This doesn’t make actresses victims. It makes them rich.
If you’ve ever channel-surfed through the red carpet segment of an awards show, you’re probably aware: female actors have to answer a lot of stupid questions.
And if you’ve ever opened a magazine you’re probably aware: we care a lot more about what women wear on the red carpet than we do about their perma-tuxed, XY-chromosome’d co-stars.
Which, when you put it together seems a little lot… sexist.
That’s why last year, entertainment journalists during awards season were encouraged to #askhermore – to question female actors about their work, not just what they’re wearing. To shelve questions they’d never dream of asking male actors, like ‘How do you balance work and parenting’.
In 2015, #askhermore has become a full-blown, certified movement. Some are taking an “if you see sexism, laugh at it approach”, like ELLE Magazine, who’ve decided to gender flip the red carpet by asking actors inane grooming questions.
Which is brilliant. It never occurred to me quite how invasive it is to ask an actress “What’s in your purse?” until I read an actor flatly refuse to answer the question “What’s in your pockets?” .
Meanwhile, Golden Globes host Amy Poehler has been pushing the hashtag hard through her @SmrtGirls platform, and at the SAG awards last night, Smrt Girls put it to the test, with pretty excellent results:
Meanwhile, the actors themselves are rebelling. At the SAGs on Sunday, Parks and Recreation’s Rashida Jones shut down a journalist who asked her about her tan with a blasé “I’m ethnic” and Sarah Hyland of Modern Family gave the world’s most intense “WTF” face when asked what she’d buy for her co-star Sofia Vergara’s wedding.
But perhaps the most noted red carpet refusal of the SAGs has been Julianne Moore, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Anniston (a Triple-A list crew, if ever there was one) all snubbing E News’ now notorious ‘Mani Cam’. “I’m not doing that,” Julianne Moore said flatly, when asked if she’d parade her hands for E’s mini media wall.
Jennifer Aniston and Julianne Moore refuse to take part in red carpet tradition.
“No, no, no,” said Anniston, before cracking an invisible whip.
The Internet lit up with the news. Vogue’s Beauty Director tweeted:
How powerful you are in Hollywood is officially directly correlated to your comfort level with refusing the mani cam.
— Catherine Piercy (@CatherinePVogue) January 26, 2015
Top Comments
I'd never thought about the benefits to the actresses being asked those questions. I think fundamentally a big reason why actresses are asked those questions but not actors is that the actors only really wear one thing, a tux, while actresses have a much wider choice which makes for more interesting responses.
One important factor that this article has over looked is the age of the actresses who refused the mani cam. It's no coincidence that the are middle aged, it's hard to keep your hands looking as young as your face, especially if your smoke like Jennifer Aniston. Google Jennifer Aniston hands…. I wouldn't put them in a mani cam either...