Star should not be cast as traitor to the sisterhood
ACTOR Cameron Diaz was outed as a 45-year-old Hollywood retiree this week when her looselipped pal Selma Blair revealed the There’s Something About Mary star was done with movies.
Then Blair, no doubt chastened by a disdainful phone call from Diaz, furiously backtracked insisting it was all a joke. The sticky undercurrent here was the disbelief that a multi-millionaire with her name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame might now actually prefer to just hang out with her musician hubby Benji Madden.
Diaz, who wed Madden, 39, in 2015, hasn’t appeared in a movie since the remake of Annie the previous year.
She’s past it, the producers have stopped ringing and her movies were all rubbish anyway were some of the more palatable assessments from the keyboard sisterhood warriors.
But isn’t that just the way feminism navigates the moral potholes of 2018: It’s the modern feminist’s way or the highway.
Speaking at the Vanity Fair post-Oscars bash, Blair said that the pair had been chatting about their film The Sweetest Thing. She recalled: “I had lunch with Cameron the other day. We were reminiscing about the film (released 2002).
“I would have liked to do a sequel but Cameron’s retired from acting. She’s like ‘I’m done’.”
Let me add here that Diaz has already been cast as an enemy, incorrectly of course, of the “all-embracing” sisterhood. She has been sceptical of modern feminism’s goals, asking, “So, what are we fighting for? What do we want more of? If we are fighting to have what men have, is that really what we want?”
Ouch. Unperturbed, Diaz had also offered up this gem about bitchiness: “You know, nothing matters now that I have my husband. Like, I don’t even remember any of that.”
And she triggered some gleeful faux-rage when she told Britain’s Sunday Times: “I think every woman does want to be objectified. There’s a little part of you at all times that hopes to be somewhat objectified, and I think it’s healthy.”
Translation: it’s OK for a woman to enjoy compliments and be desired by someone.
“I’m a woman, I know how to handle myself. I know what I feel comfortable doing and I know my sexuality.”
A commentator on HuffPost sniped: “Cameron Diaz might want to think twice before she speaks for every woman.”
Another said: “Thanks Cameron but your post feminism isn’t welcome here.”
Another critic posting under the pseudonym A Lofty Existence sniffed: “In other words, it’s not about you, your womanhood, or your attractiveness. It’s about what you – or rather, your body – can arouse in the viewer.
“Not anymore human than a well-made piece of art. All a sexually objectified woman is worth is her ability to entice and once that worth is lost, which it inevitably will be, her worth is also lost.”
Please. Blair, someone who likely has had deep and meaningful chats with Diaz, said this week: “I mean, she doesn’t need to make any more films. She has a pretty great life, I don’t know what it would take to bring her back. She’s happy.”
Twenty-four hours later in the news cycle she tweeted: “Guys please, I was making a joke in an interview. CAMERON DIAZ is NOT retiring from ANYTHING. And for more breaking news: I am NOW retiring from being Cameron Diaz’s spokesperson.” It was too late however to stick a plug in the torrent of insults and judgment that gushed forth.
Back in January, several magazines reported that the starlet was more interested in starting a family than continuing her career in front of the camera. Maybe Diaz doesn’t want to have it all. But don’t admit that to the skewed feminists who insist that you can and must have it all – on their terms. Feminism has become a confused beast, more a mongrel of factions and degrees of radicalism.
The questions for us and our daughters is: Are we stuck with it, or can we take it back to basics? The sisterhood, pure and simple. Support both moral, emotional and physical, where we can give it and the freedom to make choices without being judged or tarred and feathered as a traitor.
I can already hear the “friends” and “sources” speculating about the state of Diaz’s ticking biological clock, the gut-wrenching rounds of IVF, the desperate mission to conceive or adopt.
All this from a couple of throwaway sentences. Regardless of whether it was said in jest. It really doesn’t matter now anyway.
Diaz has been wrongly accused of being a feminist turncoat, tried and convicted without uttering a word.
Imagine if Aussie darling and Hollywood hero Hugh Jackman’s wife Deborra-lee Furness said her hubby was planning to wind up his career so he could focus on her and their children.
Different headlines, I’ll bet. “Hugh for Father of the Year”, “Hugh makes the ultimate sacrifice”, while social media would light up with a tsunami, of “awwwwww, what a guy.”
Or, as one wise friend said to me, “How can you call yourself a feminist while only championing a cause if it fits into the narrow scope of your comfort zone. Isn’t that expecting women to perform on your terms, aka misogyny?”
If Diaz wants to retire, has retired, is thinking about it, wants a baby, and so on, that is her choice.
Choice remember – isn’t that a key part of feminism?
To those armchair critics and faceless online bloggers, the joke is on you.