Old-school Gawker used to run a series about Jennifer Aniston where no matter what happened or what the tabloid headlines were that week, “Jennifer Aniston is fine.” Not good, not great, not feeling awful or depressed, just “fine.” There was an edge to it which I always found really funny, and it became this terse, gritted teeth thing of “Jennifer. Is. Fine. Stop. Asking.” What’s weird is that post-Justin Theroux, she finally does seem… fine. Like she’s found some measure of peace and contentment, like she finally understands what makes her happy and she’s not competing with anyone else or any of that. I was reminded of all of that with Jennifer’s profile for InStyle’s 25th anniversary issue. Jennifer has been on the InStyle cover so many times, and she got really nostalgic about it, and about the ‘90s. She made me nostalgic about it too. Some highlights:
‘90s nostalgia: “When I think back on the ’90s, it makes me nostalgic — period. They were simpler times. This is going to sound odd, but there was a sense of safety in the world. We weren’t exposed to as much as we are now. And even if there was just as much sh-t going on, we didn’t necessarily have it in our faces 24/7. It was lighter. There was a lot more human connection. Back then, Fred Segal on Melrose was still alive and kicking, you know?
On being called sexy: “In 1999, oh, wow, I think I posed on the cover with just a sheet. It feels ironic to be anointed as “sexy.” I always thought Lauren Hutton was sexy. Bombshell wasn’t really my thing. I thought natural, cute, and funny was sexy, you know? At the time I think we were broadening our ideas of what sexy actually meant, so to be put in that category, I was like, “Oh, this is nice.” But, no, I didn’t have a “sexy” banner around my waist or start going to “sexy” school or anything like that. Some days you’re hot, and some days you’re not.
The passage of time: “It’s funny because when you’re in your 20s, you’re on the road to this unnamed destination that you think you’re going to, but I don’t know if you ever actually reach it. Time just continues on like a speeding bullet. When you get older, though, there’s a little bit more of enjoying the here and now. I’d like to slow everything down. Smelling the roses is an understatement— I want to watch them grow. And, yes, I actually have roses and went outside to smell them this morning.
Where she is now: “I’m at a place now where I actually feel like I’ve grown up and entered into who I am creatively. It’s taken me this long to know what I’m capable of. I didn’t always know. I think I used to put a lot of that in the hands of other people. Now I’m taking ownership of it. And you know what? It feels really good.
When I think back to the ‘90s, it did seem simpler in retrospect, but I feel that way about the Obama era too. I mean, Donald Trump’s presidency makes everything in the past seem simpler, happier, less worrisome or frenzied. But the ‘90s were full of terrible bulls–t too, which Jen acknowledges – the Clinton impeachment psychodrama, Columbine, terrorist attacks abroad and at home, and on and on. But she’s right, it didn’t feel like it was happening 24-7. Like, we weren’t sitting around all day, every day in a blind panic about how every single thing was going to hell. We truly had so much fun in the ‘90s. Also: “Bombshell wasn’t really my thing,” yes we know and that felt slightly pointed at *someone* but I won’t bite.
Photos courtesy of WENN and Instagram.
That safe comment sounds….white.
American White. And key word is “sense”.
Jennifer Aniston is peak white privilege. I do not really blame her for it. She lives in a protected bubble and frankly I would too if it were an option. Makes life easier even if it is unrealistic. At least she is nice.
JHC! How about idealistic or youthful naïveté? Nope, gotta bring the negativity ASAP. Or do you think only (American) whites possess those qualities?
Being that idealistic or naive is a privilege offered to white youth. I can guarantee you that had she been a black woman in the 90s, she would remember the decade quite differently. Two words: Rodney King.
@Sarah: two letters—OJ?
OJ got away with murder because he was a *good black* in the eyes of the police officers who failed Nicole over and over again.
And OJ worked HARD to get to the point where he was accepted by white people: he moved to a white neighborhood, married a white woman, ran in mostly white circles. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he was a good-looking, famous and wealthy athlete.
But he is most certainly the exception.
On top of that, you are telling on yourself when you use one very rare example of a black man being protected by law enforcement when you KNOW that black folks are getting gunned down by police officers on the regular.
