Two Oscar-winning actresses have eschewed the feminist label this week – though only one of these statements proves surprising. In an interview with Porter magazine, French actress Marion Cotillard (pictured) criticized feminism, saying, “We need to fight for women’s rights but I don’t want to separate women from men…Sometimes in the word feminism there’s too much separation.” And her sentiment was echoed this week by the oft-worshipped Goddess Meryl Streep, who declared in Time Out London, “I am a humanist, I am for nice easy balance."
Cotillard’s stance is one of her least controversial opinions, the actress revealing she’s a 9/11 conspiracy theorist and a moon landing denier, suggesting that her opinions should best be taken with copious fistfuls of salt.
Meryl Streep however, is known as a human shatterer of Hollywood’s glass ceilings; a loud cheerleader for feminist statements like Patricia Arquette’s Oscar winning speech this year; and founder of The Writer’s Lab, which promotes the work of female screenwriters over 40. The actress is also currently campaigning Congress for the creation of an equal rights amendment, and, y’know, starring as Emmeline Pankhurst in the upcoming film Suffragette.
Streep’s refusal to adopt the label of feminist therefore feels a little inauthentic, and is perhaps echoing the outdated philosophies of former F-word eschewers Taylor Swift and Katy Perry who saw the word as too divisive. It seems especially odd when just minutes after saying she wasn’t a feminist, Streep went on to criticise patriarchal systems of power.
“Men should look at the world as if something is wrong when their voices predominate. They should feel it,” said Streep. “People at agencies and studios, including the parent boards, might look around the table at the decision-making level and feel something is wrong if half their participants are not women. Because our tastes are different, what we value is different. Not better, different.”