Gemma Arterton has always been, to me, a rather pretty and underrated actress and incredibly boring to boot. She’s a popular British actress who successfully flies under the radar because there’s rarely (if ever?) a whiff of scandal, controversy or shenanigans about her. But she pissed people off twice last week with her social media. First, she reposted an Instagram image of the Statue of Liberty doing a facepalm, which happened after (you guessed it) Donald Trump was elected. The comments on that IG were unpleasant. But of course the worst reaction was when she took part in a social media movement sponsored by The Fawcett Society to address Equal Pay Day. In Britain, women still make 18.1% less than their male counterparts in the same job. In America, women make even less comparable to men. So Gemma posted this:
This is actually a repost too, because she originally wrote something else. In this one, she writes, “Today is Equal Pay Day. Women in the U.K. are still paid on average 18.1% less than men. Not good enough! If you work a 9-5pm job, from 3.34pm you are effectively working for free. #equalpayday2016.” But in her original post, she added this: “If you work a 9-5pm job, you could leave work at 3.34pm to make a point.”
If you go to Gemma’s IG, you’ll see the comments are very unkind. It’s like the MRAs (men’s rights activists) from around the world just cannot stand it when a woman simply makes a gentle point about something backed up with reams of data. She’s also being yelled at by women for being “out of touch” because… I guess people think Gemma is ordering us to leave work early, for equality or something? She’s trying to make a point and raise awareness. This isn’t some Gwyneth Paltrow-esque, half-assed order to the peasants. Leave Gemma alone!
Photos courtesy of WENN.
How can anyone be surprised by the hate and misogyny anymore? My whole life I’ve thought more people were basically kind and decent than not (despite my parents telling me the opposite) but this week it’s finally gotten through to me. They’re not.
@Esmom – this week has been an unpleasant education in the fact that a large chunk of the population really does not give a flying fuck about equality, compassion or justice.
The best I can hope for is that it leads to liberal Americans mobilising as hard as the bigots did this time and taking the President’s office out of Republican hands in 2020.
Why wait until 2020? To paraphrase Mitch McConnell, the goal should be to make THAT MAN a one term President. Our country and the world will not survive 8 years of him and his ilk.
@I’mScaredAsHell – I mean he CANNOT be allowed re-election in 2020. He has to be a one-term thing, and the road to that starts with taking back the mid-term elections in 2018.
The mid-term elections are crucial if the United States is to continue as a nation operating under our current Constitution. Paul Ryan must be thrown out on his evil arse.
I’ve always been somewhat cynical, but I’m still stunned by it all. How can so many people be so angry at the very whisper of equality?
Because they want to stay in power and they sense it slipping away. Power consolidation well underway.
Because to those people, only their lives matter.
What WATP said…
I saw someone post this on election night:
“To the privileged, equality feels like injustice.”
That was always my belief as well. “The vast majority of People are good and decent, there are a few rotten apples, but I believe in the power of goodness.” I repeated that mantra to my children every time something horrible came up in the news, not because I wanted to assuage their fears, but because it was my experience. I’ve travelled extensively and have always benefited from the kindness of strangers. This past week the foundation of my belief in the goodness of humankind has been shaken. I’ve cried more over this election than I thought possible.
yetanotherjudy, I have cried too and I’m not even American. I’m so disappointed in the human race.
Yes. My place; I have been put in it.
I think it was Finland or Iceland where women left work and marched with their female kids.Totally inspirational! If we are not getting paid, I don’t see the issue. Tired of being a doormat because of my ovaries.
It was in Iceland .http://www.aufeminin.com/news-societe/islande-pourquoi-les-femmes-ont-elles-quitter-leur-travail-a-14h38-s2026498.html
The Fawcett Society does or something similar every year as well, so it’s hardly something new.
Also, Gemma Arterton is the least out-of-touch actor of all the current British staple. Her dad was a welder and her mother a cleaner FFS. In the recent Eton mafia climate, it’s something she even made it to the realms of serious acting instead of soaps and daytime TV.
Sixer – yeah, she knows what she’s talking about. I’ve been a fan ever since St Trinian’s, and I’m glad to become even more of one now.
