She continued, singling out the media coverage that feeds into this narrative. “This conditioning is something girls then carry into womanhood. We use celebrity ‘news’ to perpetuate this dehumanizing view of females, focused solely on one’s physical appearance…” It was a strong statement on the connection between our treatment of women in the media and our treatment of women IRL, one that hadn’t been so articulately called out before by a big name actress. The other incredibly valuable takeaway from Aniston's piece was her condemnation of how we not only shame women for their appearance, but also for the "function" of their bodies. "This past month in particular has illuminated for me how much we define a woman’s value based on her marital and maternal status," she wrote, decrying the archaic "perpetuation of this notion that women are somehow incomplete, unsuccessful, or unhappy if they’re not married with children." Why, when Aniston tells us “we are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child,” do we believe her? Again, Aniston is uniquely posed to speak out on the topic. After nearly three decades in the business, Aniston has dealt with her fair share of personal crap and bullshit public scrutiny. We’ve seen her be reduced to the “sad wife,” or “childless divorcee” for years simply because she was single and without children. She may be happily married to Theroux now, but we remember the headlines in the wake of her divorce from Pitt: Will Jen ever find love again? And that lends a powerful authenticity to Aniston's reflections on womanhood and sexism. Her lived experience gives her words a genuine heft that they just don’t have coming from the mouth or a happy-go-lucky 17-year-old, fresh off her first film set, Instagramming girl power quotes. Of course, no offense to happy-go-lucky 17-year-olds fresh off her first film set, Instagramming girl power quotes. (God bless the feminists of young Hollywood.) I just think the fact that we have someone like America's sweetheart herself fighting for us is something to celebrate.