Anna Kendrick Perfectly Distills A Frustrating Double Standard Between Childless Men And Women
Textise version: https://www.textise.net/showText.aspx?strURL=https%253A//www.huffpost.com/entry/anna-kendrick-childfree-quote_l_67117ddae4b0e33eefb25fae#main
Archive.ph version (blue overlay makes it difficult to read) https://archive.ph/AEebT
Earthly-tools (missing first two lines, but much more readable) https://earthly-tools.com/text-mode?url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anna-kendrick-childfree-quote_l_67117ddae4b0e33eefb25fae
Part 2: Anna Kendrick says she won't date a man 'unless you are in or have been in therapy' after 'abusive' 7-year relationship https://archive.ph/d9GbD
ogrilla99 Pez "The Pussy Dispenser" Pimp 1mo ago
God, where to begin with this one? Here are a few of her mistakes.
Firstly, lots of women talk nonchalantly about "having kids one day". They're usually in their early 20s, when plenty of women say they don't want to be "locked down", or want to "have their fun" before "settling down someday". IOW, men and women both talk this way, it's just that the age ranges are different. Yes, women in her age range can't really say things like that anymore without looking ridiculous ("someday? Honey, you don't have many days left to get pregnant..."), while men in her age range can. But even men hit an age, usually around 50, where saying stuff like that is considered ridiculous. By then, either you have kids, are planning to very, very soon, or have decided you never want them.
Secondly, she bitches about people expecting her as a woman to have kids, while not expecting men to have kids. Newsflash: people have different expectations of the different genders. You think you have it so hard dealing with the expectation to have kids? Try being a man with the expectation of having a high paying job. For every woman who constantly hears "when are you going to settle down and have kids?" There's a man constantly hearing "When are you going to man up, stop playing video games, and get a job?" And a man who says "yeah, I'd like to get a good job some day" is treated with far more ridicule than a woman who says "yeah, I'd like to have kids some day". Women like this think that only women face societal pressure to conform to certain norms and expectations, and that somehow all that pressure goes away if you have a penis. And the truth is, guys have far, far higher norms and expectations and pressures than women do. The only difference is we don't publicly bitch about it as much (because we would be shamed for complaining, but that's another story).
Thirdly, she's very vague about the details of her "abusive" relationship, which is fine. I can respect her not wanting to share every detail. But it's very telling that the couples therapist chose the guy's side. For people who have never been in couples therapy, you have no idea how rare that is. Most therapists are women, and most couples therapists have themselves failed in relationships, and, just like divorce courts, they side with the woman almost all the time. To be a guy in couples therapy and have the therapist agree with you and tell the woman "it's not him, it's you", means the woman is so obviously, egregiously wrong, that even her natural ally has no choice but to call her out. To put it more succinctly, I suspect the couples therapist denied her claims that the relationship was abusive, and rather than accept that, she fired her therapist and found another one (preferably not a couples therapist, just individual, the better so that the new one can never hear the guy's side) that would agree with her.
And finally, after all of this, she's supposedly older and wiser and more thoughtful in how she chooses her relationships, and so now one of her criteria's is that (check's notes) the man must have been in or currently is in therapy. Really? That's the conclusion you draw from all of this? It's like saying you're going to eat healthy by having a diet Coke. "It's still the Coke I crave, but without the calories!" As if your craving for that sugary sweetness isn't the problem in the first place. It's like saying, "I've been in a relationship with an alcoholic, so now, I will only date a man who goes to AA meetings". Maybe it would be better to find someone who was never an alcoholic to begin with and therefore, never had the need to go to an AA meeting? Alcoholics, even ones who go to AA meetings, have a far higher relapse rate than the general population, to say nothing of the (basically zero) risk if you specifically choose someone who doesn't drink alcohol at all. But that's not the type of man Kendrick wants to choose. It's worth digging a little deeper into why that is.
Let's stick with the alcoholics analogy. In what situation might it be good to only choose a man who's in AA? When all of the men you meet are alcoholics. If that's the only men you meet, then yes, choosing one who's at least in AA gives you the best chance of not ending up in a disaster. And why might you only be meeting men who are alcoholics? Usually for one of three reasons: one, your social circle is so limited that that truly is all you meet (e.g. you live in a homeless shelter or some public welfare council house project where all the men are deadbeats); two, there's something about you that makes non-alcoholics recoil (aka red flags that make normal men flee); three, conversely, you like alcoholic men. Non-alcoholic men bore you, and you think it's great fun when an alcoholic goes on a bender with you.
