Pop Culture

Jensen: Twitter reaction on Gwenyth Paltrow shows misplaced backlash

There’s a reason people voted Gwyneth Paltrow the most hated celebrity in Star Magazine’s poll in 2013. And there’s reasons popping up all the time that further reinforce the contempt — like when the millionaire mother of two claimed she has it harder than most moms to E! in an article published March 26.

“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 (difficult) — of course there are challenges — but it’s not like being on set.”

Sure, Paltrow overlooking her ample money for childcare and her husband to help with household duties along with the expressed intent of only shooting one movie a year can cause anger, but the reaction after Paltrow’s proclamation to “consciously uncouple” was unwarranted.

On March 25, Paltrow and Chris Martin, her husband, announced their separation via a letter on Paltrow’s lifestyle website, Goop.com.

She ended it with the phrase heard ‘round the Twitterverse.



“We have always conducted our relationship privately, and we hope that as we consciously uncouple and co-parent, we will be able to continue in the same manner.”

What followed was a Twitter-lashing.

 

 

 

Such Twitter users chose to forget separation by any other name is just as bitter. The decision to end a marriage can be extremely painful and personal. When you also account for the scrutiny of the incessant media, it should all be enough to grant a brief period of amnesty for anyone — including Paltrow.

Despite her narrow view of motherhood previously mentioned, Paltrow had the sense to take her family away to the extremely private island of Eleuthra in the Bahamas to escape media scrutiny.

We should also be grateful that Paltrow was always honest about issues in her marriage. While Hollywood is a town that banks on unrealistic romances, one woman was keeping it sincere.

“I asked my dad once, ‘How did you and mum stay married for 33 years?’ And he said, ‘Well, we never wanted to get divorced at the same time,’” Paltrow said to Glamour UK in 2013.

“And I think that’s what happens. When two people throw in the towel at the same time, then you break up, but if one person’s saying: ‘Come on, we can do this,’ you carry on,” she said in the magazine.

Though they threw in the towel, Paltrow and Martin opted for “conscious uncoupling,” a phrase provoking fodder, perhaps because we don’t understand it.

Simply put, it’s a five-step process created by therapist and author Katherine Woodward Thomas “for lovingly completing a relationship that will leave you feeling whole and healed and at peace,” according to her website.

So instead of social-media stalking her ex and eating the macrobiotic version of Ben and Jerry’s, Paltrow can move on to the next phase of her life without holding on to any resentment.  And that alternate Hollywood-ending sounds better than most breakups.

Erin Jensen is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism. Her column appears weekly. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter at @erinrjensen.





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