Jennifer Aniston has delivered a searing condemnation of tabloid intrusion into her private life, following reports that she and husband Justin Theroux are expecting their first child.
In a blog published on website The Huffington Post, Aniston began by dismissing the claims that she is pregnant.
"What I am is fed up," she said. "I'm fed up with the sport-like scrutiny and body shaming that occurs daily under the guise of 'journalism', the 'First Amendment' and 'celebrity news'."
"The objectification and scrutiny we put women through is absurd and disturbing. The way I am portrayed by the media is simply a reflection of how we see and portray women in general, measured against some warped standard of beauty," she continued.
The former Friends star said young girls were absorbing "toxic messages buried within these seemingly harmless stories".
Justin Theroux and Jennifer Aniston
"The message that girls are not pretty unless they're incredibly thin, that they're not worthy of our attention unless they look like a supermodel or an actress on the cover of a magazine is something we're all willingly buying into," she wrote.
"This conditioning is something girls then carry into womanhood. We use celebrity 'news' to perpetuate this dehumanising view of females, focused solely on one's physical appearance, which tabloids turn into a sporting event of speculation."
Aniston pointed out that in "this last boring news cycle" about her private life there had been "mass shootings, wildfires, major decisions by the Supreme Court, an upcoming election, and any number of more newsworthy issues that 'journalists' could dedicate their resources towards".
She went on to say that women are "complete with or without a mate, with or without a child".
"We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies. That decision is ours and ours alone. Let's make that decision for ourselves and for the young women in this world who look to us as examples," she said.
Writing that she had become "tired of being part of this narrative", Aniston told readers she was "not in pursuit of motherhood because I feel incomplete in some way, as our celebrity news culture would lead us all to believe".
"I resent being made to feel 'less than' because my body is changing and/or I had a burger for lunch and was photographed from a weird angle and therefore deemed one of two things: 'pregnant' or 'fat'," she said.
"Not to mention the painful awkwardness that comes with being congratulated by friends, co-workers and strangers alike on one's fictional pregnancy (often a dozen times in a single day)."
While conceding that tabloid coverage would not change "any time soon", Aniston concluded by saying: "We get to decide how much we buy into what's being served up and maybe some day the tabloids will be forced to see the world through a different, more humanised lens because consumers have just stopped buying the bull****."
