Or is it Bill O’Reilly vs. Jennifer Aniston? Nonetheless, the beautiful actress and the conservative political commentator are going head to head over the subject of single motherhood.
It all started when Aniston was doing PR for her new movie, The Switch. In the movie, Aniston plays 40-year-old unmarried woman whose biological clock is ticking, so she resorts to using a turkey baster to get pregnant. Aniston said while promoting the movie “Women are realizing it more and more knowing that they don’t have to settle with a man just to have that child.” She followed that up with, “Times have changed and that is also what is amazing is that we do have so many options these days, as opposed to our parents’ days when you can’t have children because you have waited too long.”
Now, this statement enraged O’Reilly. He shot back with the comment, “She’s throwing a message out to 12-year-olds and 13-year-olds that, ‘Hey you don’t need a guy. You don’t need a dad.’ That is destructive to our society.” Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson added, “She is glamorizing single parenthood,” because younger children wouldn’t be able to distinguish the difference between them raising a baby and a 40-year-old woman raising a baby.”
Now wait a minute. If that is the case, we shouldn’t have movies about married people having babies either because these “dumb” 12 and 13-year-olds will want to get married and have babies according to this mentality.
I don’t think the problem of teenage pregnancy lies simply with a movie or an actress making a statement. Yes, I believe that making a baby the old fashioned way, with a husband as a father, is the best way to do it. But, we all know that life doesn’t always provide us with the tools to do things the best way. And maybe part of the problem of these teens wanting to have babies so young is because they are from broken homes or homes were they never had a father figure.
But, there are plenty of single mothers raising their children successfully, so to me, this is just a ridiculous celebrity spat.
I think Aniston, who by the way is 41-years-old, may have been thinking about herself when she made this statement. Yes, she is beautiful and successful, but still childless, so maybe her biological clock is ticking.
Aniston told PEOPLE magazine, “Of course, the ideal scenario for parenting is obviously two parents of a mature age. Parenting is one of the hardest jobs on earth. And, of course, many women dream of finding Prince Charming (with fatherly instincts), but for those who’ve not yet found their Bill O’Reilly, I’m just glad science has provided a few other options.”
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