The actress, Mila Kunis, has added her voice to the growing debate around sexism in Hollywood by revealing that a film producer threatened to end her career unless she posed half-nude for a men’s magazine. Like the boss that she is, Mila literally called ‘bullshit’ on this dickwittery in an open letter published on A Plus – the website co-founded by husband, Ashton Kutcher.
In her frank and personal account of her experiences, she describes how she was ‘livid’ and ‘felt objectified’ when the male producer gave her the ultimatum: participate in the photoshoot or ‘You’ll never work in this town again.’ Well, she clearly did, so in your face misogynistic movie man!
‘For the first time in my career I said "no." And guess what? The world didn't end. The film made a lot of money and I did work in this town again, and again, and again.’
She goes onto describe her general concerns for women in the work place in her kickass feminist manifesto; saying that ‘it’s what we are conditioned to believe. We don’t want to be kicked out of the sandbox for being a ‘bitch.’
In another depressing anecdote from the life and times of the actress, Mila detailed how after pitching a show to a major network, in a follow up-email exchange a network executive described her as ‘One of biggest actors in Hollywood and soon to be Ashton's wife and baby momma!!!’
Reducing a hugely successful Hollywood actress – who has featured in over 30 films through her career – to nothing more than an accoutrement to Ashton Kutcher is both astonishing and dangerous.
‘He reduced my value to nothing more than my relationship to a successful man and my ability to bear children. It ignored my (and my team's) significant creative and logistical contributions.’
"If this is happening to me, it is happening more aggressively to women everywhere."
We only have to glance at the recent coverage from 2016 Olympics to see what she means by this, like when Corey Cogdell-Unrein – three time Olympic athlete – won bronze in women’s trap shooting and the Chicago Tribune described her as ‘wife of Bears lineman.’ Not sure whether to laugh or cry really, or scream.
Her general fears for women in the workplace is a realised one; the latest figures on the gender pay gap from the IFSshows us that on average women in the UK still earn 18% less than men in the UK; so the fight is far from over. But we can’t help feeling positive, with more female figureheads like J-Law and now Mila taking a stand for us ladies, the future is definitely feeling more female.
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Emma Thompson On Sexism In Hollywood 'It's Still Shit, Actually'
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.