The Huffington Post featured an article on Mila Kunis and her GQ spread to promote her new film Friends with Benefits the title of said post was:

Mila Kunis In Panties In GQ, Talking Sexism In Hollywood (PHOTO)

The opening paragraph goes as follows:

As if you weren’t well aware that her upcoming film, “Friends with Benefits,” deals expressly with the sexual side of male-female relationships, Mila Kunis is giving an eye-opening reminder on the cover of this month’s GQ.

It may not be by mistake that she forgot her pants on the way to the shoot.

But Kunis is far more than just a pretty face (and body), as she points out in the accompanying interview. A star since she was the hilariously bratty teenager Jackie on “That 70’s Show,” Kunis has impressive comedic chops, too, and laments that it is so often difficult for women to be taken seriously when it comes to funny in Hollywood. (read the rest here)

And if you do you will see that they pull her comments about women, beauty and sexuality from an interview she gave last year to About.com, and not the GQ article. The quote is below.

 

On About.com Kunis talks about beauty and sexuality in Hollywood:

In Extract, Cindy’s able to get away with things that others might not have. Part of the reasoning behind that is that, supposedly, pretty girls live by different rules. In real life, Kunis doesn’t find that to be true. “Personally, no. I don’t. I really don’t. I do think that there are women out there… You look at L.A. No one’s really from L.A. All the pretty people from the world all come to L.A., so L.A.’s just filled with beautiful women. But I feel like there’s two groups of them. You have one that solely relies on their looks. And that’s fine if that’s what they have to get through life, so be it. And then you have the beautiful women that actually have something else to offer the world and are constantly fighting against the stereotype. I do not look like this every day. I, in fact, very rarely look like this, so no, I can’t even get out of a parking ticket. I don’t exude… I think there are certain actresses, absolutely, that exude a certain amount of sexuality or whatever it may be that men just completely fumble over. I do not feel that I’m that person, personally,” said Kunis.

 

Now the title of the post makes you think that she made this statement in the GQ interview, the cover of which she graces wearing either a bikini or a bra and panties and drinking a cup of coffee (you’re going to have to figure out that logic on your own). If she did it would be a grand contradiction as she is using her sexuality and beauty to promote herself. Truthfully, everyone in the business does this. It’s almost a prerequisite to pose half nude on a cover to promote your project and “talent” be it acting or singing so we kinda can’t be mad at her for that. But clearly the Huffington Post is making a point, and calling her out by putting the image and the quote together, albeit sort of out of context, but we might forgive them because the point is valid). Some would say if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem and maybe if more stars didn’t strip down for photo spreads– pun fervently intended maybe the industry would have to shift. We all know how it works I guess my question is how do we get it to work differently?

We do have proof that sometimes pure talent will stand out, take Adele- she is at the top of the charts equal to the public pantie wearing Lady Gaga and she is a full figured, fully clothed woman who is making real music, writing and performing without tracks behind her and people are loving her (I am not saying that Lady Gaga sings to tracks, or does not write- That last comment is in reference to other popular artist who are successful and are not as shall we say as purely talented as much as brilliantly produced and manufactured).

And what about super power Tina Fey, the only time I remember her stripped down was in Vanity Fair when she was making fun of the whole idea of the sexualized female artisit. She’s kept her close on, made us laugh, think, and has become like the White Oprah of the comedy genre.

So perhaps it might be possible to “make” it with your clothes on. It looks to me that the concept of casting “couch” or using one’s sexuality is not longer relegated to that particular piece of office furniture or hooking up with big wigs but has been sublimated to include all types of PR, print, television interviews, scandalous “leaked” photos, sex tapes, staged relationships anything that exploits the body and sexuality to get attention and create a buzz the least of which at times is the person’s authentic talent. And just so it’s clear this is not directly against Mila Kunis but the system in general. What do you think?