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Ashley Judd Slams Criticism of Her Fuller Face

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Ashley Judd attends Ashley Judd in Conversation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime at the United Nations on March 14, 2012 in New York City.

Ashley Judd is not pleased.

The actress, 43, was the subject of plastic surgery speculation last month when she stepped out with a noticeably fuller face. And although the Missing star's rep already shot down those rumors, explaining that Judd is taking medication for a serious sinus infection, Judd wrote a lengthy diatribe Monday on the Daily Beast decrying the chatter about her appearance.

Related: PHOTOS: Celebs who love their bodies

"The conversation [about my face] 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," Judd writes, adding that the debate is "really about" what she calls "the assault on [women's] body image."

The daughter of singer Naomi Judd and the sister of Wynonna blames "the patriarchy" for perpetuating "this abnormal obsession with women's faces and bodies. . . [We] have internalized patriarchy almost seamlessly."

Related: PHOTOS: Stars respond to criticism about their appearances

By making her opinions known, the Kentucky native (who earned a Master's in Public Administration at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2010) says she hopes she "can generate a new conversation."

"It doesn't matter if [women] are aging naturally or resorting to surgical assistance," Judd shares. "We all experience brutal criticism."

PHOTOS: Hollywood feuds

Tell Us: What do you think of Judd's earnest op-ed?

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