From Angelina Jolie to Patricia Arquette: Celebs go public with women issues

From menstruation to menopause, these divas are not embarrassed about announcing their feminine woes or joys to the world.
Angelina Jolie is all for double mastectomy
Angelina Jolie stunned the world with her decision to go for double mastectomy, following a diagnosis of her being at risk of breast and ovarian cancer. “Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and minimise the risk as much as I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy,” she announced in an op-ed article.She followed it up by having her ovarian and fallopian tubes removed recently. Not just her, actress Rita Wilson followed suit and underwent a double mastectomy on being detected with breast cancer.

Madonna up against ageism
Madonna’s impromptu act of kissing singer Drake, a man half her age, seem to have backfired and how! The latter’s ‘disgusted’ expression led to a backlash against the singer. Many wondered if words like ‘gross’ or ‘grandma’ used to describe the singer actually stemmed from ageism, an issue that the pop legend often addressed in her interviews or challenged in her personal life or on stage. However, the singer did find support in younger artistes like Rita Ora, who thanked her senior “for fighting all these ageist battles”. Madonna’s own reaction? “I hope people are not mean to champagnepapi when he is 56 and still working the stage! That would not be nice!” she tweeted, referring to Drake by his nickname.

Kim Cattrall talks about Menopause
Better known as the promiscuous Samantha Jones from the Sex And The City series, Kim Cattrall at 58 is open about going through menopause. “I haven’t been hush-hush about it because I want to name what’s going on for women and I don’t want to hide behind something called ‘The Change’,” she ssaid on a talk show recently. “We need to name it, claim it (and) get over it,” she added.

READ: Angelina Jolie has ovaries and fallopian tubes removed
Olivia Wilde roots for breast feeding pictures
When a social networking site announced that they would no longer be censoring breastfeeding photos last week, actress Olivia Wilde was one of the first to come out in support of the decision. She recalled the viral backlash she faced when she posed for a magazine nursing her newborn son last year. However, the ‘coolest’ outcome of that incident she said was that more women came out and tweeted pictures of themselves breastfeeding. Joining Olivia in posting breastfeeding selfies included celebrities like Alyssa Milano, Gisele Bundchen, Alanis Morissette among others.

(L) Gisele Bundchen posted online of herself breastfeeding her child, Olivia Wilde
Patricia Arquette up against wage inequality
Patricia Arquette’s acceptance speech on receiving the Best Supporting Actress ended as a war cry for wage equality at this year’s Oscars. The speech was both lauded and dissed across the world. The actress maintained her stance and backed it with statistics on a talk show later. “I’ve had material success in my life and I’m grateful, but that doesn’t mean I don’t notice that 51 percent of my population, of my gender, that is suffering… It’s not acceptable,” she said.

Heather Watson directs attention to menstruation
When British tennis player Heather Watson lost the Australian Open Week early this year, she attributed the loss to “girly things”. Her statement triggered off a worldwide debate on menstruation, and had sportswomen like Annabel Croft coming out in support. “We talk about sex quite openly, we talk about breast enlargements, we talk about so many things that people don’t even bat an eyelid about these days, yet this particular subject never get discussed,” she’s reported to have said.

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