It's Official: Gwyneth Paltrow and I Have Nothing In Common

While I love to make fun of Gwyneth Paltrow as much as the next person, I wasn't totally on board the Gwyneth hate-train. Sure, I would jump on for a quick trip, but if I was really being honest, I thought she was cool, smart, beautiful, fit, etc. I don't subscribe to Goop (her lifestyle website), but I peruse it occasionally. A lot of people would get angry that she would suggest that people buy outlandishly expensive things, but I didn't. I figured her target audience was for people who had millions to spare, like herself. So why wouldn't she suggest that they buy crazy expensive sh*t or detail the best place to get a bikini wax in Paris? That's her life. If we are being even more completely honest, I had just about come around to the name Apple. I sort of get it - it's sweet, wholesome, fresh. Not too far off from Clementine. Plus, Chris Martin was the one who suggested it apparently, and he seems like a good guy (and who doesn't love Coldplay).

Gwyneth took the fashion world by storm at the Oscars two years ago by wearing a cape.

When Gwyneth and Chris decided to "consciously uncouple" last week, I was sad for them. I totally rolled my eyes at the conscious uncouple crap, but not really at Gwyneth. More at the dumb doctors that came up with the term and wrote the bogus article about how marriage is no longer really feasible because we all live too damn long (the article was added to the page where Gwyneth announced the separation on Goop). Excuse me while my eyes roll literally right out of my head. I think that is complete bullshit. I think marriage is hard no matter how you cut it, but it is also extremely rewarding. In my mind, I have made a commitment, and I will see it through. I actually look forward to seeing Dan get old, wrinkly, and gray. He's way too good-looking as it is! That all being said, I realize that divorce is what works for some people, and I don't hold myself out as better than them. But let's not blame it on our lengthened life spans. What a cop-out. However, I wasn't "hating" on Gwyneth even at that point. I was more of the feeling of: "Bless her heart. She is trying to cope with the fact that she is going through a divorce and this is the best way she can do it. I don't agree with her views, but whatever helps her get through it."

Then, Dan forwarded me this article (because he enjoys seeing me seethe): http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2014/03/28/gwyneth-paltrow-working-mom-taking-break/6999685/

In it, for reasons I cannot fathom, Gwyneth compares her job to that of a working mom with a "9 to 5." Here is an excerpt:

"I think it's different when you have an office job, because it's routine and, you know, you can do all the stuff in the morning and then you come home in the evening," said the polarizing Paltrow. "When you're shooting a movie, they're like, 'We need you to go to Wisconsin for two weeks,' and then you work 14 hours a day and that part of it is very difficult. I think to have a regular job and be a mom is not as, of course there are challenges, but it's not like being on set."

Where do I start? I think the big mistake that Gywneth made was to believe that she knows anything about what it is like to have a "regular" job. She has never had one, and from what I know of her family, she has never been around someone who has had a "regular" job. Therefore, she wouldn't know about the "challenges" and how they compare to the "challenges" of being "on set."

I get what she is saying to a certain extent. That with an "office" job, there is a regular schedule to work around, but with an acting job for a movie, you have to be on location for long hours. But that is really the only comparison she is making. And then based on that comparison, she makes a large generalization that having a regular job as a mom is not as challenging as being an actor on set. She fails to take into consideration a multitude of other factors. For instance, the flexibility of her work (she gets to decide what roles and how many she chooses), the length of her projects (two weeks is a short amount of time), her support system (I am guessing here, but she probably has the means to make sure everything at home is completely taken care of while she is at location). Did she take into consideration the mom who has a routine office job, but has to take the occasional business trip (pretty common)?

I am not trying to argue that my situation as a working mom is more challenging than Gwyneth Paltrow's life as a working mom (although just writing that sentence makes me laugh). What I want to highlight is that she should not even being comparing her life to mine and then labeling one as more challenging. That is the heart of the whole "mommy wars," people who make judgments and generalizations about other moms' lives and then attempt to compare them to their own. Just don't do it. I talked about this to some extent here. What really puts salt in the wound as far as Gwyneth's comment is that she clearly lives a very fortunate, luxurious life, and she always has. I believe I live a fortunate life as well, but I didn't like attend Jay-Z and Beyoncé's wedding or anything. I also don't know *anything* about flax oil (embarrassingly), and I have never done a juice cleanse (just ask my midsection). My point is, it is hard to listen to someone in that position dismiss the daily grind.

So, I guess I can't like Gwyneth Paltrow anymore. Ugh! Who am I kidding? I am totally going to check out Goop next week and maybe embark on my first juice cleanse. Gywnnie's skin is so luminescent! Maybe if I do a juice cleanse, mine can be too!!!