Jennifer Lawrence isn’t Wonder Woman
Get over it
Nathan Ross
Arts Editor
For those who watched the Oscars, or took a look at social media’s response to the Oscars, it was clear everyone was stricken with Jennifer Lawrence fever.
How couldn’t they be smitten with the quirky, outspoken J-Law who is bringing spunk and a fresh attitude to the typical personas from Hollywood?
Despite a glowing resume and fanbase, Jennifer Lawrence has had many of her blemishes swept completely under the rug. Photo courtesy: flickr.com/GabboT
She loves talking about food, giving blunt and sarcastic answers, and has incredible facial expressions when she talks. Clearly, she can win over any heart, which she seems to have actually done.
Many stars and fans laud Lawrence for being such a unique personality, but they seem blind to the fact that she has some undesirable personality traits too. Specifically, Lawrence has a tendency to say things in interviews which are often dismissed as well-meaning, but are actually down right ignorant and offensive.
Take her appearance last year on Ellen, for instance, when she was promoting The Hunger Games. When speaking of Katniss and how she came to be the hero she is, Lawrence said “…she kind of grows into it. And she’s strong, like a male hero with a vagina.”
How fortunate that our strong women come off as men, just with different body parts! It would be awful if we had great female he- roes that didn’t remind anyone of their counterparts with penises.
This isn’t the first time that Lawrence has had questionable opinions about women. In a Rolling Stone interview from about this time two years ago, she let us in on her life growing up. It included a lot of athletics, as Lawrence played field hockey, softball and even basketball on an all-boys team.
For women everywhere who play sports, having a role model like Lawrence can be a huge boost. Having such a recognizable face could help her inspire younger girls to break into the world of sports, or show that women who play sports can still retain their femininity.
However, it really didn’t help when Lawrence explained to Rolling Stone that she played all those sports because she “was so dykey.”
Ignoring all of the issues there currently are with homophobia in sports, women have had a struggle in the world of sports, primarily because it is an environment of reinforced heteronormativity. Many female athletes and coaches won’t come out for fear of being judged and released from their positions, such as when Lisa Howe was dismissed from coaching the women’s soccer team at Belmont University in Tennessee, which just happened to occur right around the same time as Lawrence’s “dykey” comment. She was not-so-coincidentally released the same week she came out, despite having a strong five year stint as coach.
As it is assumed that many women in sports are not heterosexual, they have to go even further out of their way when they decide to hide it. Having Lawrence reinforce the concept that she was so into sports because she was “dykey” only slows the progression that we are finally starting to see in these areas.
Lawrence isn’t only borderline sexist, she’s also insensitive to mental illnesses. When she was on The Tonight Show with Jesse Eisenberg, the topic of Eisenberg’s obsessive-compulsive disorder came up. Eisenberg had admit to having severe rituals that affect his daily life, and was talking openly about them, which can be a struggle for those with mental health issues.
Lawrence then turned to Eisenberg to declare, “You are the most interesting person,” and, “I want weird quirks.”
For those of you who haven’t seen Moonrise Kingdom, there is a scene in which Suzy (Kara Haywood) tells Sam (Jared Gilman) that she wishes she was an orphan, like Sam, because “I think (orphans’) lives are more special.” Sam responds with, “I love you, but you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Without the “I love you,” this is almost exactly the reaction Lawrence got from Eisenberg, as he quietly murmured, “You can have them,” when talking about his “quirks” that Lawrence wanted. While we laughed at Suzy because wanting to be an orphan sounds ridiculous, audience members swooned over Lawrence for wanting little quirks, instead of calling her out for trivializing OCD.
I don’t want to give the impression that Lawrence is this devil that has disguised herself perfectly in our culture. She is one of the many faces of a new age of Hollywood stars, and there are probably many worse celebrities for us common folk to worship.
However, if we are going to call out Katy Perry for trashing feminism (which we should and rightfully did) and are going to hold the stars accountable for their actions, Lawrence should not be exempt from this.
Especially since she may not be as perfect as we all want to believe.
