{"id":442864,"date":"2026-05-25T14:15:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T12:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/?p=442864"},"modified":"2026-05-25T14:16:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T12:16:47","slug":"tout-le-monde-parle-bras-meryl-streep-pourquoi-telle-fascination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/people\/everyones-talking-about-meryl-streeps-arms-why-such-fascination-442864","title":{"rendered":"Everyone is talking about Meryl Streep&#39;s arms: why such a fascination?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Meryl Streep continues to make headlines. The 76-year-old actress, who reprised her role as the ruthless Miranda Priestly in &quot;The Devil Wears Prada 2,&quot; is a true icon. Yet, instead of praising her undeniable talent, the public prefers to speculate about her supposed &quot;secret to youth&quot; and find answers in her &quot;muscular arms.&quot; While her figure receives numerous accolades, these compliments on her &quot;athletic&quot; physique are primarily a reflection of many societal pressures.<\/p>\n<h2> Toned arms that inspire admiration<\/h2>\n<p> <em>&quot;She&#39;s well-preserved for her age,&quot;<\/em> <em>&quot;What&#39;s her workout routine?&quot;<\/em> , <em>&quot;This woman is a phoenix,&quot;<\/em> <em>&quot;She must have incredible bone health.&quot;<\/em> For several weeks now, Meryl Streep&#39;s physique has become a topic of conversation in its own right on social media, which is usually quite harsh on women over 50. Internet users are praising her &quot;prominent biceps&quot; and &quot;strong back&quot; through compilations of photos salvaged from the red carpet.<\/p>\n<p>In the film &quot;The Devil Wears Prada 2,&quot; the actress&#39;s muscular physique is evident through her red dress with its almost architectural draping. Compared to a &quot;force of nature&quot; or even a &quot;feat of genetics,&quot; Meryl Streep clearly embodies an ideal of aging. Moreover, at an age when bat-like arms and a wrinkled neck are generally considered the norm, her clavicles, adorned with fibers and muscles, spontaneously attracted attention under the flattering glare of the spotlights. The media immediately tried to unravel the &quot;mystery of such a physique,&quot; with headlines about her love of swimming or listing her favorite exercises.<\/p>\n<p>This iconic figure of the silver screen, the most nominated actress at the Oscars, doesn&#39;t actually need to lift weights to land roles, whether dramatic or historical. However, while she&#39;s not known for action films or playing daredevil characters, she has already demonstrated her strength in &quot;Mamma Mia,&quot; a musical comedy where she performs technical feats and movements that require a firm grip. The actress who portrayed the &quot;Iron Lady&quot; has cultivated a steely physique off-screen. While muscular women are often considered &quot;too masculine,&quot; Meryl Streep seems to enjoy preferential treatment. <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px; min-width: 325px;\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@crunchycatp\/video\/7635425103538310401\" data-video-id=\"7635425103538310401\">\n<section> <a title=\"@crunchycatp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@crunchycatp?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@crunchycatp<\/a> good grievance <a title=\"fyp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/fyp?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#fyp<\/a> <a title=\"merylstreep\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/merylstreep?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#merylstreep<\/a> <a title=\"streep\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/streep?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#streep<\/a><a title=\"Meryl\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/meryl?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#meryl<\/a> <a title=\"\u266c original sound - m.i.n.d.i07\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/music\/original-sound-7545216806445763329?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u266c original sound - mindi07<\/a><\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2> False compliments that reinforce the dictates<\/h2>\n<p> From the age of 50, women are expected to look ten or twenty years younger and delay the signs of aging. Articles labeled &quot;senior&quot; encourage them to tone their bodies, smooth their skin, lose their post-menopausal belly, and trade crossword puzzles for a pair of dumbbells. This is especially blatant for those in the public eye. They must give the illusion of being immortal. Muscles are no longer seen as shock absorbers in case of a fall, but as visible evidence of &quot;good preservation.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>These collective compliments about the actress&#39;s prominent shoulders are, in fact, disguised injunctions. While Meryl Streep may be immune to osteoporosis and rheumatism, she is not immune to the disease of conformity. In contrast, actress <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/people\/beaute-age-brooke-shields-retrace-evolution-maillot-de-bain-417634\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brooke Shields<\/a> , a legendary face of 1980s films, suffered a completely different fate. Accused of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/people\/beautiful-60-year-old-brooke-shields-wants-to-change-her-perspective-on-aging-441551\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&quot;aging badly,&quot;<\/a> of having &quot;ruined her once-promising looks,&quot; she faced a wave of intolerance simply because her shoulders didn&#39;t look like they&#39;d just been frozen solid.