that her appearance had changed a bit because she’d gained some weight and had been taking medication for her sinuses. But far more important, she confronted the much bigger, uglier problem of today’s media being hyper-judgmental of women’s appearances in general. She writes:

“I choose to address it because the conversation was pointedly nasty, gendered, and misogynistic and embodies what all girls and women in our culture, to a greater or lesser degree, endure every day, in ways both outrageous and subtle. The assault on our body image, the hypersexualization of girls and women and subsequent degradation of our sexuality as we walk through the decades, and the general incessant objectification is what this conversation allegedly about my face is really about.”

For taking a stand against sexism in media and for all of her other admirable charity work in places like war-ravaged Congo, we are celebrating Judd as our DoGooder Celebrity of the week!