Actress Jennifer Aniston published an essay in response to the persistent news that claims she is pregnant every time she has had a big meal. But she is not only addressing the headlines that speculate about her life. Aniston talks about the general image that tabloids and gossips create towards women, dehumanizing them to a living thing that is meant to fit the Hollywood beauty standards, including having children “to be complete.”
The 47-year-old actor, producer, and director published an essay online to express how she feels towards the constant headlines that say she is pregnant or that she and her husband, “Leftovers” actor Justin Theroux, are adopting or having a baby to save their relationship.
Aniston published her statement in the Huffington Post Tuesday. She starts explaining that she is writing her thoughts and not posting them on social media because she does not use them. What she makes clear from the first moment is that she never responds gossip, but she wanted to participate in a larger conversation.
She said that if she is considered a symbol to some people, she is an example for those people, on how they see their mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, female friends, and colleagues. She added that the way she is portrayed by the media is a reflection of how society sees and portrays women in general, that are tied to a standard of beauty.
But what Aniston states is that cultural standards are a “collective acceptance… a subconscious agreement” that girls absorb from an early age. For the “Cake” actress, little girls are attacked with messages of them not being pretty unless they are thin. Today beauty standards tell them they do not deserve attention unless they look like super models or actresses on the cover of a magazine.
Jennifer Aniston sends a strong message: celebrity news dehumanizes the view of women and focus only on their physical appearance, which tabloids used to “entertain” society like it was a sport.
Aniston told in her essay the daily harassment she and her husband suffer from paparazzi that wait on them outside their house, without respecting their privacy, only to take a photo to continue the speculations about her body and what she is carrying inside her belly.
Women are measured by their marital and maternal status
Aniston says in her essay that in the past months she understood how much woman’s value is defined: based on her marital and maternal status. According to her, there is a strong notion that women are incomplete if they have not married with children.
The actress says that women can change their awareness and reaction to the poisonous message that comes with the seemingly harmless news about her body or the body of other celebrity. She added that tabloids change women ideas of who they are and she calls them to make a decision.
“Let’s make that decision for ourselves and for the young women in this world who look to us as examples. Let’s make that decision consciously, outside of the tabloid noise. We don’t need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own “happily ever after” for ourselves,” Aniston said.
Source: The Huffington Post