Mila Kunis dared to tell a boss no, and she’s challenging other women to do the same

Examples of gender discrimination in Hollywood are far from uncommon.

One analysis by FiveThirtyEight found only half of nearly 1,800 movies between 1970 and 2013 passed the Bechdel test, which is used to measure gender bias in films. In order to pass the Bechdel test, a film has to have two named female characters who speak to one another about something besides men.

But that’s just the portrayal of women in the films. Multiple actresses, including Jennifer Lawrence, Sandra Bullock, Patricia Arquette and Maggie Gyllenhaal, have also spoken out about not being paid as much as their male counterparts or being told they were too old or too ugly for certain roles.

Mila Kunis has now added her voice. In an open letter in A Plus Magazine, Kunis detailed the sexism she experienced and also how she plans to stop it rather than be complicit.

She describes one incident when a producer told her, “you’ll never work in this town again,” because she refused to pose semi-naked on a men’s magazine.

“I was livid, I felt objectified, and for the first time in my career I said ‘no.’ And guess what? The world didn’t end,” Kunis wrote. “The film made a lot of money and I did work in this town again, and again, and again. What this producer may never realize is that he spoke aloud the exact fear every woman feels when confronted with gender bias in the workplace.”

Kunis said she used to “play by the rules of the boy’s club” because she feared not succeeding if she spoke up. But she said the longer she put up with it, the more she realized she needed to react differently if she wanted change to happen.

So, she said she “started my own club,” forming a production company with three other women and choosing people who treated her with respect as partners. Recently, she said they signed on to a project with an “influential male producer,” and were pitching a show about inclusivity and the shared human experience to major networks.

But in an email chain with networks, that producer wrote, “And Mila is a mega star. One of biggest actors in Hollywood and soon to be Ashton’s wife and baby momma!!!”

“Factual inaccuracies aside, he reduced my value to nothing more than my relationship to a successful man and my ability to bear children,” Kunis wrote. “It ignored my (and my team’s) significant creative and logistical contributions.”

“We withdrew our involvement in the project,” she added.

Acknowledging some people would say that it was “only one small comment,” Kunis said she felt those types of comments, which women experience every day, were a major part of the devaluation of women and their contributions.

“I’m done compromising; even more so, I’m done with being compromised. So from this point forward, when I am confronted with one of these comments, subtle or overt, I will address them head on; I will stop in the moment and do my best to educate,” Kunis concluded, calling on other women to do the same. “I cannot guarantee that my objections will be taken to heart, but at least now I am part of creating an environment where there is the opportunity for growth. And if my comments fall on deaf ears, I will choose to walk away.”

“I will work in this town again, but I will not work with you.”

This story was originally published November 3, 2016 at 12:17 PM with the headline "Mila Kunis dared to tell a boss no, and she’s challenging other women to do the same."