Actress Jennifer Lawrence has made it clear that she does not support the political beliefs with which she was raised. However, the reasons that she gives for her desertion are much less sound than the media has made them seem.

“I was raised a Republican,” said Jennifer Lawrence in an interview with Vogue Magazine on Wednesday. “But I just can’t imagine supporting a party that doesn’t support women’s basic rights.”

Celebrity figures, especially those involved in popular teen films, have an enormous influence on the lives, beliefs and culture of young people and should be sensitive when discussing political issues. When Lawrence said that the GOP does not support women’s most basic rights, she left a false fact imprinted on the minds of the American youth.

It’s possible that Lawrence was discussing abortion, a women’s rights issue that the GOP has been criticized for. But Republicans are not anti-women. The issue of abortion is not cut and dry. While many Democrats believe that women should always have the right to decide what happens to their bodies, it is not quite as simple for Republicans.

Many Republicans have roots in religions that hold the sanctity of human life to the highest importance. For these people, taking the life of an unborn child is not an option. That does not mean the party hates women and their rights, it just means that they love all life, no matter how small, and Lawrence should be more sensitive to this mentality.

Although it is not wrong for Lawrence to have a different view than these conservative Republicans, someone who was raised with those beliefs should know the deeper reasons behind the actions of the Republican Party.

When Lawrence made the statement that the GOP does not support women, she may have caused many young people to blindly believe the same. Because of her, there may be thousands of young, Republican-raised girls, who are now under the impression that their parents and their religion would take away their human rights based on their gender.

In the interview, Lawrence also mentioned that she was raised in a conservative household in Kentucky, which also happens to be home of the infamous county clerk, Kim Davis. Davis gained overwhelmingly negative attention by refusing to sign the marriage licenses for gay couples. Lawrence told Vogue that Davis makes her embarrassed to be from Kentucky and that Davis’ name is not even allowed to be mentioned in her house.

While it is true that a large number of Republicans oppose gay marriage, that should not allow Lawrence to make generalizations about the entire party on women’s issues.

As the Republican Party gets younger, the number of people in favor of gay marriage increases. According to a 2014 poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, 61 percent of Republicans ages 18-29 support gay marriage. Because these ages make up a large percentage of Lawrence’s fan base, for her to make inaccurate assumptions about the party’s political beliefs is unfair.

Someone with such a remarkable following should put more thought into their comments. The truth is, Lawrence’s anger is probably fueled by the beliefs of people like Kim Davis and Donald Trump, whose presidency she said would be the end of the world. But what Lawrence fails to realize is that these two people do not represent all Republicans.

In the future, Lawrence, and other high-profile figures, should be more considerate and less offensive when making stereotypical assumptions that generalize an entire party and stigmatize people’s personal beliefs.

Victoria Razzi is a sophomore advertising major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at vcrazzi@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @vrazzi.

Published on November 15, 2015 at 11:44 pm