Jennifer Aniston’s “bajillionth” answer this week to the question of whether she’s pregnant—SPOILER ALERT: she’s not—turned into an epic takedown of the way the media scrutinizes women.
“For the record, I am not pregnant,” Aniston wrote in a blog post for the Huffington Post on Tuesday. “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 “Friends” star went on to describe the harassment she and her husband face every day from the paparazzi, but then quickly breezed past that to take on the bigger picture.
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“The objectification and scrutiny we put women through is absurd and disturbing,” she wrote. “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.”
As for the “pregnant” question, Aniston held nothing back in tackling what that’s really about.
“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 went on. “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.”
That's a pretty solid answer, especially considering the tabloids probably expected a simple, “No, I'm not.”
