The New York Times had an article on female celebs being treated way harsher by the media than male celebs. They give Heath Ledger as an example. Paps knew of and witnessed his drug abuse all along and kept it out of the press. But Britney? She blinks and it's in our faces! What gives?
—Rose, New York
The B!tch Replies: Obviously, celebrity media coverage is skewed, partially because of good old-fashioned sexism. Didn't you take Angry Feminism 101 in college for the easy credit? It's called a double standard. Famous guys can crawl from club to club, living off of Jim Beam fumes and the desperate love of easy ladies, and the media barely yawns. But Britney misses a court date, and the Associated Press soils its collective Dockers.
Don't believe me? Here:
"There is still a double standard" in celebrity media coverage, says crisis publicist Cherie Kerr, president of KerrPR. "Women are supposed to be feminine and polite and not in trouble. Guys, meanwhile, can be guys, get drunk and rowdy, and it's not nearly as naughty as when women do it."
Indeed:
Heath Ledger gets videotaped at a drug-fueled party, and the producers of Entertainment Tonight decide not to air it out of "respect" for the deceased actor's family. But Amy Winehouse battles her own addictions on video, and the whole mess is widely disseminated.
Kiefer Sutherland emerges from jail and the media yawns. Paris Hilton gets out of jail and the media treats it like a fashion show broadcasting live from the chic Gray Bar Hotel.
Clearly—and we don't need the New York Times to tell us that—there's a double standard. But before you whip out your Ani DiFranco CDs and declare the media forever sexist, know that there are other factors at work here, factors even bigger than wanting to keep a good woman down. Consider:
- Media whoredom. Britney Spears and Paris Hilton have never met a camera they didn't love. Heath Ledger and Owen Wilson, meanwhile: fairly quiet party people. Not known for calling paparazzi when they needed publicity or texting their favorite reporters when they want to plant gossip items about their rivals. Celebs who habitually shun media coverage generally receive less of it.
- Gravity. Owen Wilson reportedly tried to commit suicide. Heath Ledger is dead. Both of those conditions are a bit more serious than donning pink wigs, speaking in British accents for no apparent reason or treating the outside of a jail as one's private catwalk. If Paris or Britney were to shed their mortal coils, the media might suddenly become much more protective. Oh, wait, Anna Nicole already tried that.
- The audience. Us Weekly's readership is 70 percent female, for example. Women like to read about the trials and triumphs of other women. Men's faces, meanwhile, don't sell women's magazines. If women suddenly deemed Wilson the most fascinating human being alive, I guarantee he would grace every magazine cover until the day he dried up and died.
So, is sexism a factor in attracting a vicious media circus? Sure. But is it the only one? Of course not. Just ask Mel Gibson or Michael Jackson.
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