Girls Hating Girls

The tabloids paint Britney Spears' as a neglectful, deranged, drug-addicted mother who frequently neglects and even endangers her children, and whose partying ways are responsible for her demise. The video and images of Amy Winehouse smoking crack cocaine have been widely circulated, along with a flurry of recent articles alleging that her frequent drug use is to blame for the decline of her health -- including emphysema and her stark emaciation.

But a video of Heath Ledger hanging out at a drug-fueled party before his death didn't make it to air on Entertainment Tonight, nor appear elsewhere. New York coroners ruled that Ledger's recent death was due to an accidental overdose of prescription medication, with few media outlets even casting other aspersions. And when Owen Wilson was hospitalized last year after an apparent suicide attempt, not only did his plight inspire only one cover story in US Weekly, but news coverage was almost entirely sympathetic and respectful, often citing psychiatrists' explanations of the intricacies of mental illness and depression.

Sure, plenty of male stars get excoriated by the media -- Mel Gibson to name one. But overwhelmingly, as a recent New York Times article alleges, "Men who fall from grace are treated with gravity and distance, while women in similar circumstances are objects of derision, titillation and black comedy."

Last week a conference called Going Cheap? FemaleCelebrity in the Tabloid, Reality and Scandal Genres, held at the University of East Anglia in the U.K., attempted to get to the bottom of this paradox and "our" fascination with self-destructive female celebrities. Papers included "Britney's Tears: The Abject Female Celebrity in Post-Emotional Society" and "Hooker, Victim and/or Doormat: Lindsay Lohan and the Culture of Celebrity Notoriety, among others.

Unsurprisingly, some celebrity journalists disagreed with the symposium's premise, including Gordon Smart, who edits The Sun. He told the BBC that the preponderance of female stars is purely coincidence. "At the moment there just happens to be cluster of female celebrities that are going through difficult times."

But Diane Negra, a professor of film and television studies at the host university, said the coverage of women is definitely more judgmental than the coverage of men. And that while a media story about a drug-addicted man is likely to focus on or even celebrate his expected return (as with Robert Downey Jr.'s recent Iron Man performance) coverage of female celebs is more likely to focus on their (self-inflicted) demise and act as "cautionary tales."

"We seem to have a lot more fixed ideas about what women's lives should be like than we do of men," she said.

Why? "When we use female celebrities this way, we see them failing and struggling, they serve as proof that for women the work-life balance is impossible. Can you have it all? The answer these stories give again and again is 'absolutely not.'"

In the recent New York Times piece, several tabloid editors agreed they handle female celebrities differently but said the reason is due to readership, not sexism. US Weekly's readership is 70 per cent female, and People's is over 90 per cent.

Janice Min, the editor-in-chief of US Weekly, said that putting a solo man on the cover is "cover death. Women don't want to read about men unless it's through another woman: a marriage, a baby, a breakup."

So the only coverage of Ledger's death focused on how his estranged wife and child were coping, not on any of his history. And with Owen Wilson, much of the coverage focused on Kate Hudson -- whether their recent breakup was to blame for his troubles, and how she was reacting.

The conference touched on another reason for increasing negative tone: public concern about the growing number of celebrities who are famous simply for being famous, like Paris Hilton or the stars of reality TV shows.

Cary Cooper, a professor of psychology and health at Lancaster University in England, said readers and viewers want to see celebrities struggle because "it makes people feel good." Celebrities "look like they lead a golden life, and yet it doesn't make them happy. So in a way it justifies our humdrum existence."

But while readership demographics explain why there's more coverage of bad girls than bad boys, and public resentment about rich but talentless celebs explains why much coverage generally is negative in tone, those two factors don't entirely explain why the media is more critical of ailing female celebs than of male ones.

Negra has one more theory, that the "massive coverage these women draw is only a little bit about themselves... These women operate as lightning rods for a lot of other concerns."

And for a lot of negative sentiment about women, generally.

"Urgh, I'd never thought about that, but it's true," a 38 year old female friend groaned when I told her about the conference's premise.

"I hate to admit it," said the same friend, one of the most positive, enthusiastic people I know, "but I do it. I cut down other women." Two other friends chimed in and agreed they do it too.

A 12-year-old boy, also sitting at the table, said that the girls in his class are mean to each other. "They're always saying other girls are fat. And 'I hate her, I don't like her.'"

A few years ago, a 60-year-old mother of two sons told me she was so glad she'd had boys because "girls are all so prissy and frilly and catty. Yuck."

An unrelated study, released this week, showed that glaring sexism is easy to brush off, but subtle sexism leads to self-criticism, self-loathing and poor performance on tests.

Researchers set up a mock job interview in which women were asked sexist questions, then all were told they didn't get the job. Half the women were told the reason was that they were women -- and their self-esteem remained intact. The other half were told they didn't get the job because they'd given wrong answers, and subsequently experienced low self-image and poorer performance on IQ and other tests.

Hasn't everyone heard somewhere that people who bully and criticize others are ones who have low self esteem themselves?

So isn't it possible that the increasing appetite for tabloid stories that attack other women could actually be because those female readers are experiencing more subtle sexism and therefore self-loathing?

The more that happens, the more it does, apparently. Rebecca Roy, a psychotherapist who has several clients in the entertainment industry, was quoted saying the double standard in public treatment of bad girls and bad boys can actually intensify the destructive behavior of those female stars, pushing them to further depths of substance abuse and erratic behavior.

