Everyone’s favorite funny girl Jennifer Lawrence is back, but she’s not making jokes this time around.
In an op-ed for Lenny, Lena Dunham’s e-newsletter, the Oscar award-winning actress let out her frustrations toward the entertainment industry’s—and possibly many others’—rampant sexism. This involves regular wages and unfair expectations toward female behavior.
“When it comes to the subject of feminism, I’ve remained ever-so-slightly quiet. I don’t like joining conversations that feel like they’re “trending,” began J-Law. “I’m even the asshole who didn’t do anything about the ice-bucket challenge.”
She continued to talk about how it felt to find out that her male co-stars made more money than she did. At the height of the infamous Sony Hack, with the unfortunate release of all these confidential data, Jennifer reflected on how she “failed as a negotiator” when closing deals.
“I didn’t want to keep fighting over millions of dollars,” she wrote, “But if I’m honest with myself, I would be lying if I didn’t say there was an element of wanting to be liked that influenced my decision to close the deal without a real fight.”
On the other hand, co-stars Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale, and Bradley Cooper in the film American Hustle “fought and succeeded in negotiating powerful deals for themselves.”
Beyond matters of money, Jennifer slams a culture that teaches women to shut up about their opinions, especially about their worth and values. A victim of it herself in the instance she recalled earlier, J-Law is fed up with all the unrealistic, sexist bullshit even an A-lister like her still gets.
“I’m over trying to find the ‘adorable’ way to state my opinion and still be likable! Fuck that,” she claimed.
The op-ed is making rounds in the media, and has even reached fellow actor Bradley Cooper. While he hasn’t read it, he reacted to its topic, “That’s interesting. Because if you think you only deserve a certain amount and that’s not correct, it’s about changing that mindset.”
The thing is, when it comes to sexism in any industry, money isn’t the only thing that matters. It’s simply the ends achieved by some sort of means—in J-Law’s case, sexist standards promote such practices, leading her to get a smaller sum of money. While pay checks are easily changed, behaviors aren’t. Even actress Patricia Arquette is complaining. Now what else can we do about that?
[Lenny]
Photo courtesy of Jennifer Williams