Back to Kendrick. I suspect the reason she now has this rule that any man she dates must be in therapy is because she's similarly surrounded by mentally ill men: narcissists, sociopaths, bipolars, etc. But why? Reason #1 can be ruled out. She's good looking, rich, and famous. She can find men from any social circle in the world. If she wanted a man who didn't have any personality disorders to begin with, she can easily find one. Which leaves #2 and #3. I'm not sure which combination of those might be the answer here, but regardless both of them (red flags, and an attraction to men with mental illness) are within her power to change. Yet rather than change them and thus increase her chances of finding a mentally healthy man, she puts the onus on the man to change by being in therapy.
And finally, a word of advice to men who might be willing to take this deal regardless. Women who are attracted to alcoholics lose interest when you stop being one. Sure, when they're put through the ringer, they temporarily decide they're done with them. But asking for an alcoholic who's in AA is sort of like asking for fried ice: even if you're in AA, you're still an alcoholic. And women who want that might support your sobriety in the beginning, but they'll soon be nostalgic for the fun drunken nights they used to have, and if they can't draw you into it again, they'll find someone else who isn't so strong.
In the same way, Kendrick has been put through the ringer with her last relationship. But if she's asking not for a man with no mental health issues, but rather for a man with mental health issues but who's in treatment, then rest assured, at some point, she'll want that man's mental health issues to come out again, because that's what she's drawn to. Then she'll ride that rollercoaster of drama and whiplash emotions for a year or 7, then come out worse for the wear, blame the guy, then choose another one who can start the rollercoaster again once she's caught her breath. Unless you're in it just for the ride, it's probably best to steer clear.
polishknight WAATGM Endorsed 1mo ago
All great points, but I'll add that I found her diatribe amusing in particular because I recall she said in an interview about 15 years ago that she was "old fashioned" and expected men to pay for dates. So she knows about one sided sexist expectations.
Something else that's worth pointing out is that about just before I came of age, most young women dreamed of getting married, the earlier the better, usually due to dreams of the wedding party. It was not uncommon for them to have a stack of Bride magazine on their coffee table. The "I'm too cool for school" era of women who wanted to "have fun" in their 20's began during that period as they shamed each other as "pickmes" if they expressed a desire for marriage and kids too early. Ironically, this started to happen during the Reagan era.
I think because she lives in this shit-test mental mind bubble, not just as a celebrity but common to career women of the era, she's mentally deranged and cannot express herself well. She probably passive-aggressively told Bill Hader "I don't care about having kids" much like she would say "I don't mind paying for the date!" and then the REAL man is supposed to say: "No! I insist! I will FORCE you accept me paying for dinner AND I will INSIST upon having children because that's what I want and I will accept ALL of the responsibility for doing so! Real Men are superheroes with NO needs of our own!"
That's the mind-games millions of them have played and even got away with. I have a relative who went along with this (no shaming, just an observation) and now that some men are just not willing to "man up",these women lack the ability to actually ASK for men to do these things but accept personal responsibility they have to GIVE something back in return, and more than just metered out sex.
It wouldn't surprise me if she's undergoing a.nervous breakdown as her biological clock winds down and she doesn't know what to do about it, but can't actually consciously and openly admit it. Hence, why the couples therapist sided with the man.
Another thing about therapy: yes, there are abusers who will gaslight the therapist but at the same time, therapy is supposed to be about a safe place to express oneself and if she is confrontational, of course he's going to be less secure without a 3rd party there to witness her BS.
NotaBene Sr. Hamster Analyst 1mo ago
You can't win either way because you're too old to have kids, and couldn't be happy in a marriage.
Women only complain about the system when the system rejects them and spits them out. The attention they used to get evaporates, and suddenly everything is so unfair and it's time to play victim.
Selfish and useless. Women have literally two jobs in life. The same two jobs they have had for all of recorded history. The same two jobs that women universally rate themselves by, regardless of nation or culture.
You "appear" selfish because you are acting like a Boomer. Everything is all about you, your happiness, your career accomplishments. You're about to find out how little anyone else cares.
He didn't go far enough. Your votes shouldn't count at all.
Yeah, if you let your wife buy everything she tells you she "needs".
Lone_Ranger Sr. Hamster Analyst 1mo ago
I have a solution for AK - just shut up and do your job.
I choose to not do lots of things, but I dont harp on about them.
Women like AK are always harping on about how bad they feel because they don't conform to 'social pressures'. This is revealing. It reveals that she (and women like her) are suffering a major case of main character syndrome. She believes that society is disapproving, which would mean that we are paying attention to her and 'her choices'. (btw, when a woman says 'her choices' she means her failures, but thats a topic for another day).
