Jennifer Lawrence is fed up with the way Hollywood, and the film industry in general, treats and perceives women.
In negotiations, men were free to speak up about their salary and not get labeled as someone with a “big ego.”

Whereas when women would speak up in negotiations they were often labeled a “shrew” or a “diva.” Men received more money whereas women were belittled into thinking they were being” difficult” or “spoiled.” It created a double standard where women in the film industry should be happy with what they get, and men had the freedom to basically state any amount of money they wanted, and they would receive it no questions asked.

Jennifer Lawrence penned an essay in Lena Dunham’s online e-newsletter “Lenny Letter” that sparked more of a public debate about the discrepancies between men and woman in the film industry. It was more specifically the amount in which men and women get paid for their work.

Jennifer Lawrence wrote the essay to shed some light on the double standard plaguing society where one’s salary signified one’s worth and the female opinion carried less weight than their male counterparts.

Jennifer wrote, “It’s hard for me to speak about my experience as a working woman, because I can safely say my problems aren’t exactly relatable. When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people with penises, I didn’t get mad at Sony. I got mad at myself. I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early.”

She was sacred to speak up, and she admitted it was partly her own fault. She didn’t want to haggle over money and walked away from receiving more. She had missed out on the opportunity to speak her mind and get paid what she deserved. That negative connation of speaking one’s mind associated with being a woman had prevented her from continuing to fight for what she deserved.

Jennifer Lawrence continued by writing, “But if I’m honest with myself, I would be lying if I didn’t say there was an element of wanting to be liked that influenced my decision to close the deal without a real fight. I didn’t want to seem ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled.’”

She had held off speaking her real opinions because she didn’t want to be thought as “demanding” or “unmanageable.” Instead she would rather be someone polite and courteous. She lamented this was a perfectly fine idea until the Sony hack scandal revealed that not only did males speak their mind and get paid more, but they weren’t labeled “difficult” and or “spoiled” because of it. Jennifer questioned why her and other females have been labeled as such for speaking their mind to begin with.

“Are we socially conditioned to behave this way?” Lawrence said, “We’ve only been able to vote for what, 90 years? I’m seriously asking – my phone is on the counter and I’m on the couch, so a calculator is obviously out of the question. Could there still be a lingering habit of trying to express our opinions in a certain way that doesn’t ‘offend’ or ‘scare’ men?”

She went on to describe an occasion with a male subordinate that happened to her a few weeks ago, she was bluntly speaking her mind and giving her opinion in a “clear and no BS way.” The male subordinate replied to her after she spoke her mind “Whoa! We’re all on the same team here!” He had taken her confident-self speaking her mind as a personal attack like she was yelling offensive verbiage at him. When in reality she was just merely making her opinions known.

Jennifer asserts she is done attempting to find the “adorable” way to express her opinions yet “still be likable.”
She said, “I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a man in charge who spent time contemplating what angle he should use to have his voice heard. It’s just heard. The Jeremy Renner’s and Christian Bales’ and Bradley Copper’s of the world didn’t have to combat the notion them speaking their minds is them being difficult.”

Lawrence stresses that unless females as a unit actively tried to dismantle the double standard to even the playing field. Women were never truly going to get past that label of “spoiled” or difficult” for speaking their mind. It was always going to be taking as offensive by a large number of the male population.

Females speaking their mind and not worrying about being labeled “difficult” and just focusing on being heard is a step in the right direction.

When Bradley Cooper found out Amy Adams was paid almost nothing for work on “American Hustle” he said, “She worked [every day] on that movie and got paid nothing. It’s really horrible actually, it’s almost embarrassing.”

The actor added, “She should have been paid more than everybody” for her work and said he hoped the essay would “allow people like Amy to also speak up.”

Cooper also stated he would start sharing his salary to help females negotiate better.

The double standard in the film industry isn’t actually that relatable of a job because the job of an actor/actress is kind of done for fun entertainment. The real issue of disparities in salaries between men and women/perception of a woman’s opinions versus a man’s opinion is something that needs to be addressed post haste.