Politics & Power Quote by Julie Christie

There is a quiet weapon in Christie’s phrasing: she doesn’t claim lifelong enlightenment, she describes an awakening. “I remember becoming aware” frames feminism not as an inherited ideology but as an experience that intruded on ordinary life. That matters coming from an actress whose job has always been to notice how people are seen, sorted, and read. Her tone is conversational, almost casual, which makes the indictment land harder: the sexism she’s pointing to isn’t a fringe behavior, it’s ambient.

“Glaringly clear” does two things at once. It signals shock, and it suggests visibility: inequality isn’t hidden in policy language or academic debate; it’s right there in the light of day, in meetings, press junkets, pay negotiations, casting rooms. When she pins the realization to “living in America,” she’s not offering a travel anecdote so much as a cultural diagnosis. America sells itself as meritocracy, yet she describes a default assumption that undermines the premise: women are “regarded as less intelligent.” Not “treated unfairly” in a vague sense, but intellectually discounted, preemptively.

The most pointed subtext is that this isn’t about individual men being rude; it’s about a social reflex. “Regarded” implies consensus, a lens shared by institutions and everyday interactions. Coming from a celebrity with public credibility, the line also functions as a refusal of the flattering myth that fame exempts you. Even at the top of the call sheet, Christie suggests, a woman still has to prove she’s thinking.