Wow, what a crazy week. I usually only half pay attention to non business related news during the week. I would rather pay attention to my family and fitness related things but two events played out this week that have me talking.
1. Gwyneth Paltrow’s remarks about “other working moms”. Here’s what she said:
I think it’s different when you have an office job, because it’s routine and, you know, you can do all the stuff in the morning and then you come home in the evening. 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, of course there are challenges, but it’s not like being on set.
Wow. *shaking my head* Can we first start with the question her publicist must have asked her…
What did you think would come of a statement like that?
Did she think we moms would be like “oh wow, poor Gwyennie. What a rough life?!” What she did do by dropping this little statement is remind us all how disconnected from reality some movie stars can be.
And to be honest, I don’t even know why I let it bother me. I could care less what she has to say but I think I just feel like she cheapens the work we all do. There is nothing easy about being a mom, we all work our asses off, weather you work in the home or out. The idea of a routine is as much of a four letter word in my house as the word balance. I work hard to achieve it but at the end of the day, it always feels unattainable and that’s ok.
I shouldn’t let it bother me but I’m just floored. I mean really…really!? Gwyneth, you have isolated yourself from the very market that would go to your movies. Nice work!
2. Self Magazine’s mocking runner’s in tutu’s.
I think we’ve all seen and heard about this and again, I’m just floored. I’m floored that someone or something, such as Self Magazine could be so out of touch with the very people who support them. Where was their PR/Marketing team when they reviewed the magazine. Why didn’t someone say..
Hmm…we have a lot of runners in our reader base…maybe we shouldn’t run this.
Aside from the fact that they mocked an amazingly strong, courageous, beautiful, inspirational runner who looks damn good in a tutu, they misled her in the process. I’m so disgusted by the fact that they misled her to believe that they were going to do a positive piece on her business that creates tutu’s but instead turned it around and mocked her and the tutu’s calling them “lame”.
I’m sorry, you can apologize all you want but you have shown your true colors and that is not ok with me. The thing I love about running is that runners come in all shapes and sizes and are free to run in whatever we want. The second we start judging and tearing each other down, we lose.
Sorry Self, I don’t have any tolerance for negativity. Subscription….Cancelled. Tutu…Ordered!
Go check out Glam Runner and get yours today! Shop
I guess to Gwyneth and Self, let’s go back to the lessons we learned in kindergarten.
“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all”
What do you think of Gwyneth’s statement or the Self piece?
i’m definitely shocked and disappointed by both.
Hadn’t seen either cause I was traveling a bit crazy this week. Strange that people would go down those trails to insult people.
It makes me want to wear a tutu just to annoy Self. (Not normally a tutu-wearing person.) Heck. I think guys should wear them to. Maybe have a race that requires them? Now that would be cool.
yes, totally! back to kindergarten for these writers.
Seriously. I used to like Gwyneth, but no. Just no. She has and never will understand the basic NEED to work to provide for her family; she came from money, married money, and earns a ton of money. The tutus comment was so catty and superficial, clearly not written by a runner but a judgmental person. So, in closing, every woman is hard worker in their own way, and you can be and wear what you want. No magazine is going to be able to change that ;-D
Agree about Self showing their true colors. I was so upset-when is making fun of people and having an series called “BS meter” ok? I hope they learned their lesson, but I won’t ever be reading them again. As far as Gwyneth? She and the editor of Self should go to lunch while their french nannies teach their children how to say “compassion” is several different languages.
On Gwyneth: She really must be very disconnected from the reality all of us none-A-listers must contend with. For one, she can hire the BEST of the best when it comes to child care, when most working parents have to settle for the best of the worst when it comes to corperate daycare facilities. Second, I doubt that in her days off (even if they are few) that she also has to do 2 weeks worth of grocery shopping, laundry, scrub toilets, etc.
On SELF: I think it was unfortunate coincidence that they chose a picture featuring a cancer survivor when they proclaimed how lame they felt tutus are. I, for one, don’t run in a skirt and never will. But if dressing up in unity for a cause or simply for fun as motivation to get out there gets more women running, then why the hell not? They could have been smart and poked fun at ANY runner, male or female, running in costume, but they singled out the tutu, which definitely left a bad taste for much of their demographic.
Has anyone bombarded (word of the day on “Word Girl” sorry we are stuck on PBS Kids in my house) SELF magazine with the ridiculousness of their post? I am pretty sure had the women known what the picture was going to be associated with they would have never agreed to allow them to take the picture.
As far as Gwyneth goes, she has made idiotic comments like this about other random things so I am not surprised…. But at the risk of being reamed out myself for playing devil’s advocate for a minute… I can understand what she is trying to convey. We all struggle as mother’s (or at least I do) as not doing enough for our kids especially when it comes to spending quality time with them or traveling for work. Given her children’s ages I would imagine she wouldn’t want to pull them out of their school just for two weeks while she films for 14 hours a day and wouldn’t be able to spend time with them anyway. We all do the best we can with what we have. I think if anything, questions asked of Gwyneth need to be prescreened by her publicist so that they can come up with an answer that makes sense to the rest of us.
GP: Yes, huge disconnect. Precisely the reason why we should never hold up Hollywood types as role models. Apples and oranges. I think her statement needs to go on the BS meter.
Self: Shame on them. The fact they happened to pick on someone with cancer? Karma baby. It’s going to be very hard (hopefully impossible) to live this one down.