Thanks, Sixer. Glad to see someone outside the Eton posse can actually secure acting jobs.
Any actress made it without going to Eton , because they only take boys!
You know what I meant, spidey. Eton mafia is just a mocking nickname. I can call it Eton/Harrow/Roedean/Cheltenham/Oxbridge mafia if you like.
I recently read an article about how “poshness” has taken over the British acting world. I feel like James Corden commented on it in an article once. Seems bad for business to me–what’s up with that? I mean, I understand the class system (to a certain degree) and that people can be snobby, but I would except poshness to get you far in business or law or whatever, not acting. I just don’t see how shutting out a lot of people is a good idea, unless, is that what the British public wants? I mean, I would think ratings and reviews would be the ultimate goal, and to get that, one would think you would look all over for talent. I mean, look at Adele, oh my gosh look at Adele! She’s wonderful! She’s not an actress though
It is the connections and networking
It’s what lightpurple said. A self-replicating clique, strengthened by austerity measures in arts grants and funding since 2010.
Anyone familiar with the Bouncing Benny and LEGS posts on here will know I’ve been banging on about it since Celebitchy time immemorial!
plus americans looooove posh brits. (or dont even know there are others, too)
Well, she DID go to RADA (with LEGS!)
But that almost proves the point–she went when it cost what, ten percent of what it does now? So it was feasible for her.
I think she said she got a full scholarship, and even with that she was neck deep in student debt.
Exactly, Totally.
I well believe the scholarship, but even as recently as that RADA tuition was, what, a thousand pounds a semester? Whereas now it is over 9,000 pounds? I don’t remember the specifics, Locke, but that’s the general idea.
The point being, as SirPatStew emphasized at the ES awards this eve, that government cuts to arts in schools and support for arts regionally and at the higher education level is key to the growing inaccessibility. Although it has been going on for awhile, it has been increasingly more severe in the last decade. Hence the poshlash, as it were. I love LEGS more than any (just look at my name!), I’m not bashing him-heck, he paid his way through RADA working–this is me agreeing that accessibility to the right schools goes all the way up the chain. Will the rising Gemma Artertons have even as much ability as she did to graduate from RADA (which has VERY limited scholarships, btw, though Tom, Jeremy Irons, and other graduates sponsor tuition for some students) and thus have even that level of networking.
She didn’t order anyone anything, but it is a bit out o touch. Leaving an hour and a half early can get you fired in most places. I sometimes feel like these people don’t realise that most people don’t have the luxury of “demanding” anything.
I like your comment. What you say makes perfect sense. In addition, I feel like it exactly makes the point why saying it out loud and bringing attention to those issues is important
It’s also not how the wage gap actually works. It’s not about making less each day or week or year. It’s about women making less in the entirety of their career because they suffer the financial effects of childcare or never get promoted beyond a certain level.
Some of it is fair (if you willingly choose to take a 1yr+ maternity leave each time and have a few kids, or you don’t work while your children are under school-age, you can’t expect to be in the same position as someone who’s been working that whole time anymore than if you’d travelled for a few years) and some of it’s unfair (many women don’t give up work willingly; they can’t afford childcare and their partners aren’t interested in staying at home. And there’s still a glass ceiling).
Leaving work early is counter-productive. Unless you have a very good job with a ton of room to negotiate your salary, it’s unlikely your male peers are making more than you or other female employees. If you actually have a 9-5 and are paid an hourly wage by an employer, you don’t have that kind of job. If you do have that kind of job, then you’re in a position to ask for a raise, and leaving early is going to damage your bargaining power.
Think about it this way though. If all woman in let’s say one office said “eff this.” And walked into the owners office and said, “give us all the same pay as our male coworkers or we’re leaving,” it may work. If all woman started asking straight up in an interview, “What does Joe blow get paid. Show me his pay stub, I want that amount,” that would start having an impact on equal pay. We don’t talk about pay enough and we should. Ask people in the office what they are getting paid. If you had education and experience and are getting paid less, you have the right to know. And we shouldn’t be afraid to ask for it. That whole “they’ll fire us” is used as a deterrent. That fear tactic is what’s preventing us from speaking up. Woman shouldn’t be afraid. Shame on them for making us afraid. They can’t fire every woman who works! Power in numbers ladies!
