“AND Elizabeth, remember, you are a smart, strong, beautiful, independent woman and you don’t need a man to complete you,” here’s an important quote from Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis, Freaky Friday) to all women.
Now, here’s a new one: “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.”
Those words were written by Jennifer Aniston for The Huffington Post.
For decades, women have been pressured to get married and have kids before they are in their 30s. It’s even worse for female celebrities since their daily lives are placed under the microscope.
Aniston’s pregnancy has been rumored for decades. This is just the first time she’s finally talking about it because as she said, she’s fed up.
“Let me start by saying that addressing gossip is something I have never done. I don’t like to give energy to the business of lies, but I wanted to participate in a larger conversation that has already begun and needs to continue. Since I’m not on social media, I decided to put my thoughts here in writing,” Aniston started her essay for The Huffington Post with the title “For the Record.”
“For the record, I am not pregnant. 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’ (a provision in the US Constitution that supports freedom of the press, among others) and ‘celebrity news,’” Aniston continued.
Aniston, 47, has the right to be fed up. She has been rumored to be pregnant since the moment she married Brad Pitt in 2000.
When they divorced in 2005, the media attributed it to Aniston’s alleged failure to conceive. Everything is related to babies.
Now, Aniston is married to Justin Theroux, an actor and screenwriter. Ever since they got married last August, Aniston has been dogged by pregnancy rumors. More so when Aniston was photographed in a bikini with a fuller stomach. Aniston is known for her flat stomach and abs.
“I used to tell myself that tabloids were like comic books, not to be taken seriously, just a soap opera for people to follow when they need a distraction. But I really can’t tell myself that anymore because the reality is the stalking and objectification I’ve experienced first-hand, going on decades now, reflects the warped way we calculate a woman’s worth,” Aniston continued.
“This past month in particular has illuminated for me how much we define a woman’s value based on her marital and maternal status. 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.”
Aniston declared: “We don’t need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own ‘happily ever after’ for ourselves.”
But Aniston is not alone in this—although she has been the most harassed. Aniston’s ex-husband’s wife, Angelina Jolie, has also been hounded by pregnancy news ever since she and Pitt started dating in 2005.
The couple have six children together, three of which came from two pregnancies while the three others were adopted. But in the tabloids, Jolie has been pregnant dozens of times.
Last year, Jolie wrote an opinion-editorial in the New York Times stating she had surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes as a means of preventing ovarian cancer, which was how she lost her mother in 2007.
“I am now in menopause. I will not be able to have any more children, and I expect some physical changes. But I feel at ease with whatever will come, not because I am strong but because this is a part of life. It is nothing to be feared,” Jolie wrote in March 2015.
Since Jolie can’t have children anymore, tabloids are reporting that she’s adopting again. That’s aside from the persistent rumors that her marriage to Pitt is on the rocks.
Then there’s Cameron Diaz, who married rocker Benji Madden on Jan. 5, 2015 after just seven months of dating. She could only be pregnant if they married that quickly, right? Wrong! They live in the US; they are much too liberated to get married just because Diaz is pregnant. But according to the tabloids, it was the only reason they got hitched quickly.
Diaz never showed a hint of baby bump since. But the tabloids are persistent. The moment Diaz wears a loose-fitting shirt, she’s pregnant! Technically, she has been pregnant since 2014 with no baby to show for it.
The media also seems to have this idea that if two powerful celebrities get married, they should have a bunch of mini-mes running around in the house. Such is the case with Beyonce and Jay Z, who are parents to Blue Ivy. But if tabloids are to be believed, they should have a basketball team running around the house already.
“Nowadays, we assume female celebrities are pregnant if they’re wearing loose-fitting shirts, skipping the alcohol at dinner or canceling concert dates. But in reality, we can never really know the truth until the could-be mama confirms it herself,” The Huffington Post stated in a report about Hollywood pregnancy rumors.
But while celebrities are richer than the average person, they have the same feelings as a regular person.
“I resent being made to feel ‘less than’ because my body is changing and/or I had a burger for lunch and was photographed from a weird angle and therefore deemed one of two things: ‘pregnant’ or ‘fat.’ Not to mention the painful awkwardness that comes with being congratulated by friends, coworkers and strangers alike on one’s fictional pregnancy (often a dozen times in a single day),” Aniston also wrote in her “For the Record” blog.
“Yes, I may become a mother some day, and since I’m laying it all out there, if I ever do, I will be the first to let you know. But I’m not in pursuit of motherhood because I feel incomplete in some way, as our celebrity news culture would lead us all to believe.”