Photo: REX USA/Willi Schneider/Rex.As we've noted in the past, Jennifer Aniston — despite a long career marked with notable box-office success and well-placed critical acclaim to boot — is the kind of celebrity who gets harangued about her personal life more than any other. It's not a trip to the grocery store without several tabloid headlines screaming that she is pregnant, or mad about not being pregnant, or secretly harvesting Brad Pitt's sperm so she can get pregnant. The odd fixation on her marital and maternal status was the subject of an interview between Aniston and Gloria Steinem at THE MAKERS conference in California, an event which also drew out a number of notable women icons like Jane Lynch, Sheryl Sandberg, and Marlo Thomas.
Though Aniston was interviewing Steinem, it turns out there's a surprising amount of overlap between the kind of misogynist attitudes Steinem has long worked against and the unfortunate daily experiences in Aniston's own life. "Being in the public eye," Aniston pointed out, "us women come up against this: that our value and worth is dependent on our marital status and or if we've procreated." What did Steinem have to say to that? "Well, I guess we're in deep s--t!"
Unfortunately, that enticing tidbit is the only quote from the talk that seems to have surfaced so far (reported by E! Online). However, that doesn't mean we can't spend several hours imagining what else these two could have talked about. A few options: Is Rachel Green a good role model for young girls? Is it, in fact, true that her strength as a single mother and her dedication to her career laid the grounds for similar characters on television in the years to come? And, lastly, would it not be an excellent addition to television today if we got a Friends spin-off profiling the life of young Emma? These are big questions, people.