Actress Anne Hathaway used the long-debunked “wage gap” myth to argue Thursday that female con artists were inherently better than male con artists.
During an appearance on ABC’s “The View,” Hathaway made the comments while promoting her new film, “The Hustle.”
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Joy Behar pointed out that “The Hustle,” which also stars Rebel Wilson, is an all-female reboot of the classic comedy “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.”
“Even though this film is a remark of 1988 comedy ‘Dirty rotten scoundrels’ with Steve Martin and Michael Caine, you believe that your con woman character is not, in fact, rotten. Why not?” Behar asked.
Hathaway replied:
Well, I think — look, I think it’s all contextual. But I do think there is a difference between female con artists and men — male con artists. Gosh, that’s a hard thing to say. I think that when you look at kind of the way the world is stacked currently, and pay inequality, and you figure that women depending on their race make anywhere from, like, 54 cents on the dollar for every dollar a white man makes, it’s up to 78 cents. You figure we’re the ones getting conned.
“The deck is kind of rigged against us,” she concluded, “If you play by the rules, you are getting taken advantage of, so I don’t think my character feels bad at all about taking money.”
And while statistics bear out the claim that there is a gap between the average wages earned by women and the average wages earned by men, what many fail to acknowledge is why that gap exists. (RELATED: Why It’s Safe To Call The Gender Wage Gap A Myth)
Rather than being the result of sexism or workplace discrimination, as many argue, the numbers suggest that it’s about choice. Women are far more likely than men to choose jobs with more flexible hours and benefits in order to better care for their children and even spend more time caring for them.
