Jennifer Aniston launches blistering attack on the 'absurd objectification and body shaming' of women by tabloids

'I'm fed up with the sport-like scrutiny and body shaming that occurs daily under the guise of journalism, the First Amendment and celebrity news'

(AFP/Getty)

After enduring 10 years of speculation on her relationship status, body, and story after story ruminating on her fertility, Jennifer Aniston is leading the fightback against the objectification of women within tabloids.

The most recent false pregnancy story arrived in June via InTouch and was then circulated by a number of outlets at such a ferocious speed Aniston’s publicist was forced to issue a statement refuting it. "Shame on InTouch," her publicist added. “What you see is her having just enjoyed a delicious big lunch and feeling safe on private property.”

In an essay for the Huffington Post, the Friends actress condemned tabloids for dehumanising women by reducing them to their relationships or womb.

“For the record, I am not pregnant," she writes. "What I am is fed up. I’m fed up with the sport-like scrutiny and body shaming that occurs daily under the guise of 'journalism,' the 'First Amendment' and 'celebrity news'.

“We use celebrity 'news' to perpetuate this dehumanising view of females, focused solely on one’s physical appearance, which tabloids turn into a sporting event of speculation. Is she pregnant? Is she eating too much? Has she let herself go? Is her marriage on the rocks because the camera detects some physical ‘imperfection’?

“I resent being made to feel 'less than' because my body is changing and/or I had a burger for lunch and was photographed from a weird angle and therefore deemed one of two things: 'pregnant' or 'fat'."

Aniston has been relentlessly targeted by tabloids ever since her divorce from Brad Pitt. In her blistering response, she attacked the warped view of women constructed and disseminated by these magazines and gossip sites.

The 47-year-old pointed to herself as an example of the “absurd and disturbing” objectification and scrutiny women are subjected to in society that reflects how their worth is calculated. Women, she said, are routinely presented as lacking or incomplete when a partner or child is not in the picture, regardless of how fulfilled they are without either.

“We are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child. We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies. That decision is ours and ours alone. Let’s make that decision for ourselves and for the young women in this world who look to us as examples.”

Aniston warned the obsession over her domestic life that feeds the constant cycle of celebrity news was placing her and others in danger, describing how she is stalked and objectified by paparazzi waiting outside of her home.

Aniston also urged women to be the force for change within tabloids for future generations by refusing to buy or support them.

“Maybe some day the tabloids will be forced to see the world through a different, more humanised lens because consumers have just stopped buying the bulls**t.”