Gwyneth Paltrow wants you to know that she is a woman who likes having sex.
It's something she makes very clear in the May issue of Self. Her hope is that saying this out loud will help others realise that women can be mothers, working women, and sexual beings all at the same time.
"We have this idea that you can't be a mother and a businesswoman and like to have sex!" Paltrow told the magazine. "How is an intelligent woman a sexual being? It's really hard to integrate those things."
Paltrow, who is currently dating producer Brad Falchuk, believes this is definitely true when it comes to how she is perceived, explaining that people are often, "Like, 'Gwyneth has sex? Really?' It doesn't seem to go together."
But as a mother of two and Goop's founder and chief creative officer, she is here to say that, yes, career success and sex do go together. Even more importantly, though, she wants other intelligent women to realise this as well.
"I think it's important, as mothers and as women contributing to society in whatever way we each are," Paltrow said, "that our true sexuality doesn't get lost or put aside."
Even though she asserts that she's a sexual being, Paltrow admits that like most other women, she has trouble relaxing.
“I have yet to meet someone who isn’t burdened with hyperresponsibility. Everyone is suffering from this sense of ‘I have to do it all and I have to do it perfectly,’” she said. “It’s all my friends, all my colleagues: We try to do everything to such a high standard. And I’m like, Where did we get this from? Because I’m fucking exhausted!”
Paltrow does say that to unwind she likes to workout or just sit down with her kids and enjoy a phone-free meal. “If I make my kids something delicious and we sit down to eat it, and I put my phone away and I really listen," she says, "that is such money in the bank."
Finding that balance between work and life is important to Paltrow. It's also something she wants her predominantly female staff at Goop (only two men work for her currently) to take seriously, too.
“I think women here would tell you that the work-life balance is pretty good. We want to enjoy life. But there’s a lot to do!” Paltrow said. “We’re all awake to the fact that we really can achieve what we set out to achieve.”
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