Jennifer Garner was one of the honorees at the Elle Women in Hollywood event. She wore this very young purple sparkly dress which looked cheap and was tailored poorly, in my opinion. She also had on some nude lipstick that washed out her face. (Garner’s showing at Matthew McConaughey’s GQ event last night was much better. Kaiser covered that here.) During her speech at the event, Garner mentioned that Hollywood is run by men and that it can seem very sexist at times, especially when viewed through the prism of her life. She mentioned that she always gets asked about how she balances work and family life while her husband, Ben Affleck, never does. Then she complimented Emily Ratajkowski’s boobs.

At last night’s Elle Women in Hollywood event, honoree Jennifer Garner gave one hell of a passionate speech about sexism in the entertainment industry.
After being presented by Steve Carell, Ben Affleck’s other half took that stage to share a personal story the brought the audience to cheers and applause.
“The fact that there even needs to be a Women in Hollywood event is a little bit sad,” gorgeous Garner said during the annual event at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills. “I mean, the men in Hollywood event is every day—it’s called Hollywood. Fifty-one percent of the population should not have to have to schedule a special event to celebrate the fact that in an art that tells the story of what it means to be human and alive, we get to play a part.”

She went on, “So for example, my husband and I do kind of the same job, a little bit. Not long ago we both had one of those magical days, we call it a junket, where we both attended these lovely events where people come in every four minutes, they ask the same questions over and over again, you know the drill. We got home at night and we compared notes. And I told him every single person who interviewed me, I mean every single one, and this is true of the red carpet here tonight Elle, asked me, ‘How do you balance work and family?’ and he said the only thing that people asked him repeatedly was about the tits on the ‘Blurred Lines’ girl, which, for the record if we’re talking about them, they are real and they are fabulous [Garner’s referencing Affleck’s Gone Girl co-star Emily Ratajkowski]. Take a look and enjoy.”
After a pause for laughter, Garner continued, “As for work-life balance, he said no one asked him about it that day. As a matter of fact, no one had ever asked him about it. And we do share the same family. Isn’t it time to kinda change that conversation?”

[From E! Online]

It could be a self-perpetuating cycle, but Garner often talks about her work and family balance in interviews. That makes sense if people are asking about it, but I’ve heard her bring it up seemingly spontaneously on Letterman (although it was likely preplanned with her approval), on Extra and in multiple other interviews. In fact I just rewatched an interview she did with Extra when Samuel was five months old and she’s the one who broached the topic. All the Extra journalist did was congratulate her on the baby and she volunteered that “it’s absolute chaos, I really did not realize how much more work three was going to be than two. I’ve been a little overwhelmed.” There’s nothing wrong with that by any stretch, but she brought it up. This is her image as a devoted mom and I believe it’s genuine and that she perpetuates it. So it doesn’t seem sexist to me when people ask about it.

Also, Affleck has said many times that it’s harder for him to stay home with the kids, that he’d rather be working and that Garner does all the work with their children. Plus we know he loves boobs. Maybe it’s not sexism so much on the media’s part as just a normal response to their public personas. In no way am I suggesting that sexism does not exist in Hollywood, just that Garner’s examples don’t ring true for me. I’m glad she brought it up though.

photo credit: WENN.com