Ah yes, one rich Black man possibly getting away with murder means that in the 1990s the Central Park Five weren’t sitting in prison after being wrongfully convicted by racist, abusive cops…Rodney King wasn’t beaten within an inch of his life…Abner Louima wasn’t beaten and sodomized with a broomstick by an NYPD officer…Amadou Diallo wasn’t shot 41 times as he held up his wallet thinking he was being robbed by the undercover police officers who cornered him as he returned home from work…there wasn’t rampant racial discrimination in housing, employment or education. Keep telling yourself that so that the score is even in your mind and you can reject facts that tell you otherwise.
I don’t think my comment is actually relevant in this context so I’ve cleared it.
This was literally my first thought when I saw the headline. Safer for who?? Oh – yes it was very safe for white folks back then. Everyone else? Not so much.
It’s still a pretty safe world for White people.
Everyone remembers their youth in a nostalgic way though. In the ‘90s the boomers were nostalgic for the ‘60s and when you consider what the ‘60s were like you sort of wonder why. I don’t think she’s much different from anyone in that regard. I keep waiting for nostalgia for the 2000s and I don’t think it’s going to happen. Because of 9/11, I don’t think anyone wants to remember the 2000s. 9/11 might be the dividing line that makes the previous decades seem more attractive.
@perplexed So true. But I’m seeing kids in their 20s now get nostalgic about the 2000s because it was their childhood. They weren’t aware of the impact of 9/11, the Bush years, war in Iraq, etc, because they were just kids.
That’s true. I forget that there are kids now young enough to not have actually witnessed the twin towers falling and having everyone lose their minds at the exact same moment.
Lighten up you guys. JA is great and the 90s were too!
@Alexandria-you’re entirely correct.
The 90’s were safe?! Hmmmmm guess the LA Riots didn’t affect her. She’s a dipsh*t.
Aren’t you sweet.
the 90s were safer and better for living in many western countries. my native country was in war in the 90s and still life was more normal and sane than life in the western europe, america, canada,etc. now. people were definitely more reasonable then and things made sense. things weren’t perfect, but at least people and the culture were more interesting and lovable and human. I love the 90s.
How her harmless and innocent words turned into this outrage is beyond me. She wasn’t comparing her life with others nor was she looking down on others. I really don’t get it.
Almost everyone has a time-period in their life, which is special to one. For Jen it is the 90s. Not surprising considering Friends, the start of her career and all the media coverage she got in that decade.
Seems like people are making such a big issue out of a non issue. Jennifer has a right to speak her truth in the way she’s lived her life and how it felt from her eyes. Everyone is responsible for their own choices and how they live there life good or bad. If you are making the wrong choices it will catch up with you. No one has the right to attack anyone’s nationality, race, gender, etc this goes both ways but people seem to forget that.
This is not surprising. Didn’t John Mayer call this years ago about her?
Cannot remember any details about John Mayer & Jennifer Aniston.
They dated back in 2008 or 2009 I think. He all but set up a press conference to announce that he had dumped her and that she was stuck in the 90s. She still took him to the Oscars a few weeks later because she was that desperate not to attend alone the year both Brad and Angelina were nominated.
Shockingly, this was not even Mayer’s trashiest moments.
Ha I immediately thought of that too- I think he said it something in the context of she wasn’t into social media and other things, she liked things to stay as they were.
Not surprising she is nostalgic and romanticizes her golden era and youth.
Thank you. That’s exactly what i thought too. Of course she adores the nineties, it was her golden era and everyone was talking about her. And yes Jen, bombshell wasn’t really your ”thing”, you were always more of a fame whore (still are).
Aren’t we all sort of forced into being into social media though? Most of us try it out and realize we don’t enjoy it. But to “network” we stay on it so that we can get invited to things and stay in the loop. But most of the time we’re confessing to each other that we don’t like social media that much. Being on social media means constantly being in performance mode, but not all of us are into constant 24/7 self-promotion.
also, when did it become necessary to do whatever everyone else is doing? being that it’s only in more recent decades we have internet, etc… not everyone wants more technology in their lives. some of us want balance. of course, i was always an undercover ‘do my own thing’ kinda misfit : )
In moments like that, I truly realized that white people live in a completely different country, no a universe even, than people of color, and especially black people.
Ffs, the 90s were the decade when a black man was beaten senseless on videotape by four police officers and nothing happened to them because an almost all-white jury decided they really did not give two f*cks about the civil rights of a black person.