Ehhh some good points that are made, Jennifer Lawrence has said some pretty dumb stuff, but you’re right: she isn’t the devil. She basically comes off as sheltered and ignorant. I do however, find it a little strange that a MALE feels the need to police a woman’s personality, even going so far as to write an entire article about the parts of her personality he doesn’t like. No offense. We get it, you aren’t a fan, but Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t owe you anything. How about we let the women (INCLUDING celebrities) live and stop telling them who they’re supposed to be. Would Jennifer Lawrence’s offensive comments about ‘a male hero with a vagina’ or ‘being dykey’ happen in a culture that didn’t have a problem with both femininity (devalued and perceived as weakness) AND strong women? doubt it. People need to be responsible for their words but we have to acknowledge how difficult it is to be a women, especially in hollywood, in the first place.
Oh boo hoo. Let’s pick apart a really genuine celebrity and make sure she doesn’t get away with making a few uncensored comments. Because how dare she continue being well-liked and a role model when we have people like Bruno Mars who was arrested for coke, and CHRIS BROWN (enough said) who have been taken completely out of the spotlight…… oh wait.
@Leave Jennifer Alone!
Just because I am a male, doesn’t mean that I am anti-woman. I was simply offering my opinion, in that Lawrence’s comments are sexist and a little ignorant. The irony for being called out as sexist for calling out a woman as sexist is rich, I hope you see that. This isn’t a Jennifer Lawrence bashing piece, this is a critical look at the celebrity who was been storming up the popularity charts and has been given more slack than others because of her blunt personality which, while refreshing, should not be regarded as perfect or inspirational in all situations. My main hope would be that we lessen our love of celebrity culture as a whole, but that’s not going to happen. Hopefully, I can show that even the ‘perfect’ ones in that lifestyle aren’t. That’s all.
@RB Please refer to one of my previously columns, which is all about Chris Brown. http://www.thereflector.ca/2012/11/02/the-chris-brown-saga-continues/
This article is what is offensive. The whole premise is ridiculous. It all amounts to taking cherry-picked, offhand comments and then using them to create a distorted portrait of a person. I would pay to have the author give hundreds of interviews and see what I could do with it. The hypocrisy literally reeks from the page.
Let’s take one example. She has made dozens of comments about Katniss and heroism she displays, and many others about typical female film roles. Both in word and deed (she plays one strong character after another) she has a very strong conception of women. Yet this writer laughably tries to define her alleged view of women based on one isolated comment while ignoring a mountain of others. Better still, the whole point about Katniss is that she is written like a traditional male hero, strong, self-reliant and most importantly not sexualized. It is the type of character that hasn’t always been available for actresses to play. (Contrast her with highly sexualized Lara Kroft). Jennifer’s description is really spot on. The author on the other hand is poorly informed in addition to being grossly unfair.
Oh, and once she she was 20 she once described herself as dykey, a term that is used by gay groups. Wow. Call out the PC police stat. The running joke with pcism is that those who fixate on it tend privately to be the most vile people of all. Maybe the author should record himself one night when he is hanging out with friends. Actually it’s not even a matter of speculation. The laughable effort to make a mountain out if a molehill (replete with pseudo-intellectual terms like “heteronormative”) suggest a sad individual. Take the massive two by four out of your ass. This type of hypersensitivity isn’t healthy. So now Jen is supposedly reinforcing stereotypes in sports by merely uttering one word? LOL!!!!
Incidentally, if Eisenberg was so sensitive about his OCD (I had it a lot worse than him) he should have thought about that before gratuitously bringing it up on national TV. Jen was nervous (still 20 and her very first major late night appearance) and was just trying to interact with him and was not being mean at all. But if you are still worried about Eisenberg’s tender feelings, Jen expressed regret for making him uncomfortable on her next Leno appearance.
Anyway, the fact that Jen isn’t so polished, still gets nervous and blurts things out, isn’t a fake blowhard, and is a real person is why she is so beloved. Because we see a normal, still vulnerable and sometimes awkward person dealing with the absurd demands of fame. It’s very refreshing.
this must be the dumbest thing i`ve read today… how about freedom of speech?
Alright, calm down! This is not offensive to Jennifer Lawrence, it is pointing out some less than great things she has said. No one gets away with saying things in publicity so neither should she. If you don’t like it, don’t read it.
Yeah she’s a little ignorant. Isn’t everyone? I’m a fan of her and I find this article interesting. She’s still cool but… talking about OCD like that? Pfft what the heck, “J-law” lmao do people actually call her that?