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Hilary Duff: The unsung keystone of "Younger"
Hilary Duff: The unsung keystone of subversive comedy ‘Younger’
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Maybe some viewers took only a moment to gauge Duff’s charisma as Kelsey — her cheery strength and steely pragmatism; her willingness to push back on certain invisible-to-Liza feminist generational markers — and figured out right away that Kelsey would never be a villain. Those viewers are lucky, because they live in the world the show — all of us — desperately wants to exist.
But for the rest of us, the continual cascade of sweetness and surprise is the whole meal, as these attractive, ambitious young ladies keep falling into situations another show would use to pit them against each other… And then uses them to bring them closer and closer together. There is no manipulation in their mutual support, no “gotcha” moment for the rookie or reassuring-the-elderly trainwreck moment for the ingenue
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Like the show, Hilary Duff is: Earnest, sweet and playful, with a heart of gold. Like Kelsey, she by all appearances: Works hard for her career, has zero interest in stumbling into scandal, and mostly wants to have fun. She appears to be a devoted mother, daughter and sister, and unlike almost any Disney kids of her era, has never betrayed or pushed back against her squeaky-clean image.
The biggest stories about Duff include such frontpage news as the fact that she is divorced, and um… has tattoos? Got veneers once? The naughtiest behavior she’s been able to come up with, regarding her teen years, is sneaking into clubs. There were some compromising photos with ex Mike Comrie, yes, but we don’t blame consenting adults for being humans, we blame the creeps that invade that privacy to which we are all entitled.
When Hilary played around with unconventional hair color in 2015 (rose gold, seapunk green, violet-grey), the response was a whole lot of eye-rolling: What, is she trying to be cool now? This woman of 29 is in a total lose-lose: Do anything remotely trendy or edgy, she’s an over-eager try-hard; never push the boundaries of the young blonde basic, that’s who she’ll always be.
We aren’t prepared for somebody this normal. She’s been too busy working hard at her career, and devoting herself to the roles she lands, to act out all over social media. That’s no shade on Lohan or anybody else; women in Hollywood get more than enough incentive, validation, outright financial benefit, from their public drama: But that’s exactly the double bind, isn’t it? Be derided, or be invisible — and hope your work speaks for itself.
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http://screenertv.com/television/you...lsey-feminist/
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