The main character syndrome thing is a mental disorder these days. The truth is that I don't disaprove of AK's 'choices' because I don't know or care who she is. I can't name any of her films, and when I see her picture, I confuse her with that other one that looks like her. I confuse her with other actresses, because they are interchangeable.
Women like her are always griping about how they feel the weight of disapproval from society blah blah blah. the truth is that nobody notices or cares what she does.
Another point - she says 'I won't date men that dont XYZ'
this is a classic defence mechanism - she is telling the world that SHE has chosen some criteria that dramatically reduces her pool. the truth is that very few men want a woman that doesn't want to reproduce.
ogrilla99 Pez "The Pussy Dispenser" Pimp 1mo ago
This is a great point. If you don't want people to disapprove of your lifestyle, then don't talk about it. If you wish to talk about it, prepare to be judged, and prepare for some of those judgments to be negative. I've seen a few of her movies and even enjoyed them. But I didn't know if she was single or married, much less what her views on having children were. I didn't care. Women complain that people judge a woman by her private life while only evaluating a man by his career. But they don't see it's because they themselves can't stop yapping about their personal life.
Contrast her with Robert De Niro. He's far, far more famous than she is, and has been in the spotlight for longer than she's been alive. I've seen more of his movies and admire him much more than Kendrick. And I know nothing about his personal life, because he doesn't talk about it. He's actually said that he doesn't talk about himself because he feels that would influence how people see his characters, and having audiences see him (the person) rather than the character he creates, would dilute their experience.
If she would just realize that her role in my life (and the life of the vast majority of her paying audience) is to entertain me for an occasional 2 hour stretch here and there, then she'd realize she has far more freedom to carry out her personal life however she sees fit, because I don't care about it. The only people that care about it are her family, friends, perhaps other close associates. Talk to them on the phone, go out with lunch and commiserate over drinks, whatever. But don't open up your life to millions of people unless you're prepared for millions of people to now comment on it.
That said, I take a more cynical view. She's pandering to her audience. She's rapidly aging out of sex symbol territory (if she ever was one). Most guys lusting after her have probably moved on to the next hot it girl, or will soon do so. The people who are going to power her ticket sales for the next decade will be women, and not young women, but women her age. And if she's not good enough like De Niro to create memorable characters out of whole cloth, then she needs another way to get people to watch her. And that's by getting people to become fans of her rather than her forgettable characters. And what better way to appeal to 30s/40s women pining for their glory days in their 20s, than to talk about how she too has been through the ringer of riding the carousel, emotionally "abused", in therapy, and blaming all of her woes on men?
When a woman is a young sex symbol, and her acting chops aren't enough to put butts in seats, what does she do? She goes on Maxim in a bikini and talks about how much she likes sex and how nerds make her wet. Does she actually believe this? Hell no. Her boyfriend(s) are usually either hot, buff Chads, or older rich men. But she knows that by saying this stuff, she can build up her fanbase of lustful young boys/men, who will then watch her movies even though they're shit and she can't act.
I'll give Kendrick the benefit of the doubt that what she's saying is true (i.e. she was in a relationship for 7 years, was in couples therapy, doesn't want kids, etc). But the reason she's talking about it now is for the same reason: she's building her fanbase of aging single women (married women her age with kids are probably going to children's movies if/when they have time to go to the movies) who will then slavishly watch her films and follow her instagram.
user84893093748959 Jr. Hamster Analyst 1mo ago
These are some excellent points about a major motivation for her speaking on these subjects. It's an important aspect for everyone to understand about these industries. She has a new movie coming out and she is advertising. Great job pointing it out! This happens all the time with "celeb news". Actor goes on a series of interviews - or sometimes it's just a news article - and discusses some personal this and that, and, oh, I also have a new movie coming out this weekend called "Blah, Blah, and Blah".
Many movies have been ruined for me because the actor spoke public about their feelings on culture or politics - although somewhat one in the same. De Niro may be a good actor, but, if I were to ever watch a movie with him in the future, all I'd be able to think about is how much he hates Trump. Likewise with so many other actors. I don't think these actors are dumb, being ignorant of how their public personalities affect the viewer's experience; therefore, I can only conclude that they don't care or actively don't want me to enjoy the movie.
Kendrick has been blessed with good genetics with an incredibly youthful appearance; she would have otherwise not been so successful. But she is beginning to show her age. Jennifer Aniston went through the same phases. She did "We're the Millers" as her last "sexy actress" movie. Now I'm wondering if that scene was a body double. Last I saw Jennifer Aniston in a YT short playing some new reporter in some show I've never heard of nor care about.