There were weeks of riots afterwards. More than 50 people DIED.
Like WTF Jen A? Doesn’t she remember or is she that clueless? But then she is tight with the likes of Chelsea Handler so…
Sarah I remember that very well even though I am so far removed from America. I’m from Singapore.
I remember it well, plus genocides in Bosnia, Rwanda, Somalia…
I didn’t mention events abroad because I think Jennifer was talking about the US but you’re right to evoke these genocides. The 90s were anything but safe for a lot of people.
You’re completely wrong. I am a Latino who grew up in the 90s and I completely concur that there was a sense of safety in the world that was smashed by 9/11 and then everything after that. There is ALWAYS bad stuff happening in the world but not to the extent it is now. Relax.
White privilege at its finest
Would never think of her as a Bombshell. Jennifer Aniston is Vanilla, safe, & very white.
Sorry, but i don’t understand what all the appeal is when it comes to Jennifer?
She’s attractive, but deep as a puddle. There’s not much personality with her.
She has her niche, she’s lucky she made a lot of money.
Her agent really pushed hard that narrative about her being sexy, people were sold on that idea by the tabloids just an echo chamber , she has not ever been attractive or interesting.
I think that’s actually a huge part of her appeal. How vanilla, safe and white she is. That’s her brand.
Exactly. I have always described her as the perfect average white woman. It’s why she appeals to so many white women IMO. She’s kind of like a non-threatening friend.
It’s the minivan driving moms she’s always appealed to. The ones who think, “Oh, we’d be friends, drink some cocktails, talk about clothes and stuff”.
Agree with you guys re her target audience. Would add “the women whose husbands ran off with “the bombshell…” to that group..😏
I think the bombshell comment is directed more at the sort of Pammy Anderson, Jenny McCarthy women who were popular at the same time Jen’s career was starting, not at Angelina. In the 90s, there was girl next door pretty, but “sexy” was usually something you’d call a big boobed, bleach blonde woman – or maayyyybe a big boobed brunette, just to mix things up. Like Baywatch style.
I didn’t think she was referring to Angelina Jolie either. I think Jolie was also considered unique-looking at some point. Same for Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock. Obviously they’re all white, but for white people they were considered not quite so generic. Even someone like Gwyneth, who IS blonde, probably would have been seen in the same light as Sissy Spacek in a previous decade. In the 90s she was considered beautiful, but I’m not convinced people would have gone on about her beauty in a different time period.
I don’t think it was about Angelina either. I would never consider Angelina a bombshell, even back then. She was sexy and badass but “bombshell” seems reserved for Marilyn Monroe types who really lean into it.
Aniston was (is) teeny-tiny, had nice boobs, and had that I-need-someone-to-take-care-of-me vibe going on. I remember her being described in numerous magazine articles as
fragile, delicate, tinier in person than on TV, etc. Her fragility was appealing to a lot of men, who like to think of themselves as protectors. Frankly I’ve always thought that’s why Brad Pitt fell for her — she made him feel like a big ol’ man.
vanilla is nice. especially now that everybody is trying to be special and outrageous in some sense. it’s quite nice to see somebody ordinary.
Your posts always serve as a stark reminder of how much more work we need to do as a society.
I agree. Women like her are a dime a dozen. I don’t find anything extra ordinary about her at all.
Did you earn a couple hundred million and marry a couple of the hottest guys in the US?
Yeah. You didn’t. She seems like a decent person and cattiness is not a pretty look.
She finally feels at peace and doesn’t feel the need to compete anymore because someone else family broke up in a horrible way and she felt joy and happiness out of it. She’s such a nice person * sarcasm *🙄
Sounds more like like projection on your part because you don’t like her.
Wow. Really? Project much, Grace? Damn.
Sighhhhhh at her comment, and at the comments here.
I don’t think the 90’s were safer. I remember hearing about stranger danger constantly. There was Jon Benet, Columbine, Rodney King, OJ, etc. Heck, in my town there was a girl my age who did a paper route, and she was raped and murdered by one of her customers. One of my neighbors who was my sister’s age was molesting my sister’s friend, and was caught peeping into my (then 12 year old) sister’s bedroom while she slept. Plus, you had the internet coming up, and all the dangers of chat rooms, etc. So no, I fully disagree with her that it was safer.
