Jennifer Aniston penned a candid essay for The Huffington Post, titled “For The Record” – addressing pregnancy rumors and the objectification of women.
“For the record, I am not pregnant. What I am is fed up,” the actress wrote in the essay posted on Tuesday (July 12th). “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’… 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. The objectification and scrutiny we put women through is absurd and disturbing.”
Her powerful post was released just weeks after a tabloid claimed that Aniston was pregnant, due to unflattering angles taken by paparazzi. The images were of her in a bikini while on vacation with husband Justin Theroux.
“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,” she wrote.
Aniston then stated that women get to choose their own happiness when it comes to their bodies and their relationships.
“Here’s where I come out on this topic: We are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child,” the Emmy-winning star wrote. “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. … We don’t need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own ‘happily ever after’ for ourselves.”
Read her full essay here.
