Judge Judy May ‘Not Want Pay Parity With Men’ But Men Probably Want Pay Parity With Her
Judge Judy Sheindlin told a room of 300 attendees at the fifth annual Forbes Women’s Summit on Tuesday that she “certainly [doesn’t] want pay parity with men.”
She was joking, of course, because few men will ever make $47 million dollars a year hosting a syndicated daytime talk show where they get to decide whether an errant teenager has to repay his girlfriend the $500 she loaned him before he broke her heart.
What is not a joke, however, is that Judge Judy is not a Feminist™.
This is not “news,” as Sheindlin has always been frank about this very dark side of herself but it’s still sad for the many career women who consider Sheindlin a role model, not least of all Nicki Minaj, who says she spends “all of her free time watching Judge Judy.” But we must accept, if begrudgingly, that this a free country and we are all at liberty to have bad and wrong opinions.
Perhaps Judge Judy identifies feminism with a type of victimhood that she is loath to accept. Perhaps she’s experiencing some sort of belated teenage angst that’s leading her to reject what the liberal masses so passionately want her to espouse.
Perhaps she hates women.
We may never know why Judge Judy feels the way she feels but there’s still time for her to accept her fate as the feminist icon we want her to be. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that Beyonce’s feminism was born.
Becky Scott is the editor of The Schmooze. Follow her on Twitter at @arr_scott
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30