But I think that’s more due to her nostalgia filters and privilege of being very rich and famous through the 90’s than her being white, and I don’t think her race needs to be part of the discussion here, tbh.
I have a hard time imagining a black person describing the 90s as safe. I mean compare to the 1890s maybe.
I’m biracial, but white passing, and was raised by a white single mother. I don’t think she would describe the 90’s as safe either. Which I guess is why I have a hard time with every comment talking about her being white, rather than the fact that she was extremely famous and rich for the bulk of the 90’s. If we had been famous and rich, we probably would have felt pretty safe too.
But even rich, famous black people could get racially profiled back in the good, old 90s. Even someone like Chris Rock. This is why I think her comments have a lot to do with her race.
Of course they could. Racism was still prevalent then, as it is today.
I just don’t think every conversation in the comments needs to turn into how white women are the devil and stupid, basically. The other day I got told that I was obviously a white woman who voted for Trump in 2016 and will again in 2020, simply because I politely disagreed with another commenter. And none of that was even remotely close to the truth. Unless someone identifies their race in their comment, people don’t even know what race they are – and yet it comes up, over and over.
Sometimes people can be stupid and privileged and naive, and it’s not necessarily connected to their race.
The YouTuber For Harriet has mentioned that she can tell when a biracial person is raised by a white mother or a black mother. @Arizona, your comment fits her thesis to a T. You should check out some of her stuff on that topic.
Just realize that Aniston was probably living in LA at the beginning of the 90s, right during the riots. Wow.
Eh? the 1990s started with the first Gulf War!
Maybe she meant 24/7 news stations weren’t as widely known. or social media wasn’t around to make you more aware. Although I remember my watching of 24/7 news started during that war.
I remember the 24/7 news because of OJ, Jon Benet, and Monica Lewinsky. Felt neverending, and I was a kid at the time.
I think most people are nostalgic about the predigital era. I get the sense that even people like Selena Gomez who grew up with tech are nostalgic for it.
I’m fairly certain that is what she meant. I refuse to turn on the news in my house anymore. I see enough of the shit in the world via social media. It’s exhausting.
Yes Jen if you were a white chick in the 90’s it was very safe. A statement like this from a woman who lived in LA during the riots…but I’m not surprised.
As for the bombshell comment. LOL. Because Lord knows she TRIED to be. That nude Rolling Stone cover springs to mind. I guess she finally figured out that wasn’t her brand. But she sure wanted it to be.
@Valiantly Varnished
Well I am a black woman and I agree with her. The 90’s were much peaceful in my country. The irony is we were under military rule then but we felt safer. Now under a democratic government we have Boko Haram abducting school girls and suicide bombings as well as rampaging herdsmen killing hundreds. Take me back to the 90’s.
That’s a very white bubble she’s enjoying. I mean, yeah, there was music and stuff/toys/tech/etc in the 90s that is fun to reminisce about, but that was not the 90s as a whole.
Safety for who, Jen-Jen? Black people on welfare? Black people in the criminal justice system. People living with HIV.
Is it any surprise that her show was one of the WHITEST in television history?
Although she is def peak white privilege, i think what she means is that stuff wasn’t so in your face because back then there was no social media to spread the word and i am sure there wasn’t as much 24 hour news cycle. What do i know though? I was born in 1991 so I was still a kid in the 90s. I remember back then for me peak anxiety was the whole Y2k stuff. I really we were gonna be gonzo
But here we are and shit seems worse than ever -_-
Well, she is a white woman. To her, in her life, her experience, the 90’s felt to be a simpler, safer time. I don’t expect her to qualify her statements to state “of course not for people of color”.
And mostly, I think she means we weren’t hit in the face with social media, 24 hrs news cycle. It was easier to “ignore” things back then. I don’t think she meant bad things didn’t happen.
Thank you. I understand around here she gets a lot of hate but she isn’t trying to talk about others experiences, just hers. I think social media is great for some things but sometimes seeing all of the bad all the time is exhausting too.
Agreed. Back then the white supremacists, for example, were still hiding in the shadows instead of proudly out in the open and enabled by the POTUS.
I’m a white woman and while I distinctly remember the atrocities of the era, it did feel a bit safer for me because social media hadn’t yet revealed just how many monsters walk among us.
