Gwyneth Paltrow comments about motherhood further shows the disconnect around both race and class. There has been many articles stating the obvious, about how hard it is to be a Mom when you dont have the resources to only work one film a year or for that matter afford daycare and/or nannies... And thank you Angelina Jolie for pushing back on your fellow out of touch actress.... However, what is buried in this story is how privilege it is as an actress to be able to pick and choose roles as you please. For many black actress the opportunities to play lead roles are far and few between... Black actress are routinely typecast cast to black movies and for the rare appearances in featured film, they are delegated to one black actress/actor per movie ( because we cant have any double ethnic). I wonder if Kerry Washington felt she had the same opportunity to take extended time off from Scandal, while feeling comfortable her spot will be there when she was ready to return from maternity leave. All mothers have trials and tribulations, good days and bad... and we shouldnt engage in denigrating mothers from any walk of life. However I know many mothers who wish their career problems were limited to working a couple of 14 hours shifts once or twice a year. Mothers who wish they could dictate the terms of employment without the fear of never being able to work again or mothers who can afford to buy their child(ren) the best organic, gluten free food and send them to the best schools. I know mothers that would gladly trade their minimum wage fast jobs to hang out with Jay Z and Kanye in Paris ( lest we forget her infamous N-word in paris tweet) Below is section from Salon article in case you missed it... salon/2014/05/22/hey_gwyneth_let_angelina_show_you_how_to_talk_about_moms/ In March, newly consciously uncoupled Paltrow, continuing her quest to win “Most Out of Touch Celebrity Ever,” told E! about her “rule about one movie a year,” explaining, “It’s much harder for me. I feel like I set it up in a way that makes it difficult because … for me, like if I miss a school run, they are like, ‘Where were you?’ I don’t like to be the lead so I don’t [have] to work every day … I think it’s different when you have an office job, because it’s routine and, you know, you can do all the stuff in the morning and then you come home in the evening. When you’re shooting a movie, they’re like, ‘We need you to go to Wisconsin for two weeks,’ and then you work 14 hours a day and that part of it is very difficult. I think to have a regular job and be a mom is not as, of course there are challenges, but it’s not like being on set.” This quite naturally set off a spate of guffaws from humans who have actually worked in offices, including a scathingly hilarious retort from writer Mackenzie Dawson, who observed, “‘Thank God I don’t make millions filming one movie per year’ is what I say to myself pretty much every morning as I wait on a windy Metro-North platform, about to begin my 45-minute commute into the city…. Livin’ la vida desk job is a breeze compared to the 14-hour days of a film set. Fourteen hours? Who in New York — especially those in the finance, law and tech professions — could possibly work 14 whole hours?....... Contrast now, if you will, Angelina Jolie’s observation to the Daily News this week, in which the mother of six made similar statements about her own work schedule, saying, “When I feel I’m doing too much, I do less, if I can. And that’s why I’m in a rare position where I don’t have to do job after job. I can take time when my family needs it … I can say I can only get into the [editing] room after the kids are in school, and I have to be back for dinner, and they’re coming for lunch.” But unlike Paltrow, she didn’t see her choices as an argument for how much “harder” her career is. Instead, she said, “I’m not a single mom with two jobs trying to get by every day. I have much more support than most people, most women in the world. And I have the financial means to have a home and health care and food … I actually feel that women in my position when we have all at our disposal to help us, shouldn’t complain.
Posted on: Thu, 29 May 2014 17:00:33 +0000
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