Drew Barrymore gave an interview to US Magazine at the Glamour Celebrates 2017 Women Of The Year Awards. I hope that they asked her leading questions and that all of this is taken out of context, because her comments didn’t really sit right with me. It’s true that I’m sensitive about the issue of harassment and assault, so many of us are, but I wish she would have phrased some of these things differently. I guess we’re all different and we all make sense of things differently. She also may have just been being defensive and didn’t want to talk about serious things in a throwaway red carpet interview, which is her right.
“I think it’s an extraordinary time for women,” Barrymore, 42, said. “And you have to encourage all of this strength. And defiance is a tricky word but I feel like there’s a way in which women can be pioneers that seems a lot more in keeping with strength rather than anger.”
The Santa Clarita Diet star, who has been in the business since she was a child, told Us Weekly that she has not personally experienced any harassment in Hollywood during her long career.
“No, I was scrappy! Nobody messed with me!” Barrymore explained.
The 50 First Dates actress also opened about how she remains hopeful in the industry despite the recent surge of sexual harassment reports and allegations against Hollywood males like Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Piven.
“The hope is that women are taking care of themselves,” Barrymore said. “And taking care of each other inadvertently. For every woman that is brave she’s also protecting another woman.”
I know Drew didn’t mean to say that women can avoid sexual assault by being “scrappy,” I know she was just trying to speak to her own experience, but if I was her I would have just said that I’d been lucky. So many “scrappy” men and women have been assaulted, many in the presence of friends, family members and partners. You can fight back, you can run, you can use weapons, but still get assaulted or murdered anyway. It can be a person you knew and loved who violates you or it can be a stranger at a party where you assume you’re safe. Someone can drug you and make it impossible for you to even move. I know I sound so negative going through these depressingly awful scenarios but honestly it’s been on my mind since we’ve heard about all these cases. It’s just so prevalent, and there’s often no rhyme or reason to who escapes from a predator.
What did Drew mean by this? “There’s a way in which women can be pioneers that seems a lot more in keeping with strength rather than anger.” Is she telling women we shouldn’t be angry about this issue and that we should be “strong” instead? Because those things aren’t mutually exclusive. It’s hard to think of something more deserving of anger than this. We don’t have to play nice at times like these. Also the whole “women are taking care of themselves” sentiment reminded me so much of what Matt Damon said about Gwyneth Paltrow and Harvey Weinstein.
Oh and Drew got crap recently for holding up a Starfish for an Instagram selfie, potentially killing the sea creature. Instead of using that as a teaching moment (see: Brie Larson) she called people “haters,” called the comments “mean, cruel, and ugly” (to be fair some of them probably got personal instead of pointing out the facts) and then got a makeover. She posted her retort on a photo of herself getting her hair cut. That’ll show them.
photos credit: Pacific Coast News and WENN
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