I get what she is saying-because back then it wasn’t all in your face. News 24 hours a day, social media dropping news every second for the world to see. It’s exhausting nowadays seeing what we all knew existed then but didn’t have to see. Is it privilege? Of course. But I also understand what she is conveying. I was in high school when some of the school shootings started to happen and it was scary but also…it wasn’t in my face as much. There were abductions and things happening around my hometown but again-I was shielded a bit from it.
I believe her to be so far removed from real life to the point where I think we are misunderstanding her. She is talking about ‘celeb’ safety: no social media, less paparazzi, controlling the press and your image, being young and getting roles, having a sitcom that was not completely idiotic run for a whole decade etc.
You guys are too nice.
This is what I think, also. Her image was safe, she had a regular job, she was young and healthy,etc. Don’t dig too deep.
Although one could argue that you also had situations like Princess Di’s in the 90’s. But I agree with this assessment.
This is why I love this site. I saw CB tweeted this article and the first thing I thought was “Jen left off the end of the sentence referring to ‘for white people’.” I mean, I’m white, grew up in the suburbs, it was a bubble for a lot of people in the 90’s, but here we are 20 years later and she hasn’t woke the frick up. You can be wealthy AND have a sense of social justice, right? Maybe that’s one aspect that Brad saw in Angelina, that she couldn’t stay on an eternal Mexican vacation like Jen.
I was wondering when somebody would bring up Angelina.
I had scrolled through the previous comments before I posted, I thought s/o would’ve already contrasted the two. They have very different personalities when it comes to involvement in social justice.
Can we just bury her in a 1990s time capsule? Do we need to hear from her in 2019?
So…Jennifer Aniston is just another old person now. Nostalgic for a past that never actually really existed—most definitely not for non-white, non-rich, non-famous people.
Longing for her heyday is such a cliche, and what’s sadder still is that she didn’t recognize that sentiment for what that is before saying this aloud to an interviewer.
50 is old to you? Lol lol lol…
Jeezuz…50 isn’t old, ageist much??
In any event, her age notwithstanding, she’s as vacuous as a balloon.
Having grown up during the Cold War, where you were taught as a child in school what to do in case of a nuclear attack and wondering if you would actually survive to adulthood, the end of that in 1991 did indeed make the world feel like a safer place. 911 hadn’t happened. Columbine hadn’t happened. I suspect she may be talking from that perspective.
Nah! Jen Jen. We just didn’t confront the issues. We allowed injustices to happen and made a lot of evil things acceptable. No one was questioning Michael Jackson hanging out and literally sleeping with children. And Friends was entertaining to watch back then but lately I realized the series didn’t age well.
Jennifer peaked in the 90s. She achieved fame and icon status with her tv show, hair and personal life. She can’t top it which is why it was the best time for her.
Agreed!
Well, she even said that it wasn’t necessarily safer, it just felt that way.
I’m a WOC and feel the same way. It was just the feeling because you weren’t hearing of shootings happening every other day or some nazi attack or a black kid being murdered by the police on a daily basis.
Exactly. Hell I feel nostalgic about life before social media and I’m not some idiot who acts like everyone had it easy back then (or even now). But when I think about life back then I wasn’t bombarded with the news and every.single. bad thing that happens in every.single part of the world either.
Yeah, it has definitely contributed to my anxiety and mood a LOT. While I was aware of stuff, it wasn’t quite so constant, which makes it very exhausting.
Thank you!
Ok white woman here so I know this may be taken the wrong way, but the 90s were before 9/11 and 2008 and the full dawning of climate change and recent increases in white supremacy; the cold war had ended and it seemed democracy was on the rise, paving the way for Obama and things we thought were a trajectory straight toward ongoing progress for all, on and on, basically major macro disruptions that have changed for want of a better term the entire social contract.
Things we thought had been resolved are clearly back in play and getting much much worse, even for the various under-privileged groups mentioned in these threads, those who’ve always struggled. Think about the way Latinos, muslims and others are being vilified openly today in contrast to the nods (at least) to civility post 9/11, think about the full unleashing of misogyny, the attacks on our reproductive rights and the acceptance of credibly accused assaulters in the WH and the SC and throughout industry, it’s also been practically open season on blacks by cops, on the streets and in the prison system, and yes that’s been going on for a long time, forever in this country, but it seems like its gotten much worse since the 90s w the whole rise of for profit prisons since then. There’s no sense of respect for the environment, pollution’s effects on us, they’re even going for child labor — their idea of MAGA is not the 1950s but the 1850s, or even the 1550s.
