The essays in Whittington-Hill’s book explore the ways in which pop culture has failed women over the decades, and is still failing women. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m not a pop culture enthusiast; I know the names of very few actors and musicians and know even less about their lives. But this book captured my attention because I have daughters who have a variety of forms of media coming at them every day — it’s not as easy to stick your head in the sand as it used to be — and I wanted to know more about what kinds of messages they’ve been getting from the world around them.
Whittington-Hill’s writing style hooked me right away and kept me engaged and entertained. She’s funny, smart, and unapologetic.
Whittington-Hill’s writing style hooked me right away and kept me engaged and entertained. She’s funny, smart, and unapologetic.
Until I read these essays, I hadn’t taken note of the ways that men and women are treated and portrayed differently in the media. One subject Whittington-Hill focuses on in several of her essays is substance abuse and addiction. Women are torn apart by the media if their behaviour is out of control, and they have to work much harder than men to “redeem” themselves to the world. Whittington-Hill draws many comparisons between Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love: both celebrity musicians, both addicts, and married to each other. “While female celebrities like Love have been vilified for their rebellion, male celebrities, like Cobain, for example, are celebrated and mythologized for it.” Other women she mentions who have been harshly ridiculed for their addictions include Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse, Lindsay Lohan, and Britney Spears. After Winona Ryder was arrested for shoplifting, she was “unemployable for over a decade” while words like “comeback,” “rebirth,” and “resurrection” were constant reminders of her “downfall.” On the other hand, Chris Brown “can beat women and get an American Music Award — an award he is physically unable to accept because of a restraining order.”
Women in pop culture are judged more on their appearance and sex appeal than men are. Stories about women in the media are often about the way they dress, how good (or bad) they look for their age, their weight, and their reproductive status.
“When tabloids and the internet aren’t mixing up their greys, they’re telling women they look too old and then shaming them when they have work done that makes them look younger.”
One entire essay in Whittington-Hill’s collection is devoted to “the number of years tabloid magazines spent declaring Jennifer Aniston pregnant.” (Sixteen years, to be exact.) Those are headlines I remember well because of all the time I spent in grocery store line-ups during those years.
“The tabloids have focused so much on Aniston’s stomach over the years I feel like I could now confidently pick it out of a police lineup. George Clooney married and had children late in life, according to celeb gossip standards, but I have never seen a paparazzi close-up of the Ocean’s Eleven in Clooney’s pants with the headline “Full of baby batter or just awkward-fitting Dockers?” Also, Clooney’s decision to marry late in life made him a desirable “bachelor” and “hard to lock down,” while Aniston’s made her a sad, lonely woman who was going to die alone surrounded by cats and/or burritos.”
Whittington-Hill has noticed that there is even a difference in how celebrity memoirs are marketed, received, and reviewed. “Women can spend chapters on their awards, accolades, and accomplishments. Reviewers still focus only on sex, scandal, and bombshell reveals.” For example, in her memoir Inside Out, Demi Moore talks about Hollywood’s double standards like the gender pay gap. After becoming the highest paid actor in Hollywood, instead of being called an inspiration, the media began calling her “Gimmie Moore.” And the reviews for her memoir had headlines like “Why Demi Moore Fulfilled Ashton Kutcher’s Threesome Fantasies.”
Ultimately, the message women are still getting from pop culture — as much as we might like to think times are changing — is that if you speak up, or present yourself in any way outside the box, you will be shamed and humiliated. Better to keep a low profile, repress your passions and desires, hide your body if it’s not ‘perfect’— you might not be considered acceptable.
Girls, Interrupted is thought-provoking, entertaining, and effective.
Lisa Whittington-Hill is a writer based in Toronto. Her work has appeared in Longreads, The Walrus, Hazlitt, Catapult, and more. She is also the publisher of This Magazine and teaches in the publishing program at Centennial College.
Publisher: Vehicule Press (Oct 26, 2023)
Paperback 8″ x 5″ | 200 pages
ISBN: 9781550656329
Naomi MacKinnon is a mother, daughter, wife, sister, friend, pet-lover, reader, walker, camper, and Nova Scotian. Naomi has contributed several guest reviews over the years to The Miramichi Reader. Her book review blog is Consumed By Ink.