Gwyneth Paltrow is not going to be winning any popularity contests when this year wraps up. Back in March, she drew the ire of working moms everywhere when she complained that being an actress/mom was so much tougher because she has to travel and be on set, while regular working moms have the luxury of routines. She doubled down on her disconnection last week at Re/Code’s Code Conference near Los Angeles, where she said of Internet trolls and haterz making fun of and saying mean things about celebrities: “It’s almost like how, in war, you go through this bloody, dehumanizing thing, and then something is defined out of it.”
The reaction has been less than favorable, to put it incredibly nicely, with Cindy McCain inviting Paltrow to “go out on patrol with some soldiers,” and now Army Green Beret Bryan Sikes publishing an open letter to her on the website ClashDaily.
To Miss Paltrow,
I’d first like to start out by saying how terrible I feel for you and all your friends that on a daily basis have to endure mean words written by people you don’t know. I can only imagine the difficulty of waking up in a 12,000 square foot Hollywood home and having your assistant retrieve your iPhone, only to see that the battery is low and someone on twitter (the social media concept that you and all of your friends contribute to on an hourly basis to feed your ego and narcissistic ways), has written a mean word or 2 about you. You’ve hit the nail on the head, war is exactly like that. You should receive a medal for the burden you have carried on your shoulders due to these meanies on social media. (Via ClashDaily)
Sikes continued with graphic imagery about the injuries and tragedies suffered by his “brothers” in combat, as he mocked Paltrow for being “insecure and mentally weak” in caring about something like being made fun of on Twitter while soldiers and their families struggle to get by.
You know what is really “dehumanizing”, Miss Paltrow? The fact that you’d even consider that your life as an “A-list” celebrity reading internet comments could even compare to war and what is endured on the battlefield. You and the other “A-listers” that think like you are laughable. You all have actually convinced yourselves that you in some way face difficulty on a regular basis. Let me be the first to burst your bubble: a long line at Starbucks, your driver being 3 minutes late, a scuff mark on your $1200 shoes and a mean tweet do not constitute difficulty in the eyes of a soldier.
Paltrow hasn’t issued a response to this letter or any of the backlash, but when she eventually does, she should probably keep the metaphors to a minimum. Perhaps no metaphors would be ideal.