So is the solution for me to learn to love Britney and Lindsay?

This post first appeared on The Tyee.

Comments

[AllieAnne]

DryBrook's right about Ledger - people in the media are not going to speak ill of the dead.

Owen Wilson, however, is an interesting case. The depression meme was floated by his people VERY quickly; almost as if they anticipated that something like that would happen. They appeared to have a story at the ready as there were indications that his drug habit was once again getting out-of-control (PRE-Kate Hudson). I think that he DOES have depression, as well as a serious drug problem.

Wilson may have gotten a pass from some publications (People, US Weekly) but I think that's because it IS true what Janice Min said - men don't sell. A lot of the gossip sites (Defamer and Hollywood Elsewhere, just to name a couple) didn't shy away from the drug issue and some oversympathetic bloggers who were quick to say "tsk, tsk - you should be ashamed" for blaming drug abuse for his situation wound up looking pretty foolish when details (rehab stays, interventions, etc...) were revealed.

Jeffrey Wells (from HE) called Wilson's actions a cry for a "public intervention." Maybe, subconsciously -but I don't know.... I think Wilson just wants the whole thing to go away - so he can continue his old lifestyle without the media scrutiny. He doesn't seem to want to talk about depression (although if he did, his words could probably help countless others, particularly other males who likewise suffer) and he CERTAINLY doesn't seem to want to talk about addiction.

[woodsywizz]

Interesting, that the Greek goddesses were renowned (sp?) for wisdom, beauty, purity, and hunting prowess [Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Also famously (almost) virginal.].

The male 'gods' were known for sulky, childish behavior; also for killing and raping. Why can 't we men hold ourselves to a higher standard?

Actually, most of us do.

Paradoxically, though, we expect women to be better than ourselves. It all goes back to Mommy. She birthed us. fed us from her body, and taught our first social behavior. She became the exemplar. So we expect other women to be 'just as good'.

Perfect, in other words. Even though our mothers weren't, nor are any of us. It's just an expectation.

So we mock those who fall short. Pity us, we should be better people, shouldn't we?

[ms.understood]

I believe that people should start teaching their daughters not to be so judgemental with other women. Afterall, we're supposed to be smarter than men, not act on their level. At some point, you would think that we as women would realize that we are judged so much that we should not turn it around on ourselves. Maybe this article will enlighten someone, and in this case, it should enlighten many someones.

[joebiz]

Men tend to be idiots a lot of the time so they get free passes, depending on profession. If you had to pick one, would you prefer to have a dad or mom as a drunk or junkie? Most would choose their dads.

We expect a higher level of behavior from women. But, the demographic for tabloids tend to be women, right?

[kellygrrrl]

having a teen daughter - I have witnessed unbelievable cruelty by girls to girls

[ladyrefined2000]

Look at all the male rock stars who have kids. Does anyone obsess about what they are doing for their kids, how much time they spend with those kids, if their drug habits influence their kids?
John Lennon completely abandoned his son. What about Mick Jagger...doesnt he have a lot of kids?

It is only the women who are held accountable....hey, they should be............but so should the men.

[littlepuffycloud]

Women are held to a higher standard than men. Women who party too much or have too many boyfriends or lose it and cuss out someone or attack someone's car with an umbrella are seen as slutty low class idiots. Men who do the same are just seen as partiers. Don't we judge all mothers harshly because they have children and should have long ago put away their childish ways...and because we all know deep inside that we did some stupid things ourselves when we were young mothers and feel the need to judge other women when they show how human and sometimes, stupid they really are. Personally, both my daughters were lucky to survive stupid things I did as a 23 yr old mother..as I'm sure I was lucky to survive some of the stupid things my mom probably did with me. Women are so tough on each other.

[Cach]

"Women are held to a higher standard than men. "

Yes, but the point of the article is, women are held to a higher standard BY OTHER WOMEN. All the coverage about Amy Winehouse, Paris Hilton, etc etc. is mainly consumed by women. Men couldn't care less. I like DryBrook's comment about how men can go years without considering whether or not they like their boss, roommate, celebrities yet women feel the need to like or dislike everyone they deal with. That's very true. So if society doesn't like how harshly we treat celebrities, it's women that need to change, not men.

ps-don't take that personally

[DryBrook]

Perhaps the difference in the coverage has to do with the difference in the audiences. It seems to me that women feel the need to like or dislike everyone they deal with. Men, by contrast, can go years without considering whether they like their boss, their roommate, or their celebrities. Whether you call that sort of behavior being "professional" or being "out of touch with one's emotions" is up to you.

[DryBrook]

Heath Ledger is not a reasonable comparison to the women presented above. He died. People are reluctant to speak ill of the dead. For a better comparison, put the coverage of Ledger up against the coverage of some one like Natalie Wood (drowned while intoxicated) or Marilyn Monroe (barbiturate poisoning).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Wood#Death
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe#Death_and_aftermath

[Dangersea27]

Good point DryBrook,
Ledger, Wood and Monroe all died, while Lohan, Spears and Hilton continue to provide fodder to sell magazine covers.
Also, as far as I know, Ledger went out in public in a short skirt with no underwear. I'm sure lots of celebs, male and female, struggle with anger and addiction. They may not be conducting their struggle as publicly as some others.