The Internet’s Dragging Jennifer Aniston Into The Brangelina Divorce, Shows Our Problematic Mindset About Women

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie divorce, but surprisingly Jennifer Aniston is dragged into this media gossip. Women including celebrities are still defined by their past relationships.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie divorce, but surprisingly Jennifer Aniston is dragged into this media gossip. Women are still defined by their past relationships.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie recently filed for a divorce. What compelled me to write this article, was that it annoyed me to see how the internet dragged Jennifer Aniston into the picture. It didn’t take long for the ‘keyboard warriors’ to come up with these so called funny memes and GIFs of Jennifer Aniston and speculating how overjoyed she must be, at the news of her ex-husband splitting with his current wife.

Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt were once married, but they separated over a decade ago. Aniston is currently married to Justin Theroux.

However, that doesn’t stop people from portraying Aniston as ‘a wronged woman who is obsessed about this one man, who had abandoned her and seeing his life crumble must give her the greatest pleasure!’ Do you see what is wrong here?

Do you think this would ever be the case had Aniston been a male celebrity? This is what seems frustrating to me. No matter how accomplished a woman is, the moment her relationship fails, we will either portray her as a slut/home-breaker or as a wronged woman who will only find peace once her man and the other woman are destroyed.

At this age too, women are still just a definition of their relationships. Their successes or failures seem to be measured only by their so called ability to hold on to a man!

Aniston is a powerhouse performer, whose character ‘Rachel’ in the American sitcom, FRIENDS will be remembered by generations to come. FRIENDS is arguably the world’s most popular sitcom in television history and each of the six main characters has acquired nothing short of a legendary status, in the minds of young people globally. And yet, Aniston’s personal life generates more attention on the wake of her ex-husband’s divorce, and her onscreen persona or achievements fade into oblivion. Besides FRIENDS, Aniston has acted in several other movies. There’s an entire page on Wikipedia dedicated to her list of awards and nominations by the way!

What was stranger was that, I could see so many smart and intelligent women actually laughing out to posts, which show how smug Jennifer might be feeling right now.

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My question is, when we are collectively making fun of people do we forget to bring in empathy or our rationale into the picture? My question is, as a woman would you really appreciate that even after you broke up with a man years ago, you are still conceived as a ‘bitter woman’ whose only aim in life is to see your man and the ‘other woman’ suffer? Would you like it if just by the virtue of being a woman you’re considered catty and jealous and your entire life is perceived to be revolving around a man and how he treats you? Just because Aniston is a woman her achievements don’t count, do they?

If we as women don’t understand what is wrong with this attitude, then unfortunately it might take us ages before we can explain the problem to the opposite sex. Of course, there are both men and women who see that such an attitude is wrong and this is not meant for them. However, for the rest of us, we still have a long way to go before our mindsets reflect, that we truly believe that a woman’s life is much more than her relationships with men.

Image Source: Youtube

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About the Author

Kasturi Patra

Kasturi’s debut novel, forthcoming in early 2021, had won the novel pitch competition by Half Baked Beans Publishers. She won the Runner Up Position in the Orange Flower Awards 2021 for Short Fiction. Her read more...

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