Jenna Ortega isn’t ‘toxic’ for changing Wednesday scripts. The sexist double standards women face at work are

Steven has since doubled-down on his comments, sort of, by calling Jenna ‘fantastic’, saying that it was ‘an unfortunate gaffe to say that in public’, and that ‘it was just an unfortunate situation to expose creative differences so publicly’. And it’s not just Steven who thinks Jenna behaved inappropriately. Plenty of people in the comments agree that she was ‘disrespectful’, that she ‘doesn’t have to speak so publicly’ about changing lines, and that she’s ‘airing out their laundry for praise’.  

Admittedly, I wasn’t on the set of Wednesday, I’ve never met Jenna Ortega, and I have no idea what working with her is like. It’s possible that she may have been disrespectful to her colleagues. But really, that’s besides the point. When was the last time you heard a man in the workplace – or a man anywhere – described as ‘entitled’ or ‘selfish’ for disagreeing with someone’s opinion? The way women talk at work is scrutinised far more than men because women are expected to be ‘likeable’ at all times, even in a professional setting. If we display traditional ‘male’ behaviours such as assertiveness and forcefulness, we’re brandished as ‘bitchy’, ‘aggressive’ and ‘bossy’. But if men aren’t afraid to make their opinions heard at work, they’re not entitled or selfish; they’re simply displaying leadership qualities. He’s not being ‘bossy’. He’s the boss.

To me, the backlash Jenna is facing for speaking publicly about her disagreement with the Wednesday writers also reeks of sexist double standards. Plenty of male actors air their creative differences in public and aren’t brandished as entitled or toxic. Robert Pattinson was incredibly vocal about how much he hated the Twilight books and movies. He called author Stephenie Meyer ‘mad’, said the books should never have been published, and said that he regained his ‘dignity’ when the franchise ended. I don’t recall Pattinson being labelled ‘entitled’ or ‘selfish’ for his comments. In fact, most people found it pretty funny.

Ben Affleck mocked Armageddon in the actual DVD commentary he recorded for the film and made constant jokes about storyline and script. Richard Gere called Pretty Woman a ‘silly rom-com’. Brad Pitt called The Devil’s Own a ‘disaster’ and said they ‘made it up as they went along’.

Countless male actors have also demanded script changes in their films – Robert Downey Jr. in The Avengers, Tom Cruise in The Mummy, Ben Affleck in Gone Girl (in which he had a tiff with director David Fincher over which baseball cap his character would wear, and ended up halting production for four days) – and not made headlines or enraged the Twittersphere by doing so. 

Given the enormous success of Wednesday – it brought in the largest amounts of viewers for a Netflix premiere last year, and became the most-watched English TV series in its first week with 341.2 million hours – it seems as though Jenna’s changes to the scripts were necessary and successful. As one Twitter user said: “Based on what she said she changed, she probably saved the show. Good for her not letting writers ruin the character of Wednesday.”

Society just can’t stomach women who aren’t afraid to make their opinions heard and who aren’t afraid to critique the work of men. Especially if they end up being right. And especially if the woman in question is just 20 years old.