Jennifer Aniston says she’s fed up, but in a new blog post she’s downright pissed off about several things, including the constant scrutiny of her body.
The article, which she wrote for The Huffington Post, was sparked by rumours last month that she was pregnant. Photos of her showing a barely bloated belly were snapped while she was on holiday with her husband Justin Theroux. One tabloid outlet published the shots with the headline “Jennifer Aniston Pregnant With A Miracle Baby at 47.”
“For the record, I am not pregnant,” she wrote for HuffPost. “What I am is fed up. I’m fed up with the sport-like scrutiny and body shaming that occurs daily under the guise of ‘journalism,’ the ‘First Amendment’ and ‘celebrity news.'”
She went on to say: “The objectification and scrutiny we put women through is absurd and disturbing. The way I am portrayed by the media is simply a reflection of how we see and portray women in general, measured against some warped standard of beauty.”
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The latter part of the article is dedicated to slamming body shamers who are making it difficult for not only her, but also little girls, to establish positive self-esteem.
“The message that girls are not pretty unless they’re incredibly thin, that they’re not worthy of our attention unless they look like a supermodel or an actress on the cover of a magazine is something we’re all willingly buying into. This conditioning is something girls then carry into womanhood.”
The 47-year-old goes on to lament the fact that she can’t eat a cheeseburger without her body coming under extreme scrutiny. Aniston also calls out society’s marriage and baby bias, saying “This past month in particular has illuminated for me how much we define a woman’s value based on her marital and maternal status.”
“Here’s where I come out on this topic: we are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child. We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies. That decision is ours and ours alone. Let’s make that decision for ourselves and for the young women in this world who look to us as examples.”
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She completed her article by saying we, as a society, can shift celebrity standards. “We get to decide how much we buy into what’s being served up, and maybe some day the tabloids will be forced to see the world through a different, more humanized lens because consumers have just stopped buying the bulls**t.”
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A day after her blog post went live, celebrities are applauding her decision to come forward so publicly with her feelings.
One such A-lister is Melissa McCarthy. The Ghostbusters star says she’s “one hundred thousand billion percent” behind Aniston and said it’s time for society to stop “tearing down” women.
Social media personalities were also quick to support the Friends star.
Not everyone was so quick to applaud the Aveeno spokesperson, though.
Piers Morgan wrote an op-ed for The Daily Mail saying if the actress is so fed up with Hollywood’s standards, she should stop posing for magazines that Photoshop her appearance.
“You may want to dismount from that high horse at this point, Jennifer.There’s another reason why the media objectify and scrutinise famous women, and why little girls get confused about beauty and body image. It’s this: female stars like Jennifer Aniston deliberately perpetuate the myth of ‘perfection’ by posing for endless magazine covers which have been airbrushed so much that in some cases the celebrity is virtually unrecognisable.”
He ends with: “Once you put your body up for lucrative personal gain, I’m afraid you have to accept a level of scrutiny and debate that comes with it. Though intimidatory or overly-intrusive paparazzi behaviour is never acceptable.”
So what’s your take:
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