Reese Witherspoon on Media’s Harmful Message to Young Girls

Reese Witherspoon has recently opened up about how an “offensive” photoshopped image in a 2015 Time magazine article got the best of her. 

As a guest on Kristen Bell and Monica Padman’s podcast, “We Are Supported By,” Witherspoon says the image — which featured herself, Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow and Blake Lively, labelled “domestic divas” — reinforced stereotypical gender roles. 

“I had started a clothing business. Gwyneth was really growing Goop. Blake Lively had a business, Jessica Alba had a business and they did a caricature cartoon of all of us,” Witherspood said.

The fellow stars were shown holding items such as vacuum cleaners and irons, all while dressed in ball gowns. Their identity as entrepreneurs and businesswomen was disregarded. “The whole thing was so offensive that I burst into tears,” she recalled. 

Witherspoon said Time had apologized for the story, but felt the need to talk about it given that the matter was so recent.

“I’m not even talking about 10 years ago. I’m talking about 2015 when we decided OK, we’re going to be entrepreneurial, take a swing, invest our own money, our own time, our own reputation and try to do something that George Clooney has done, Robert De Niro has done and getting lampooned for it,” she said. “That message to little girls is, ‘If you’ve had success in one area, you can’t have success in another.’”