Hollywood actress Jennifer Lawrence, who achieved international fame for The Hunger Games series, which also established her as the highest-grossing action heroine, is one of the few women in the spotlight who have spoken up about the disparity in wages for men and women.
We might think such things happen only in Bollywood or India, but this happens to be a global phenomenon, scarring women around the world. In fact, just last week, another acclaimed Hollywood actress Meryl Streep spoke out on the same topic, admitting that she too receives less pay than her male counterparts.
Jennifer penned down an essay titled, “Why Do I Make Less Than My Male Co Stars?” which talks about the injustice towards working women especially in Hollywood and chose Lena Dunham’s site, Lenny to publish it. She writes about gender wage gap in an honest yet humourous way making some valid points.
The American Hustle actress realised how much less she was paid compared to her male co-stars when Sony Pictures’ integral computer system was hacked into last year and some very important emails leaked. These emails had some classified information and soon made headlines.
In her heart-to-heart note, she writes, “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. 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.”
The disparity in pay isn’t just a Hollywood thing, women all around the world are treated in a similar manner and are paid way lesser than they deserve.
Jennifer, in her brave confession, also openly admits that she wanted to be liked and so never negotiated enough.
“I would be lying if I didn’t say there was an element of wanting to be liked that influenced my decision to close the deal without a real fight. I didn’t want to seem ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled,'” states the actress.
For the pretty lass who is done being liked and is prepared to offend people, she makes some very strong comments and we can’t applaud her enough.
“Again, this might have NOTHING to do with my vagina, but I wasn’t completely wrong when another leaked Sony email revealed a producer referring to a fellow lead actress in a negotiation as a ‘spoiled brat.’ For some reason, I just can’t picture someone saying that about a man,” she states.
Jennifer has surely done what she is talking about and has even managed to successfully negotiate a higher pay package than her male co-star Chris Pratt for their upcoming movie Passengers. According to reports, Jennifer will be taking home a whopping $20 million for the film, while Chris has been signed on for $12 million.
Image courtesy: Reuters
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