Mila Kunis Just Spoke Out Against Sexism in the Workplace With a Powerful Personal Essay

Sexism in Hollywood has become a major talking point as of late, with actors like Rose McGowan, Amy Adams and Emma Watson speaking passionately about gender inequality issues in the film industry. The latest actor to take a stand against Hollywood sexism — and against sexism in the workplace in general — is Mila Kunis, who penned an impassioned op-ed about the subject.

Published on her husband Ashton Kutcher's website A Plus, Kunis's piece takes a stand against issues like the gender pay gap, as well as the sexual objectification of women in her industry. She starts by recounting one of her own personal experiences with sexism. To hear her tell it, Kunis once refused to pose semi-nude in a magazine, only to have a producer threaten that her career would be over if she didn't:

"I was livid, I felt objectified, and for the first time in my career I said 'no,'" Kunis, who recently appeared in Bad Moms wrote. "And guess what? The world didn't end. The film made a lot of money and I did work in this town again, and again, and again":

What this producer may never realize is that he spoke aloud the exact fear every woman feels when confronted with gender bias in the workplace. It's what we are conditioned to believe — that if we speak up, our livelihoods will be threatened; that standing our ground will lead to our demise. We don't want to be kicked out of the sandbox for being a "bitch." So we compromise our integrity for the sake of maintaining the status quo and hope that change is coming.

Following that incident, Kunis vowed that she would never allow herself to be exploited again. But that was easier said than done, she writes:

Throughout my career, there have been moments when I have been insulted, sidelined, paid less, creatively ignored, and otherwise diminished based on my gender. And always, I tried to give people the benefit of the doubt; maybe they knew more, maybe they had more experience, maybe there was something I was missing. I taught myself that to succeed as a woman in this industry I had to play by the rules of the boy's club. But the older I got and the longer I worked in this industry, the more I realized that it's bullshit! And, worse, that I was complicit in allowing it to happen.

Kunis fought back against industry sexism by cofounding a female-run production company with a few friends. Yet even then, she encountered the same degrading attitudes over and over again, at one point receiving an email from a producer she hoped to collaborate with that referred to her derisively as "Ashton's wife and baby momma." (Kunis is currently expecting her second child with Kutcher.)

"He reduced my value to nothing more than my relationship to a successful man and my ability to bear children," she wrote:

Yes, it is only one small comment. But it's these very comments that women deal with day in and day out in offices, on calls, and in emails — microaggressions that devalue the contributions and worth of hard-working women.

While Kunis's experiences might seem unique to her position as a major Hollywood star, she's got a point that workplace sexism is an insidious epidemic, whether employers realize it or not. According to a 2015 Huffington Post survey, 54% of men and women said that men did not consider women their equals in the workplace. On top of that, women still only earn 79% of what every man earns despite making up half of the United States labor force, according to White House data.

Kunis concludes her piece by issuing a call to arms for all women, regardless of whether or not they're high-earning Hollywood stars, to take a stand against both large and small instances of workplace misogyny:

I'm done compromising; even more so, I'm done with being compromised. So from this point forward, when I am confronted with one of these comments, subtle or overt, I will address them head on; I will stop in the moment and do my best to educate. I cannot guarantee that my objections will be taken to heart, but at least now I am part of creating an environment where there is the opportunity for growth. And if my comments fall on deaf ears, I will choose to walk away.

Read Kunis's piece in full here.

RELATED