Jennifer Aniston, 52, speaks out on exactly why people should not be harassing women over motherhood.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, the Friends star opened up about her life in the entertainment industry and how the tabloids constantly tried to intensely scrutinize women in particular.
“I think people are still doing it today,” Aniston said “What the tabloids and the media did to people’s personal lives back then, regular people are doing now [on social media.]”
“Although I haven’t seen a tabloid in so long. Am I still having twins? Am I going to be the miracle mother at 52?” she said.
“Now you’ve got social media,” she told the Hollywood Reporter. “It’s almost like the media handed over the sword to any Joe Schmo sitting behind a computer screen to be a troll or whatever they call them and bully people in comment sections.”
“So it’s just sort of changed hands in a way,” she explained. “And I don’t know why there’s such a cruel streak in society.”
Talking about how the scrutiny of her personal life has affected her mentally, the 52-year-old actress revealed the damaging reports of pregnancy speculation, admitting that the non-stop rumors of her pregnancy had been challenging for her.
“I used to take it all very personally — the pregnancy rumors and the whole ‘Oh, she chose career over kids’ assumption,” Aniston said. “It’s like, ‘You have no clue what’s going with me personally, medically, why I can’t … can I have kids?’ They don’t know anything, and it was really hurtful and just nasty.”
Aniston went on to share the ridiculous “double standard” that is obvious in the way that women, unlike their men, are valued in society based on factors like marital status and motherhood.
The actress even compared her experience to singer and icon Dolly Parton.
“It’s the same with Dolly Parton; Dolly Parton never had kids,” she said. “But are people giving her [redacted] for it? No, no one’s tried to put her in a white picket fence.
“Men can be married as many times as they want to,” she explained. “They can marry [younger] women in their 20s or 30s. Women aren’t allowed to do that.”
Since the earliest stages of Aniston’s career, people have been seemingly obsessed with her pregnancy.
After her split from Brad Pitt in 2005, Aniston had to endure an influx of made-up and misogynistic stories claiming that the real reason for their divorce was because she “refused” to have a baby.
Reports at the time claimed that because Aniston chose to focus on her career, Pitt was forced to search for a woman who could give him a family — i.e., Angelina Jolie.
So in 2005 — just as in 2021 — Aniston speaks out once again to shut down the assumptions and made everything clear about her plans to have kids.
During her first interview with Vanity Fair after the divorce, Aniston revealed that she was “really pissed off” by the false accusations that she chose her career over having a family.
“A man divorcing would never be accused of choosing career over children,” Aniston told Vanity Fair. “I’ve never in my life said I didn’t want to have children. I did and I do and I will!”
“The women that inspire me are the ones who have careers and children; why would I want to limit myself?” she said. “I’ve always wanted to have children, and I would never give up that experience for a career. I want to have it all.”
In an attempt to correct the narrative, Aniston — who was previously married to Justin Theroux at the time — wrote a powerful essay for HuffPost in 2016.
The actress addressed the pregnancy reports by calling out the “warped” cultural standards by which a woman’s worth has been historically calculated.
“For the record, I am not pregnant. What I am is fed up,” Aniston wrote.
“This past month in particular has illuminated for me how much we define a woman’s value based on her marital and maternal status,” she wrote at the time.
“The sheer amount of resources being spent right now by press trying to simply uncover whether or not I am pregnant (for the bajillionth time … but who’s counting) points to the perpetuation of this notion that women are somehow incomplete, unsuccessful, or unhappy if they’re not married with children.”
“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.”