Rolling my eyes to your comment. She just said as a joke not like you should do it. She was trying to make a point. Like some else said, she actually gets it because her family is working class.
I didn’t mean her specifically, but more people like Cara D who said she demands to be payed equally or she won’t do the job. Which is great, but a lot of people don’t have the same opportunity.
She makes a good point-but yes, most of us would get fired if we just left our jobs. I suppose as an actress who has an extremely irregular schedule she wasn’t really thinking it through.
In Iceland,it worked because every woman made it http://www.aufeminin.com/news-societe/islande-pourquoi-les-femmes-ont-elles-quitter-leur-travail-a-14h38-s2026498.html
I’m with her. I always tried to leave earlier to pick up see my children looking back on that it was the right think to do. Later in my career I worked later but politics deemed that irrelevant. Take care of your family yourself first.
I did! And Gemma didn’t have to tell me.
Ditto for the rest of the year. My project has just been delivered so no more long hours. Work to rule (just) starts from this month.
I am essentially working for free to the end of the year anyway right?!!
Good for you!
That sucks for her. I don’t have twitter, but I do know some commenting sections around are full of butthurt men. I sometimes post on CBS news (canada) and try and make similar simple points about sexism I face, and the reactions are so sad. Just men telling me to stfu, what do I know, they face issues too!!!! Pathetic….
What’s funny about such hateful comments is that although you know it’s bs it still feels awful – I hope she knows she’s doing the right thing and doesn’t feel too bad about the negativity she didn’t deserve
First thing, Gemma Arteton is a very beautiful woman. I thought she was a supermodel. Secondly, I agree with her on this wage gap. Why do I have to work 40 hours and get paid less than men who work the same thing. This is why, as a feminist (who likes men), we have to fight for what we want. It is tiresome but this is ridiculous after women for over 100 years have paved the way for women to have rights as a human being and we are going backwards.
Wow, welcome to the new dark ages where slamming a racist and fighting for equality will get you slammed by the vox populi. Poor Gemma, I hope she ignores the idiots out there and continues to stand for her beliefs.
Love her! Personally I think she is very underrated. I follow her on twitter and she seems to have her head on her shoulders and to be rather nice
Good for her.
Good for Gemma.
In one of my first jobs, a male counterpart got paid £5,000 a year more than me, and £2,000 more a year than a woman in a much, much senior position. It’s ludicrous.
I’ve been complacent for too long. I thought we’d made progress, but I was deluding myself. Women need to speak up and make change, especially considering the massive back step we’ve taken this year. Go Gemma, and screw you thin-skinned man babies. Enough.
…but does she practice what she preaches ….seeing how at this event she was standing next to Idris who probably made triple her salary….so she should have left the movie set at midday …
Reminds me of an Onion article I read this week entitled Nation Throws Off Tyrannical Yoke of Moderate Respect for Women.
This weekend sucked. My family justified Trump and said he was the Christian choice … I personally cannot reconcile the the things that man has said with Jesus’ teachings. But I did listen to their reasons (after losing my temper). I don’t agree with peoples saying all Trump supporters are bigots – its the same as saying all Muslims and terrorists or these aren’t America’s best. I think the decision to vote between two candidates that don’t reflect their values was difficult. What I can’t stand is justifying Trump or pretending he didn’t say those things. I’ve made my peace IF he publicly apologizes and condemns the violence happening in his name, until then he condones it.
Where I work, its hard to demand equal pay, even amongst women because there are no standard pay bands. It all depends on what you asked for when you got hired.
Apologies if this has been mentioned – I can’t see it – but Gemma starred in a musical in the UK, “Made in Dagenham”, based on a real event, the Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968. They were fighting for equal pay so I think this is genuine support for the cause. And if her wiki page is to be believed she was definitely not born with a silver spoon in her mouth.
I caught that movie on a flight back from London and loved it! I encourage everyone to see it, or at least YouTube the “That’s as it should be” scene.