Sarah Jessica Parker recently opened up to Allure about the media calling her “brave” for her grey hair and the double standard against women in Hollywood—and we are so extremely here for it.
The Sex and the City alum made note of the backhanded complements people make about her “bravery” for keeping her hair grey. “It became months and months of conversation about how brave I am for having grey hair,” she said. Parker spoke about a video of her that made the rounds last year, in which she’s going makeup free and wearing her hair back. Outlets and commenters across the internet commended the And Just Like That star’s “courage,” but this rubbed her the wrong way. “I was like, please please applaud someone else’s courage on something!” she told Allure. In fact, the actress pointed out that she hadn’t even stopped coloring her hair when that video was taken—it had just been highlighted by the sun!
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The 57-year-old SJP founder went on to point out the fact that men never undergo the same scrutiny about their looks or their decisions surrounding their appearance. “We never talk about that with the other sex,” she said. “We don’t say to them: ‘Here’s a cream to pretend this didn’t happen.'” True that!
Parker’s friend, talk show host Andy Cohen, for example, doesn’t dye his hair—but it seems no one has ever made that a topic of conversation or paid any mind do it. In fact, Cohen was right beside her at the time that viral video was taken, and still avoided all comments. “Andy has a full head of beautiful grey hair,” Parker said. “But no one mentioned him, sitting right next to me. Not a soul.” The color of his hair has never made headlines, that’s for sure.
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“I’m not angry, it’s just an observation,” Parker told the outlet. However, she did add that “some of it hurts for a minute, it smarts. And some of it confounds me because of the double standard that is so plainly illustrated.” Truth! There’s no denying that. Will we ever seen an end to this clear double standard? It’s hard to say, but it’s certainly refreshing to see stars speaking out about it.
At the end of the day, Parker just wants to feel comfortable in her own skin. “When I walk out the door, I want to feel OK—according to my standards,” she said. “I can’t even tell you what those standards are. But you know how you feel when you feel most like yourself, whatever that means. I’m not without vanity. I guess I just don’t care enough about everybody else’s opinion.” Amen!
