Jennifer Aniston has spoken out against pregnancy rumours and close scrutiny placed upon her by paparazzi and tabloid journalists in an exclusive blog written for The Huffington Post.
After the latest spate of photos, where it was suggested she was covering her ‘baby bump’ (her hand happened to be hovering over her stomach), she decided to take control of the conversation once and for all.
“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.”
Aniston addressed the rumours directly: “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” and “celebrity news.””
Although some may argue that celebrity body image scrutiny is different to the average person, Aniston thinks differently.
“If I am some kind of symbol to some people out there, then clearly I am an example of the lens through which we, as a society, view our mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, female friends and colleagues.”
In the blog, she also refers to the impossibly high standards set for women, and most importantly girls. At the end of June, it was revealed that girls as young as eight in the UK are calling Childline about fears to do with body image. They are also eight times more likely to call about this issue than boys.
Echoing the damage this presentation of body image is having on our young women, Aniston also called for a shift in cultural perspective calling it a ‘subconcious agreement’.
“We are in charge of our agreement. Little girls everywhere are absorbing our agreement, passive or otherwise. And it begins early. The message that girls are not pretty unless they’re incredibly thin, that they’re not worthy of our attention unless they look like a supermodel or an actress on the cover of a magazine is something we’re all willingly buying into. This conditioning is something girls then carry into womanhood.”
To read the full blog, click here.