<\/p>\n<p>In summary, women over 60 who display a lifted face, shapely legs and subtly defined arms are singled out as &quot;models of old age&quot; while all the others are &quot;examples not to follow&quot;, bad ambassadors of the passing of time.<\/p>\n<h2> Women&#39;s physiques, still at the heart of the debate<\/h2>\n<p> Meryl Streep&#39;s case is not isolated: it is part of a long tradition where the bodies of public women become a space for collective projection. Whether they are actresses, singers or journalists, their appearance is regularly commented on, dissected, sometimes even ranked according to implicit criteria of &quot;youth&quot; and &quot;respectability&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>What&#39;s striking here is less the admiration itself than its form. Behind compliments on &quot;toned arms&quot; or an &quot;athletic figure&quot; often lies a logic of comparison: &quot;looking good for one&#39;s age,&quot; &quot;remaining desirable despite the passage of time,&quot; or even &quot;resisting&quot; the body&#39;s natural changes. In other words, the gaze directed at women doesn&#39;t stop at what they do, but continues to evaluate them through what they show.<\/p>\n<p>On the one hand, these admiring comments welcome women&#39;s muscles with kindness, but on the other hand, they reflect a far from healthy ideal: that of a woman whose vitality is written on her body like an expiration date on yogurt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meryl Streep continues to make headlines. The 76-year-old actress, who reprised her role as the ruthless Miranda Priestly...","protected":false},"author":8340,"featured_media":442871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_msn":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[307],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-442864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-people"],"image":{"medium":["https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Meryl-Streep-bras-200x113.jpg",200,113,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Meryl-Streep-bras-500x281.jpg",500,281,true]},"custom":{"td_video":"","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Meryl-Streep-bras.jpg","author":{"name":"\u00c9milie Laurent","avatar":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-2f5d8c00d5d5c27f8ce4d9b3f9015467-96x96.png"},"categories":[{"term_id":307,"name":"Celebrities","slug":"people","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":307,"taxonomy":"category","description":"<p>The Celebrities section of The Body Optimist follows celebrity news from a specific angle: what stars\u2019 public statements reveal about bodies, mental health, aging and beauty standards. Actresses, singers, models and athletes open up about their insecurities, their battles and their refusal of rigid beauty rules, stories that echo questions many women ask themselves.<\/p>\n<h2>What you\u2019ll find in the Celebrities section<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Bodies and body shaming<\/strong>: stars criticized for their weight, figure or face, and how they respond to the comments.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mental health<\/strong>: eating disorders, body dysmorphia and anxiety, as when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/people\/after-suffering-from-body-dysmorphia-actress-lana-condor-returns-to-the-pressure-related-to-appearance-446438\">Lana Condor spoke about body dysmorphia and the pressure to look a certain way<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Aging and unfiltered beauty<\/strong>: growing older in the spotlight, gray hair, makeup-free faces and the pressure to stay young forever.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Motherhood and life choices<\/strong>: pregnancy, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/people\/after-criticism-of-her-appearance-the-model-confides-in-her-postpartum-body-446593\">postpartum body<\/a> under public scrutiny and the choice not to have children.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Representation and diversity<\/strong>: plus-size artists, LGBTQIA+ public figures and athletes who challenge conventional ideas of femininity.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Celebrity style<\/strong>: red carpet and everyday looks as inspiration to adapt to your own body type.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How can you follow celebrity news without comparing yourself?<\/h2>\n<p>Following celebrities without comparing yourself means remembering that their images are the result of professional work: lighting, makeup, styling, picking the best shots and sometimes retouching. A few habits help:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Focus on what the person says or creates rather than on their weight or age.<\/li>\n<li>Notice which accounts make you feel uneasy and clean up your feed.