Yes, we knew terrible things were going on, and my best friend, who’s Indian, yells at me for saying things feel worse now, all I can say is they really do. I mean, I was enjoying a nice day by the river w friends when a crazy guy started screaming and yelling epithets at us, and he literally could have had a machine gun to mow us all down. He didn’t but he could have, and our leaders would have just shrugged… I say all of this not to be insensitive to all who’ve suffered over the years, but to ring the alarm that things feel much much scarier now…like not only are there crazy awful people among us but they’e now in charge, and are weaponizing armies of awful people…
OK phew…sorry to rant, it’s a beautiful day outside and all any of us have is today…
oof sorry, I tried to edit this down but I think it already went through, apologies for the rant, I mainly wanted to say I hope in solidarity that we all need to and can fight the oppressors together, and for now, just try to live each day with as much love and joy and dignity and kindness as we can…
I totally agree with your *rant* 😉
I also think that it’s telling when white folks suddenly recognize how bad it is because that in and of itself is a good indicator that things are pretty dire LOL. White folks are catching on, finally! All the cookies for us 😉
I would never diminish how dangerous it’s always been to be a black American, but it feels different for white people when we literally have a POTUS who so unabashedly sanctions white supremacy. I guess it’s all a matter of degrees for people of color. Either way, I think that marginalized communities who suffered under Obama will suffer even worse under Trump.
Thanks Kitten 🙂
Sheesh people…I’m black and I understood what she meant and guess what? I feel the same way!
For real. Jennifer’s comment is pretty harmless but nothing can ever be said without inciting instant outrage.
We didn’t have to listen to Kellyanne Conway trying to sing a Taylor Swift song on television. So, in that regard, the ’90s was ….less exhausting, maybe?
Everything, even politics, feels like a reality show. And even we, the common folk, are expected to perform to some degree.
People are being purposely obtuse here.
In the 90s, we weren’t over-saturated with every story about every awful thing happening every.second.of.every.day. You can’t even breathe these days without hearing about all of the horrible things going on in every corner of the world. Awful, horrible, terrible things happened in the 90s. OF COURSE THEY DID. But it wasn’t in our faces constantly, it wasn’t the first thing we saw when we woke up, it wasn’t on our phones, on screens in elevators.
Like, come on.
Yeah, agree with you.
Honestly, everyone in the public eye is a lot more annoying than they used to be. So, in that sense, the ’90s were an escape. JFK Jr. was hot, had good manners, and minded his own business. I liked that. I miss those times when you could like a public figure and you didn’t have to rationalize why you liked that person since they weren’t in your face irritating you about something (i.e see Miley Cyrus). Princess Diana may have been everywhere, but she looked good doing it. Today’s public figures — not so much.
Some people view southern plantations through the lens of genteel / chivalric romance & get married under their willows; others view them as places of multi-generational forced labor and rape. There are some who are no longer interested in a certain kind of innocence.
Living in Balkans during the ’90s with 3+ bloody wars, genocide bombing, etc. was anything but romantic and calm, I can assure you fo that. I detest 90s, hope I can forget about them completely,
Yes. I remember the kids coming from Balkan in busses. Without their parents. And I remember my mom saying to me: You know it’s bad when you say goodbye to your kid like that. Those kids had a hard time in my country.
Srebenica. I can never imagine the horrors just wanted you to know that we are many that remember.
If you judged the state of things just based on the comments on this website, you’d think white, liberal women were the enemy and the root of all evil. It’s very interesting.
my white cis gender male partner reads social media over my shoulder and sees the criticism of (misguided) white women who care deeply about racial equality but don’t listen enough, laughs, and says “yes, THEY are the problem, not us.”
Sweet Lord, what I took from it was that she was referring to the way the internet wasn’t a big thing yet, you didn’t see practically 24/7 what was going on, thereby giving a SENSE of safety more so than now. Was she in a bubble? Of course she was in a bubble, she’s rich and white now and she was rich and white then. But she clearly said “sense” of safety, she didn’t say it WAS actually safer then. And she’s always leaned into the girl-next-door type rather than bombshell. I think she was honestly just poking some fun at herself. God, sometimes I swear, with certain people here that I was never a huge fan of I end up defending because they’re ripped apart for literally nothing.
