Jennifer Aniston Wrote About The “Disturbing Scrutiny” Faced By Single And Childless Women

Jennifer Aniston’s relationship status and childbearing arrangements have been internet fodder since the release of Mr. and Mrs. Smith (the film that ‘broke up’ her marriage!) and the subsequent availability of ‘Team Jen’ and ‘Team Angie’ t-shirts. She’s been regularly plagued with a very gendered concern-troll questions about whether she would ever find happiness — a woman’s happiness being primarily found in marriage and children, of course.

Today Aniston has written an op-ed for The Huffington Post that frankly interrogates the “objectification and scrutiny” she has experienced as a single women and now, a married woman without children. “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’,” she writes.

“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 argues that the way that the media defines her (through her romantic relationships and lack of children) speaks to the way women are judged more generally, particularly in relation to their desirability and ‘use by date’. “The objectification and scrutiny we put women through is absurd and disturbing,” she says. “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.”

Although Aniston talks a lot about the paparazzi searching for her “baby bump”, most of this piece is very relatable for any woman who has had their value judged by a relationship or lack thereof (or, judged themselves for it). Aniston discusses how young women passively ingest these toxic messages from tabloids, which continually put a massive premium on relationship statuses as a woman’s only motivating factor.

“Here’s where I come out on this topic: 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,” she says. “We get to determine our own ‘happily ever after’ for ourselves.”