Throughout the Hollywood Industry, women have always been told to look a certain way, controlling their lives, not allowing them to live up to their full potential. It was quite common in the glamorous golden age of the early '40s and late '50s, but more than half a century later, that issue still controls women's lives today. 

The 1950s was the booming age for Hollywood, with many familiar faces filling up the screen, from Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, Grace Kelly, and many other glamorous actresses. 

Their life may have seemed perfect, but in fact, it was quite the opposite, a popular industry directing them like puppets.

Rita Hayworth, for example, a famous dancer and actress, who made Hollywood movies during her time, was known for her glamorous appearance and great personality and known by the press "The Love Goddess." behind the scenes, she didn't have a great life.

Born Margarita Carmen Cansino in Brooklyn, New York, and daughter of two Spanish dancers, Rita took her mother's maiden name and changed her name to Rita to appeal to more studios to get more roles. 

Early on in her career, she would get a few "ethnic" extra roles in films and many studio executives and first husband convinced her to change her looks to fit the role of what a”Hollywood actress "should look like". 

She had to undergo skin whitening, many plastic surgeries, and hairline electrolysis and was then transformed into red-haired goddess Rita Hayworth captivated by Hollywood. 

In one of her most famous movies, "Gilda," she plays a femme fattale, and her beauty glows through the camera in glamorous dresses and her dancing and singing. One of her most famous quotes that she went by was, "Every man I knew went to bed with Gilda... and woke up with me." meaning people expected her to look and act a certain way because of her role as Gilda, which in reality she was not. 

Some of the rules the icons of Hollywood followed were incredibly rigorous, including the pressure to look a certain way. Judy Garland, for example, even as a child, was force-fed sped and told to smoke lots of cigarettes to not make her as hungry. 

They were put on extreme diets to keep their slim figures, and Marlene Dietrich, an actress whose diet consisted solely of toast, cottage cheese, and broth. These stars were told to maintain their figures, and sports were encouraged. Some played tennis and swam, while others, like Monroe, lifted weights. 

Hayworth was not the only actress to deal with this. Monroe had to change her appearance among Bette Davis and hundreds of other actresses. However, it wasn't until the late 50's that women finally started to fight back to be controlled.

Ingrid Berman, a Swedish actress who emigrated to the US, didn't play by Hollywood rules. She refused to change her name, to be more appealing to the industry, and on-screen either didn't wear any makeup or more than was needed. She's known for saying, "To be born with good bones, good skin, and healthy disposition. I do everything they say you shouldn't." 

Another famous actress, Ava Gardner, represented the authentic way women are depicted in real life. In a film, she didn't bother to hide her cellulite, something that most women don't show in movies, changing the stigma of women at the time.

However, in 2022, hundreds of famous Hollywood actresses of our time are still critiqued and pressured to change their appearance to look better on a screen.

Jennifer Lawrence, known for her role as Katniss in The Hunger Games, has had her fair share of backlash from the film industry. Producers would call her fat and threaten her that she would lose the job if she didn't make an effort to lose weight. It came to a horrendous point where, "They brought in pictures of me where I was basically naked, and told me to use them as motivation for my diet. They thought that because of the way my career had gone, it wouldn't still hurt me," 

Jessica Chastain, one of the most well-known actresses in Hollywood, had a time when she couldn't get any roles because she was told she wasn't pretty enough. She claims, "Only in the past five years have people been telling me I'm attractive," While known for her signature red-hair similar to Hayworth, producers would tell her to dye her hair to get more roles, "Funny how defined we are by how we present ourselves." she says.

Amy Schumer, the well-known actress, and comedian, has also had her fair share of obstacles. Even after producing and writing for her hit-movie Trainwreck, she was still told to lose weight for the production she created.  She recounts that "It was explained to me before I did that movie that if you weigh over 140 pounds as a woman in Hollywood if you're on the screen, it will hurt people's eyes." She crumbled under the pressure of the film industry and had to lose some pounds before they started to film. Since she's stood up for herself regarding body image and haters, she has learned to love herself no matter what people say.

This stigma of pressuring women to look a certain way has been going on for years. Degrading the way women feel and look about themselves, making them feel insecure in their skin. It's truly something that should be discussed more and stopped, and society should learn that women are beautiful no matter what.