A mother has hit out at fellow parent Reese Witherspoon, slamming her for openly ‘insulting’ women who make their money from ‘mommy blogging’ during a speech that was supposed to be about female empowerment and equality in the entertainment industry.
Writing an open letter to the 41-year-old Big Little Lies star, Los Angeles-based mother Meredith Gordon accused Witherspoon of ‘insulting mothers who make their living as bloggers’ while calling for more diverse content for women in entertainment – before joking that she wasn’t ‘talking about mommy blogs and 14 ways to cook a turkey’.
Reese, who is a mother of three, made the remarks while accepting an award for Entertainment Innovator of the Year at the WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards in New York last week – and her passionate speech was viewed by many as a message of empowerment and positivity for women. But not as far as Gordon was concerned.
Insulting: Blogger Meredith Gordon has penned an open letter to Reese Witherspoon accusing the actress of insulting ‘mommy bloggers’
Diversity: Witherspoon called for more diverse content for women in the entertainment industry while speaking at the WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards
What’s cooking: During her acceptance speech at the event in New York City joked that she wasn’t ‘talking about mommy blogs and 14 ways to cook a turkey’
Big winner: The Oscar-winner was awarded Entertainment Innovator of the Year at the WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards (pictured with designer Diane Von Furstenberg)
Posting her reaction to the comment on Mom.me, Gordon wrote that she was ‘a proud member of the community of thousands of women — many of whom are mothers who make their living as bloggers.’
And although she admitted that she too cringes at the term ‘mommy blogger’, as it’s ‘always used pejoratively’, she suggested that as a mother and actress, Reese probably wouldn’t like to be called a ‘mommy actress’.
She continued: ‘I was curious why someone in your position would marginalize a group of women who are doing exactly what you claim to want to do.
‘Bloggers are using their own platforms, which they have painstakingly built on their own, to provide a myriad of content to an audience hungry for authentic entertainment, as well as information.
‘The online community is one of the few branches of the entertainment and media business that is dominated, if not run by, women. But yet you equate what we are doing to something as trite as 14 ways to cook a turkey.’
She went on to say she also believed the words Reese used showed a ‘tremendous lack of respect for a group of women who have found a way to be both mothers and writers’ and added that she had ignored the fact that ‘many mothers would have no other opportunity to earn money were it not for their blogs.’
Mommy actress: Witherspoon has three children – daughter Ava, 18, five-year-old Tennessee and Deacon, 14
Take down: Gordon suggested that just like every blog post isn’t a gem, neither are some of Reese’s movies, namely Hot Pursuit
Respect: The open letter says Witherspoon showed a ‘tremendous lack of respect’ to other women, specifically those many people who make their money from ‘mommy blogging’
She added: ‘No, not every blog post is a gem. You can relate, I’m sure. You did star in “Hot Pursuit,” after all. But there are fabulous writers making their living by writing online.’
Gordon then suggests the mom-of-three ‘read a few posts’ by writers Jenny Lawson, Ilana Wiles or Jill Kraus to see how they are ‘providing inspiration and much-needed information on their blogs’.
She concluded by asking why Reese decided to ‘take a group of women down in an effort to promote another’ and also said she’d seen more terrible movies than blog posts.
On her blog Bad Sandy, Gordon says she started writing because, ‘I love first person essays and a blog is the best way to do that.’
No stranger to an open letter, she has penned several to Gwyneth Paltrow, concerning content posted on her lifestyle website, Goop.