10 Badass Points Mila Kunis Makes in Her Essay on Gender Bias

By Ryan Roschke
Getty | Daniel Zuchnik
Getty | Daniel Zuchnik

Hey, Hollywood — Mila Kunis is fed up with your outdated sexist culture. On Monday, the actress posted a sharp, pointed essay about gender bias on husband Ashton Kutcher's website. Mila used a recent experience, wherein an unnamed producer threatened her career after she refused to strip down for a magazine cover, as a launching point for a larger discussion about gender inequality in the professional world. She also touched on the painfully slow pace at which the pay gap is closing and her own personal attempts to push back against blatant modern sexism. This ass-kicking side of Mila is nothing new. We've seen her get real about motherhood, offer some no-filter fun on Reddit, and even roast expectant fathers who say "we're pregnant." The best part about her new essay, though, is that she's going a step further. She's trying to enact change, and the quotes below prove it.

  1. "We compromise our integrity for the sake of maintaining the status quo and hope that change is coming."
  2. "Throughout my career, there have been moments when I have been insulted, sidelined, paid less, creatively ignored, and otherwise diminished based on my gender."
  3. "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 bullsh*t!
  4. "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."
  5. "Subtle gender bias is oftentimes nearly imperceptible, and even wholly undetectable to those who share the bias."
  6. "No one gets upset when a blind person bumps into a wall, but the wall does not cease to yield force."
  7. "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."
  8. "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."
  9. "If this is happening to me, it is happening more aggressively to women everywhere."
  10. "I have the platform to talk about this experience in the hope of bringing one more voice to the conversation so that women in the workplace feel a little less alone and more able to push back for themselves."