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid commenting on celebrities\u2019 bodies, even to compliment them: praising weight loss reinforces the very norm that causes harm.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t treat a makeup-free face as a feat, as our article on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/psycho\/confiance-en-soi\/applauding-celebrities-posing-without-makeup-heres-why-we-need-to-stop-431912\">why we should stop applauding stars who pose without makeup<\/a> explains.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Our approach: listening to what stars say about their bodies<\/h2>\n<p>Celebrity news is often fleeting. What interests us are the moments when a public figure talks about their body, their health or the pressures they face, because these stories resonate with our readers\u2019 daily lives. We aim to share these voices rather than judge anyone\u2019s figure, and to place each story in a broader context: the pressure to be thin, ageism and sexism in the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n<h2>Articles to start with<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Actress Madhuri Dixit opens up about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/people\/actress-madhuri-dixit-criticized-for-her-weight-reveals-she-has-suffered-from-body-shaming-444560\">the body shaming she faced over her weight<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>An actress told she wasn\u2019t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/people\/deemed-not-attractive-enough-leading-role-actress-denounces-beauty-standards-446807\">\u201cattractive enough\u201d for a lead role<\/a> calls out beauty standards in the film industry.<\/li>\n<li>Heidi Klum talks candidly about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/people\/heidi-klum-discusses-weight-gain-related-to-menopause-435490\">weight gain during menopause<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Olivia Wilde <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/people\/actress-olivia-wilde-famous-benefits-age-446182\">celebrates the upside of getting older<\/a>, pushing back against the pressure to stay young.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n<h3>What is body shaming?<\/h3>\n<p>Body shaming means criticizing, mocking or judging someone based on their physical appearance: weight, height, skin, body hair, age or facial features. Public figures are especially exposed because every photo of them is publicly commented on, but it affects everyone, online and in everyday life.<\/p>\n<h3>What is body dysmorphia?<\/h3>\n<p>Body dysmorphic disorder, often called body dysmorphia, is a mental health condition marked by an excessive preoccupation with a perceived flaw in one\u2019s appearance that is minor or invisible to others. It can cause intense distress and repetitive behaviors, such as constantly checking one\u2019s reflection. Only a health professional can diagnose it and recommend appropriate support.<\/p>\n<h3>Why do celebrities\u2019 stories about their bodies matter?<\/h3>\n<p>When a widely followed public figure talks about insecurities, an eating disorder or criticism of their weight, they bring visibility to an experience that is often lived in shame. These stories can help others speak up and encourage them to seek help. They remain personal accounts, however, and are no substitute for advice from a health professional.<\/p>\n<p>Want to go further? Our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/culture\">Culture<\/a> section analyzes movies, TV and music through the lens of representation, our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/societe\">Society<\/a> section looks at beauty standards and discrimination, and our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/psycho\/bodypositive\">Body positive<\/a> section supports you on the road to accepting your body.<\/p>","parent":0,"count":2802,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":307,"category_count":2802,"category_description":"<p>The Celebrities section of The Body Optimist follows celebrity news from a specific angle: what stars\u2019 public statements reveal about bodies, mental health, aging and beauty standards. Actresses, singers, models and athletes open up about their insecurities, their battles and their refusal of rigid beauty rules, stories that echo questions many women ask themselves.<\/p>\n<h2>What you\u2019ll find in the Celebrities section<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Bodies and body shaming<\/strong>: stars criticized for their weight, figure or face, and how they respond to the comments.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mental health<\/strong>: eating disorders, body dysmorphia and anxiety, as when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/people\/after-suffering-from-body-dysmorphia-actress-lana-condor-returns-to-the-pressure-related-to-appearance-446438\">Lana Condor spoke about body dysmorphia and the pressure to look a certain way<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Aging and unfiltered beauty<\/strong>: growing older in the spotlight, gray hair, makeup-free faces and the pressure to stay young forever.