Last month, Jennifer Aniston, the star from the sitcom Friends, penned an impassioned essay for Huffington Post in which she said that the future of a woman was not limited to finding a husband and bearing children.
She pointed out how awful it was that we get to “calculate a woman’s worth” based on her capacity to find a man, get pregnant, or to achieve certain standards of what is considered beautiful. The essay is beyond powerful. Since it was written, it has inspired a lot of honest conversations around the need to leave women alone to define success and happiness on their own terms.
Given Chimamanda Adichie’s recent comments about her decision to make her pregnancy private, Stylist Magazine, in a recent interview, could not resist asking her what she thought about Aniston’s comments.
What are your thoughts on Jennifer Aniston’s recent comments on society’s expectations of women?
I really enjoyed, respected and admired her statement, and I think she’s absolutely right. This idea that marriage and motherhood is crucial to a female identity is so limiting. There’s just so much more that women need to be allowed to be. And equally, our culture doesn’t seem to celebrate fatherhood at all, and that’s very disturbing. I’m such a daddy’s girl, so close to him, so I really think from a personal space, fathers matter. I want to live in a world where parenthood isn’t gender-limited.Read the full interview here.
As one who is part of a global sisterhood of celebrities speaking out against subjecting women to unfair societal scrutiny and pressure, Adichie’s response is clearly everything we imagined it would be.
Judith Hamer August 04, 2016 19:58
Am glad you got your Ph.d and a position at Marquette. I know what it takes to earn that degree since I also have one. congrats!