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Tweet Nothings: Gwyneth Paltrow & Mommy Wars

Gwenyth Paltrow certainly knows how to stir up controversy. In a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the actress and mother of two steps smack into the mommy wars uttering the following:

I have little kids in school. I want to maintain my marriage and my family, so I have to be here when he comes home. Hence her recent advice to a girlfriend (who remains tantalizingly unnamed): “She is an actress and in a new relationship with someone else with a big career, and I said this may not be feminist, but you have to compromise. It's been all about you and you're a big deal. And if you want what you're saying you want a family;you have to be a wife, and that is part of the equation.

Her comments have rubbed many a mother the wrong way, with some even accusing her of being judgmental and out of touch.

My opinion? She just inserted a perfectly pedicured foot into her mouth. Here is a woman who admits to having a nanny, a driver and a chef. Of course it is easy to talk of putting family first with those circumstances. But remind me again about the compromise part? What is she yammering on here about? Why is it only the woman who has to compromise?

Let’s just call a spade a spade, shall we? Paltrow is a woman who works part time, lives a life of luxury and privilege and likes to pretend she is a working mom who has all of the answers.

And lest you label me as bitter, which I probably am, I’m not alone in my thinking.

“This is going to make a lot of people feel, at best, inadequate and, at worst, angry (because) the average person really has no chance to live the lifestyle that Gwyneth has,” remarked Carol Evans, president of Working Mother Media, publisher of Working Mother magazine. “Gwyneth is making choices for her life and it’s not really relevant to most moms. We all make compromises in our lives and the more resources you have, the less compromising you have to do.”

“For Paltrow to suggest that married women must never leave the hearth in order to make their relationships last is patently false, a fact that she herself has proven with her jet-setting lifestyle. Paltrow may see herself as a homemaker and wife, but truth be told she’s as business-driven and busy as any of the world’s most powerful women,” wrote  blogger Carolyn Castiglia.

Yes, being a working mom is indeed a hot topic. And yes, dear Gwenie once again stepped right into the thick of it…

(As an aside, my favorite tweet on the subject, hands down was:  “Why are we still letting Gwyneth speak in public? Whyyyyyyy?”)

 

Jennifer Gerlock can be found online writing for Want2Dish.com and Hip As I Wanna Be as well as tweeting as  @JenniferGerlock.

 

 

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