“And if you took naked pictures of yourself on your cell phone, you hide your face, people.”
No, that’s not Reese Witherspoon‘s public service announcement on the antics of Anthony Weiner (seriously, that man will never live down that name or those tweets).
It’s the actress’s plea to young starlets who (like Mr. Weiner), are fond of self-portraiting in various states of undress.
Upon first watching Reese accept the Generation Award at Sunday’s MTV Movie Awards, I was giddy to see an accomplished star call out Hollywood’s fame-hungry, informing young girls that “it is possible to make it in Hollywood without doing a reality show,” and that when she came up in this business, “if you made a sex tape, you were embarrassed and you hid it under your bed.”
Cue the collective side-eyes at Paris, Kim, Vanessa, Blake, etc.
But the more I thought about Reese’s words and read the internet commentary, the more I wondered if the preachy moment of pride was a little uncalled for.
Girl Brain Trust wonders why Reese didn’t place the blame for Hollywood’s recurring sex scandals “on those who actually deserve the blame, such as the paparazzi, or the ‘liberal media’, or, I don’t know, the culture which shames those who have sex lives that deviate in any way from the perceived ‘norm‘…But no, she places this squarely on women…”
I love Reese, but can’t help feeling a little uneasy about the speech. Do you think she was “slut-shaming” her Hollywood sisters, or simply pointing the finger at talentless tabloid queens?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_IDfJGIbg0[/youtube]
–Michelle Konstantinovsky is a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and an avid admirer of shiny objects and preteen entertainment. It would be nice if you visited her website: www.michellekmedia.com. Also, she may learn to use Twitter more effectively if you follow her @michelley415.
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