Gwyneth Paltrow's comments on the perils of fame have hit headlines again this week. Just a couple of weeks after she spoke out on how tough it was to be a working mum in Hollywood the actress has been criticised for comparing online abuse to being in a warzone.
Speaking at a tech conference earlier this week the actress said about getting trolled online: "It's like the scabs from your high-school wounds being ripped off on a daily basis.
"You come across [online comments] about yourself and about your friends, and it's a very dehumanising thing. It's almost like how, in war, you go through this bloody, dehumanising thing, and then something is defined out of it."
Green Beret Bryan Sikes is the latest to publicly round on the Hollywood star for the comments, in a no holds barred guest column for Clash Daily. "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", Sikes wrote.
Gwyneth Paltrow has come under fire for her comments (WENN)
"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."
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"You said, 'Its almost like, how in war, you go through this bloody dehumanizing thing and then something is defined out of it.' I could see how you, and others like you in 'the biz', could be so insecure and mentally weak that you could pair the difficulty of your life on twitter to my brothers who have had their limbs ripped off and seen their friends shot, blown up, burned and disfigured, or wake up every morning in pain – while just starting the day is a challenge," he continued.
"How about our wives? The ones that sign on to be there for us through thick and thin, that help us to shake the hardships of war upon our return? And do all this while being mothers to our kids, keeping bills in order because we are always gone, and keeping our lives glued together. They do all this, by the way, without a team of accountants, nanny's, personal assistants, and life coaches. Yeah, reading a mean tweet is just like all that."
"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," he stated. "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."
Sikes concluded with:"Understand me when I say this: war does not define me. It is a chapter in my life that helped shaped me. Being a husband and father is what defines me. Remember, sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never…be close to what war is."
Cindy McCain, the wife of Senator John McCain, has also slammed Gwyneth over her words this week, letting loose on Twitter.
"Gweneth Paltrow is a joke. Her life is like taking bullets for a soldier. What a joke! My 2 sons serving in the military should talk to her," (sic) she wrote.
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