Jennifer Lawrence’s perfect reply to her pay-gap essay backlash
Recently, Jennifer Lawrence blew us all away with her stunning letter she penned about the age gap. Although she was widely praised for opening up about such an important cause, not everyone was thrilled. In fact, she got a significant amount of backlash for standing up and speaking out, with many calling Jennifer a “brat” — exactly what she had been fearing in the first place.
“Some news show called my essay a ‘bratty display’ and I was like, ‘Thank you for proving my point,’” J-Law told Entertainment Weekly. “Would you have called a man a brat?”
Jennifer also made an incredibly important point: That those who were criticizing her for asking for more money were missing the point. “I was very clear: My problems are not relatable,” she explained to EW. “This is not about money. I don’t need money, I have plenty of money, I’m already overpaid. What I was trying to write about was how my own mentality was getting in my own way.”
In her essay for Lenny back in October, Jennifer explained how she felt as if she had “failed as a negotiator” because she was afraid of not being liked. “When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people with dicks, I didn’t get mad at Sony,” she wrote. “I got mad at myself. I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early. I didn’t want to keep fighting over millions of dollars that, frankly, due to two franchises, I don’t need.”
But she realized that her worry of being disliked was something no man had to worry about. “I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a man in charge who spent time contemplating what angle he should use to have his voice heard,” she wrote. “It’s just heard.”
Now, she’s standing up for herself with no fear and certainly no shame. “It is harder for a woman to be blunt than a man. It just is. We’re not victims because we have vaginas – we need to push through that idea,” J-Law told Entertainment Weekly now.
Over the past two months, Jennifer has been taking control of her own life and not letting any man push her around. “I feel like I’ve stopped all that bullsh–. I say exactly what I mean,” she explained. “I can see that it takes people aback at first, but then they see that’s how you operate: straightforwardly. It’s about being assertive with your voice and not being ashamed.”
We applaud Jennifer for keeping it real and standing up for what’s right. It’s incredibly difficult to shake a fear of being disliked after years of keeping quiet, but thanks to efforts of amazing role models like J-Law, the tide is slowly turning.
(Image via Shutterstock.)