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Motherhood and life choices<\/strong>: pregnancy, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/people\/after-criticism-of-her-appearance-the-model-confides-in-her-postpartum-body-446593\">postpartum body<\/a> under public scrutiny and the choice not to have children.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Representation and diversity<\/strong>: plus-size artists, LGBTQIA+ public figures and athletes who challenge conventional ideas of femininity.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Celebrity style<\/strong>: red carpet and everyday looks as inspiration to adapt to your own body type.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How can you follow celebrity news without comparing yourself?<\/h2>\n<p>Following celebrities without comparing yourself means remembering that their images are the result of professional work: lighting, makeup, styling, picking the best shots and sometimes retouching. A few habits help:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Focus on what the person says or creates rather than on their weight or age.<\/li>\n<li>Notice which accounts make you feel uneasy and clean up your feed.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid commenting on celebrities\u2019 bodies, even to compliment them: praising weight loss reinforces the very norm that causes harm.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t treat a makeup-free face as a feat, as our article on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/psycho\/confiance-en-soi\/applauding-celebrities-posing-without-makeup-heres-why-we-need-to-stop-431912\">why we should stop applauding stars who pose without makeup<\/a> explains.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Our approach: listening to what stars say about their bodies<\/h2>\n<p>Celebrity news is often fleeting. What interests us are the moments when a public figure talks about their body, their health or the pressures they face, because these stories resonate with our readers\u2019 daily lives. We aim to share these voices rather than judge anyone\u2019s figure, and to place each story in a broader context: the pressure to be thin, ageism and sexism in the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n<h2>Articles to start with<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Actress Madhuri Dixit opens up about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/people\/actress-madhuri-dixit-criticized-for-her-weight-reveals-she-has-suffered-from-body-shaming-444560\">the body shaming she faced over her weight<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>An actress told she wasn\u2019t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/people\/deemed-not-attractive-enough-leading-role-actress-denounces-beauty-standards-446807\">\u201cattractive enough\u201d for a lead role<\/a> calls out beauty standards in the film industry.<\/li>\n<li>Heidi Klum talks candidly about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/people\/heidi-klum-discusses-weight-gain-related-to-menopause-435490\">weight gain during menopause<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Olivia Wilde <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/people\/actress-olivia-wilde-famous-benefits-age-446182\">celebrates the upside of getting older<\/a>, pushing back against the pressure to stay young.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n<h3>What is body shaming?<\/h3>\n<p>Body shaming means criticizing, mocking or judging someone based on their physical appearance: weight, height, skin, body hair, age or facial features. Public figures are especially exposed because every photo of them is publicly commented on, but it affects everyone, online and in everyday life.<\/p>\n<h3>What is body dysmorphia?<\/h3>\n<p>Body dysmorphic disorder, often called body dysmorphia, is a mental health condition marked by an excessive preoccupation with a perceived flaw in one\u2019s appearance that is minor or invisible to others. It can cause intense distress and repetitive behaviors, such as constantly checking one\u2019s reflection. Only a health professional can diagnose it and recommend appropriate support.<\/p>\n<h3>Why do celebrities\u2019 stories about their bodies matter?<\/h3>\n<p>When a widely followed public figure talks about insecurities, an eating disorder or criticism of their weight, they bring visibility to an experience that is often lived in shame. These stories can help others speak up and encourage them to seek help. They remain personal accounts, however, and are no substitute for advice from a health professional.<\/p>\n<p>Want to go further? Our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/culture\">Culture<\/a> section analyzes movies, TV and music through the lens of representation, our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/societe\">Society<\/a> section looks at beauty standards and discrimination, and our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/psycho\/bodypositive\">Body positive<\/a> section supports you on the road to accepting your body.<\/p>","cat_name":"Celebrities","category_nicename":"people","category_parent":0}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8340"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442864"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442887,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442864\/revisions\/442887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}