Agree with you. Suddenly everyone should be able to observe absolutely everything from absolutely everyone’s point of view. That is not possible.
Agreed.
You know…I’m not a fan of Aniston, I never watched Friends, I have no opinion of her marriage and subsequent break-up with Brad Pitt, I don’t think Angelina is the devil incarnate, I’ve seen a grand total of one movie she was in (The Good Girl) and thought she did a creditable job in the role. However, her innocent comment about feeling safer in the 90’s is being taken all sorts of wrong ways. I’m 66 and grew up pre-internet/social media, I remember the Cuban missile crisis and the fear of WWIII, I remember the Cold War, the race riots of the 60’s and 70’s, all of that. And the 90’s DID feel safer. It was like the world had calmed down somewhat – yes there were wars and racism and awful things but those things were ALWAYS happening and are still happening in a much more overt way thanks to idiots like Trump. Life isn’t pretty and there’s been no decade or era where everything was rainbows and kittens but there were times where it felt like the world was a little more under control. I get what she’s saying and I know she’s speaking from the privilege of being white and rich but for God’s sake she wasn’t asked to opine on how to broker an Arab/Israeli peace accord or end famine or cure cancer or end racism. It’s like commenters are just waiting to jump down her throat for being born white, working hard and having an opinion on what HER life has been like. So despite not having a particular dog in this race, give her a f*cking break.
I’m very much with you on this. I’m a decade younger than you but for me the 90’s was the end of the Sword of Damocles hanging over humanity aka “Mutually Assured Destruction”. For those who didn’t grow up under that particular end-of-the-world cloud, that consisted of hoping that neither the leader of the US or the USSR was enough of a gambler to test the theory and wipe humanity off of the face of the planet.
The horrifying thing is that we are headed back in that direction and the population of the US is willing to elect people like Trump who is idiotic enough to talk about nuking hurricanes. Thank effing god this guy wasn’t in charge in the 70’s or 80’s.
Yup.
What a moron. That was my first inkling while reading the excerpt.
She just comes off like such an airhead and shallow. I remember her bragging about her 3 minute showers and continues to sell water in plastic bottles and her Aveeno scrub has microbeads in it that destroys ocean life.
God, she is so dumb.
The late 2010’s has been an era of nostalgia, and for the 1990’s some of it is good nostalgia, like memorable music with distinct genres; look at Depeche Mode, RHCP, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Boyz II Men, Nine Inch Nails, TLC, Spice Girls, Alanis Morissette and others, you had trends like Grunge, The boy band era, Latin pop music, and the beginning of Britney and Christina. We also had memorable movies like Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction, Clueless, Forrest Gump, Titanic, Home Alone, Toy Story, Apollo 13, The Silence Of The Lambs, Arnold and Tom Hanks were big. Looking at TV you has Seinfeld, Twin Peeks, Party of Five, Melrose Place, 90210, the more memorable Simpsons episodes, Frasier, X-Files, and Dawson’s Creek, Power Rangers, Pokemon, Batman: TAS, my favorite and Friends of course. Other things about the nineties was that cars were more inexpensive but less safe and flying is far safer today that it was in the 90’s. The negative aspect of the 90’s was being “woke” got you in big trouble. “Ellen” got cancelled because of a “kiss” between her and a friend of the same gender at an airport. The LA riots happened, you got the rise of militias and other similar grievances in Ruby Ridge, Waco, and Oklahoma City. The prison population soared in this era thanks to the “war on drugs,” three strikes, and other “tough on crime” policies that sent a disproportionate amount of black and brown people behind bars. Think “cancel culture” is a new phenomena, oh, no. The “sense of safety” discussed does bode well with the latter aforementioned statement.
I think Aniston is getting the words safe and simple mixed up. The 90s pre- INTERNET, (remember Windows 95), were simpler times in many respects.
Also, post 9/11 the world changed dramatically.
Yeah, it was simpler! You actually had to meet personally or call someone to argue with them. Or post your opinion in the newspaper. So there were fewer fights about who said what and why and was it wrong or right or offensive or funny. 🙂