Good lord, this really looks like an old photo of Jennifer Aniston, right? Like Allure used a photo from 2004 for their cover. Hm. Anyway, Jennifer covers the January issue of Allure to promote Cake, which has already garnered Golden Globe and SAG Best Actress nominations for Aniston (plus, she got a Critics Choice nomination yesterday as well). Aniston has really upped her interview game for her presumptive Oscar campaign – last week, her THR interview was actually interesting and lucid. These quotes from Allure are also pretty interesting in that it’s not just random, spacey thoughts and New Age-speak. Some highlights:

Why “feminism” is seen as complicated: “Because people overcomplicate it. It’s simply believing in equality between men and women. Pretty basic.”

On the questions about pregnancy and children: “I don’t like [the pressure] that people put on me, on women—that you’ve failed yourself as a female because you haven’t procreated. I don’t think it’s fair. You may not have a child come out of your vagina, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t mothering—dogs, friends, friends’ children. I have a lot of friends who decided not to have children, who can’t have children, or are trying but are having a difficult time. There’s all sorts of reasons why children aren’t in people’s lives, and no one has the right to assume. It’s quite rude, insulting and ignorant.”

Her public persona as a woman who was “too driven” to have babies: “This continually is said about me: that I was so career-driven and focused on myself; that I don’t want to be a mother, and how selfish that is.” Ticking off these accusations now, she seems unfazed. But when it’s suggested to Aniston that maybe she just lets the insinuations roll off her back after so many years of hearing them, she says, “No. Even saying it gets me a little tight in my throat.”

The conversation about “going ugly for Oscar”: “A woman going physically unattractive is where you get recognition and some sort of respect. You read things like, ‘Oh, finally, she’s acting!'” The actress calls such criticism “quite sexist, to be honest, because men don’t get that.”

On Justin Theroux: “We’re equals. He’s a nurturer. He is so fiercely loyal. Beyond protective. I mean, the way he takes care of our dogs, he takes care of me, he takes care of friends.” Aniston doesn’t say much about their wedding plans. “We do talk about it all the time.”

On Gwyneth Paltrow’s style: “I’ve known her a long time. That woman has got style to the moon and back. Chic, effortless, gorgeous. This sums us up. Look, I’m in a T-shirt, jeans, and 400-year-old shoes, and this one is just, like, to a T. She’s always been sweet to me.”

[From E! News & Allure]

Props to Jennifer for talking about feminism without sounding like a jackass (coughEvangelineLillycough). And she’s absolutely right, society and the media and other people shouldn’t judge women for their reproductive choices. In general. But what I always say about Jennifer is… she invited them in. She always invited the speculation and conversation about the state of her womb. Until she didn’t. And now she’s got different talking points. Now the speculation is “rude, insulting and ignorant.” It might have been better if she said that in her 2005 Vanity Fair hit-job interview, right?

Photos courtesy of Allure.