“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. … [I gave advice to a girl friend who] 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. Gloria Steinem may string me up by my toes, but all I can do is my best, and I can do only what works for me and my family.”
– Gwyneth Paltrow talks to Harper’s Bazaar about juggling a career, family, husband, random appearances in Mario Batali cookbooks, and duh, GOOP. But I don’t think anything she’s saying strikes me as godawfully un-feminist. Gwyn is struggling with the same work/life balance issues that everyone else is struggling with (of course, at a higher pay grade) and feminism is supposed to be about letting people make the right decisions for them, rather than having our genders dictate our decisions. Making family life a priority is a totally valid choice. I might not personally have phrased it as “you have a be a wife,” but it seems to me what she’s getting at is how it’s difficult to be both A Huge Movie Star and a Wife And Mother at the same time. Suggesting compromise — for both partners — isn’t un-feminist. That’s just logic. [Evil Beet Gossip]
