Winona Ryder is awkward, adorable, and brooding in all the right ways — it's what made her a Gen-X darling in Heathers, Beetlejuice, and Edward Scissorhands. But maybe all that so-called sensitivity isn't what makes her "weird" and "edgy," but simply, well, human?
Ryder opened up about our tendency to pathologize emotions — particularly female ones — at New York:
"I wish I could unknow this, but there is a perception of me that I'm supersensitive and fragile. And I am supersensitive, and I don't think that that's a bad thing. To do what I do, I have to remain open." She says that sensitive is so often used as a bad word — a euphemism for weak or crazy. "There's a line in the show where someone says [of her Stranger Things character], 'She's had anxiety problems in the past.' A lot of people have picked up on that, like, 'Oh, you know, she's crazy.' And I'm like, 'Okay, wait a second, she's struggling.' Two kids, deadbeat dad, working her ass off. Who wouldn't be anxious?"Even that word, anxious. It's a bad word. [...] I remember I did Diane Sawyer, and I talked about my experiences with anxiety and depression when I was that age. And I think by doing that, maybe coupled with my physical size, there's this 'crazy' thing. And I've realized recently it's literally impossible to try to change that story." [New York]
"I'm so sick of people shaming women for being sensitive or vulnerable," Ryder added. "It's so bizarre to me." Read her entire interview at New York.
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