As for the "abusive" relationship and therapist complaints, I don't give any weigh or credence to these stories for a few different reasons: (1) therapy sessions are suppose to be private, and more importantly (2) women choose the men they have relationships with. For better or worse, she chose the man she is now complaining about. They're are billions of men on Earth, and she chose him to associate with. This is a forest for the trees evaluation. I don't need to count and catalog the trees to know it is a forest.
As for therapy, I think there have been more people speak out of the questionable usefulness of therapy. Insert Bill Burr's joke about it turning into a lifelong car payment. Saint Kevin Samuels used to say therapy should only be required for less than 18 months when callers would say they've been in therapy for several years. I went to a therapy session provided free of cost as a employment benefit - 4 more would have likewise free. I spoke and vented for about 50 minutes, and then the therapist asked if I'd like to schedule another session. "No, I just need to get a divorce."
polishknight WAATGM Endorsed 1mo ago
Here's my analysis:
I think she's BSing. Let's try it this way: If her family was socially conservative and she was liberal, she'd be excited tell everyone in Hollywood how she didn't conform to "social pressure". Yes?
There's a wonderful film, "Up in the Air" which cast George Clooney and her perfectly by their own personal archetypes. She explains how she was able to act the part of a pretty, preppy, entitled Millennial so well: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QKMWyILrddU
The reason why it's a double standard for men as she whines isn't due to "society" but rather biology: Seth Rogan can be casual about it because most men, not all, don't have a biological clock. He doesn't mind people asking him about his personal choice because, for him, it really is a personal choice and particularly one that isn't final.
She doesn't want to admit that she's a loser who couldn't make a relationship work despite being one of the most privileged people on planet Earth. JD Vance's quip about cat-ladies got under her skin.
I disagree with you that there are "very few men" who would want a woman such as her who doesn't want, or can't, reproduce but the boyfriend she claims was abusive (I'm guessing SNL's Bill Hader by the timeline) was a 6'1" divorced single father. There's tons of men in their 40's who don't want kids for various reasons. Not only that, but she's hyper privileged in that she gets invited to social events year round giving her access to the top tier of successful men but she lacks the mental ability to put basic effort to lock these men down.
She really does want the "hard to get girl who needs a man to pass her shit tests" rom-com experience but she doesn't want to admit it to herself and is angry that she basically is the character Natalie in the film.
I think she wanted Bill Hader to say: "You know, you're wrong. You'd be a perfect mother and I will disagree with you because I'm a strong man who will overcome your independent streak while still respecting you as an equal. I insist we start a second family for me!"
I think SHE probably was more calm in therapy because she didn't want the therapist to see she was a psycho and then shit tested him and projected her insanity onto him.
polishknight WAATGM Endorsed 1mo ago
Issues with archive.ph so giving some other reading options. There's a neat article following this I've marked as part 2 which is fine under archive.ph. I cannot post this to reddit but I welcome someone else doing so if they desire.
SpiritualEnema Jr. Hamster Analyst 1mo ago
Every time I read one of these posts I hear “my body, my choice” blaring in the background. If women want total authority over whether children are born or not, then they need to accept the corresponding responsibility for their reproductive choices.
I know, I know. My soggy knees and tools of the patriarchy…..
First-light Jr. Hamster Analyst 1mo ago
Lets hope she sticks to her choices. You go gurl. Don't reproduce, please don't reproduce. Feminism, stops feminists reproducing as much as real women. Its a pain to men but its good for mankind in the long run.
First-light Jr. Hamster Analyst 1mo ago
The "Abusive partner" said she was terrorising him and she admits that he genuinely felt that. So, she denied his lived experience and turned the blame round on him victim shaming and hiding her guilt.
Abuse these days is anything that makes you unhappy. So we are all abused and abusers as no human can ever make another happy all the time without denying themself. The feminists have ruined the whole concept of abuse -seriously knocking your innocent and defenceless wife about was where it started and that was a good thing to condemn. Now it is anything she wants it to be. Well what is good for the goose is good for the gander madam. You are an abuser too, so go hang your head in shame.
The article says "As a result, Kendrick won't even consider 'getting involved with a man' - not even kissing or having 'a real conversation' - unless they're 'in or have been in therapy'. Amen to that." Amen in deed. At least it will only be men with mental problems that "abuse" her from now on. And really she should have seen the red flags -they guy was in therapy after all. Hardly a balanced guy...