Jessica Lange, star of FX’s Feud: Bette and Joan, told The Hollywood Reporter Americans currently live in history’s most misogynist era. Ah, the invincible ignorance of spoiled, self-important liberal celebrities!
In The Hollywood Reporter’s latest Drama Actress Roundtable, Jessica Lange, along with academy royalty Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey, Nicole Kidman, Elisabeth Moss, and Chrissy Metz discussed “the pain of strong females (onscreen and off-) amid a culture of discrimination in the industry and beyond.” The conversation was politically charged, and Jessica Lange declared: “I don't think, in this political climate that we're in, that we've ever seen this much misogyny, this much sexism,” while Oprah nodded in agreement.
Lange was responding to a question on how her show “would have landed differently if Hillary Clinton were president.” Lange initially responded, quoting Ryan Murphy, Feud’s showrunner, who believed the show would have only been “ironic,” yet is now -- supposedly -- symbolic.
“I think it’s more relevant now than it could have possibly been at any other time,” Lange continued, “and I think the fact that we have this story that is set in a particular period, but obviously Hollywood in the 1960s, is just a microcosm of the greater atmosphere we are all living through now.”
The recent discussion revealed just how oblivious Lange, as well as the other actresses at the Roundtable, are to real misogyny of the past and present.
From 1776 until the mid 1800s, American women were subject to a slew of legal practices banning them from independent property ownership and, of course, the vote. In 1900, fewer than 25 percent of women held bachelor’s degrees. Talk about “a culture of discrimination.”
And even today, women around the world are facing real sexism – particularly women who live under the rule of radical Islam.
On June 22, 2017, activists Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Asra Q. Nomani, in a New York Times opinion piece, discussed how hypocritical – or perhaps just short-sighted – the leftist elite is when it comes to women’s issues. Both Ali and Asra had testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on the ideology of terrorism, yet were treated coldly by “the democrats on the panel, including Senator Kamala Harris and three other Democratic female senators.” Ali and Asra noted:
When it comes to pay gap, abortion access, and workplace discrimination, progressives have much to say. But we’re still waiting for a march against honor killings, child marriages, polygamy, sex slavery, or female genital mutilation. They left today has a growing tendency to prioritize group rights over individual rights, partly driven by “intersectionality.”
Compare the horrors detailed above with those Lange and Witherspoon discussed toward the conclusion of the roundtable.
Lange lamented, “The only thing that I ever have regretted is saying yes to a film and the time that has taken me away from my children. I wish I had said no.”
Witherspoon agreed, complaining: “I did a movie every time I was pregnant, and I wish I hadn’t. I just wish I’d just let myself be pregnant.” Witherspoon and Lange also discussed just how difficult it was to juggle their acting jobs with finding art classes and camp for their children.
Modern, first-world problem, ladies...
