A mature point of view on Ariel
OK, let's try this here. I'm sure I'll get shredded, but let's roll.
First off, the elephant in the room - the reduction. I'm of two minds here - the male and the mature. The male: like any red blooded male who likes curvy ladies, it's sad to see a decision like this made, regardless of the reasons. Granted, it's pigheaded and immature, but guys do have certain ideas that they would like a woman to fulfill physically and, speaking for myself, Ariel checks a lot of those boxes.
OK, that's the testosterone done talking, now let's get real.
Clearly, for health and emotional reasons, this needed to be done for Ariel. At the end of the day, the Greek chorus doesn't matter a lick if you are in physical pain or just sick of the remarks. And don't kid yourself for one minute if you think it's just guys ogling. Girls can be just as cutting and judgmental, her age or younger especially so. For every guy gazing or every rude comment, there just as easily could have been a girl who either felt threatened or jealous by what she had (and actually still has) and would have their own ways of making it known. Ariel was just frankly stuck and she made a choice to make herself happy and give herself the freedom to be herself.
So now what? Well, Modern Family will keep going for a while, so she's got job security. The only mistake she has really made, and maybe life and the show's schedule prevented this, is she hasn't branched out. She really hasn't made a big starring role movie in a long time, so she has no footprint beyond television. That could change, but if Modern Family ended this year, she'd have some work to do to get caught up and establish what kind of an actress she is, what roles she can really play.
For anyone who accuses me of white knighting or something else here, let's be clear - a guy like me might as well be dreaming of an astronaut right now, the odds would be better of doing that then getting with Ariel. It's a type thing, as well as being completely unrealistic. But I thought an honest mature opinion couldn't hurt here. For my part, I'll keep admiring from the sidelines, hoping things work out and that after all she has been through, especially in the last six years or so, she's finally in a good place that makes herself happy. That's the only person in the world she owes a damn thing to really.