21st Century Witch-Hunts: Why do we hate the women of Hollywood?

Exploring the double standard in the media between male and female celebrities...

Jess Mooney
20th January 2025
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Thomas Wolf

Gender inequality in Hollywood is a long-established issue. The expectations we hold for men and women in Hollywood are very different and the reasons we hate them even more so. 

Whether it’s Miley and her controversial AMA performance, Taylor’s love and anti-love songs, or Kim Kardashian’s body modifications, all of them have broken the rules of how we think a woman should act. Women are not expected to act provocatively, play on their sexuality or benefit from their natural or enhanced beauty. Using sex as a measure to gain fame and success is reduced to being superficial and easy but it begs the question, why are women shamed when they benefit from a system which expects them to be sexual and conform to our desires?

Comparatively, when we consider Hollywood's most hated men: Kanye West, (far-right political views, anti-Semitic remarks and his behaviour surrounding his divorce), Chris Brown (domestic abuser and accused rapist) and Alec Baldwin (sexist and racist remarks) the reasonings between our hatred of men are women differ dramatically. 

Earlier this year, Rachel Zeglar took over headlines for her criticisms of the original Snow-White fairy tale.

“It’s no longer 1937. She’s not gonna be saved by the prince. She’s not dreaming of true love; she’s dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be”.

Because of this, she has faced months of persecution, being subject to derogatory insults, name calling and death threats for repeating a line she was most likely fed by a marketing team. Perhaps she phrased it poorly, but the backlash fundamentally comes from the anti-woke movement, who resent the abandonment of traditional values and the hyper-fixation on being politically correct. Even those who resonated with her original sentiment have perceived her as ungrateful for an opportunity millions would have killed for. This is because women are expected to cherish and be ever grateful for any and all opportunities they're awarded whilst men are allowed to regularly expect them.

This is because women are expected to cherish and be ever grateful for any and all opportunities they're awarded whilst men are allowed to regularly expect them.

In a similar vein, throughout her career, Taylor Swift has been repeatedly punished for her success and subjected to misogynistic smear campaigns that subject her to unfair scrutiny solely based on her gender. Fans across the world have suppressed their love for the singer, embarrassed of appearing too outwardly feminine. According to Christina Lane, "She embodies her outrageous success in a way that just isn’t culturally acceptable for a woman to do. She knows she’s ‘the man’ and she absolutely delights in it.” It is true that Taylor Swift is hated simply for the pride she has about her success. When famous men are labelled as 'fearless leaders', 'ballers' or 'alphas', her success is reduced to her sexual appeal rather than her extensive skills and is therefore demonised as it 'utilises' the system that was created to act as a weapon against her.

Women in Hollywood have historically been persecuted and held to significantly different standards than their male counterparts when it comes to giving out our admiration and praise. We threaten, belittle, and despise women in Hollywood, for the same reasons that we praise their male counterparts.

We threaten, belittle, and despise women in Hollywood, for the same reasons that we praise their male counterparts.

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