Unity: Taking one for the team

Hollywood comes together to support Jennifer Aniston against media sexism

Hollywood celebrities are lining up behind actor Jennifer Aniston, after she penned a blog criticising the media for the way it scrutinises female stars, reported Reuters. Melissa McCarthy, Jason Bateman and Olivia Wilde are just some of the the A-Listers who have been extending their support to the actor.

“Everybody needs to stop tearing women down,” McCarthy, 45, said on Entertainment Tonight, after declaring she was “one hundred, thousand, billion percent” in support. Aniston, 47, a former Friends star, published the blog entitled For the Record on the Huffington Post on Tuesday, writing that she was sick of being harassed by photographers and tabloid reporters. “For the record, I am not pregnant,” she wrote. “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.’ The objectification and scrutiny we put women through is absurd and disturbing.” She also added that, “We define a woman’s value based on her marital and maternal status.”



Aniston’s husband, actor Justin Theroux, posted an image of her on his Instagram page with the hashtag #wcw for ‘Woman Crush Wednesday.’ He linked it to her letter and wrote, “Here’s just one reason why.”

Aniston, who People magazine named as the most beautiful woman of 2016 in April, said she wrote the blog because she “wanted to participate in a larger conversation,” even though she does not use social media. The blog post had been “liked” on Facebook more than 27,000 times by Wednesday afternoon. “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,” Aniston wrote.

Aniston was last seen in director Garry Marshall’s romantic comedy Mother’s Day, which saw four seemingly unconnected individuals come to terms with their relationships with their mothers. The film also starred Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson and Jason Sudeikis in the lead roles.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2016.

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