Today, Michael David Barrett was released on bond for secretly taping a nude Erin Andrews through a peephole he made in her hotel wall. Police report that he has eight total videos of Andrews, as well as 30+ of other women, taped in similar peephole fashion. He is facing criminal charges of stalking, due to his habit of following her across the country and calling hotels to ask if she'd be staying there. Some of them ACTUALLY GAVE ANSWERS. Most disturbing to me is the fact that, at the particular hotel in question for this case (for being the site of the leaked video), the defendant specifically requested to be in the room next to Andrews (asking for her by name), and the hotel OBLIGED.
Most people argue that if you make the decision to pursue work that will make you "famous," you are also unofficially signing a contract to have your private life open to the public. While I can see how that statement makes some sense, it also occurs to me that it could just be a convenient excuse to feed our morbid curiosity about people and drama separate from our own. I am guilty of this, myself--I lead a pretty normal, uncomplicated existence and I very much enjoy it. However, I live to be a spectator of other people's drama. I looooooove it. It's why I have a Facebook and Myspace account, and why I follow Hailey Glassman on Twitter (Yes. Yes I do). There are all types of crazy, and I love the positively absurd, which is where the celebrities come into play. I love screaming "STFU MEGAN FOX!!" when I read her latest asinine sound bytes. I was all over the Kanye West crazy train way back when he posed as Jesus (crown of thorns and all) on the cover of Rolling Stone, pre-TaylorGate. Lady Gaga's wardrobe, Geisha lipstick, and (real)hair bows make me throw things, and yell at the cat (not projecting, because I haven't 100% ruled out the fact that he leads a secret life as her stylist. No human would dress someone in a head-to-toe red lace body stocking and Burger King crown. I'm onto you, you furry bastard). My point is, celebrity gossip sells because it is a safe place to extend these desires. Even though we still do it, there are consequences to gossiping about people we actually know. Celebrities give us a longer leash here, because we FEEL like we know them--and therefore, the gossip and speculation is still entertaining, but lacking the risk of backlash, since Mutual Friend Melissa isn't going to tell Kanye West that I think he's a narcissist--but she might tell my ex.
I needed to make that statement to finish this one. We have a huge problem in this country in regards to how we view celebrities--specifically, female celebrities. Not only are they used to fill our needs for gossip, but they also have become very open to us for physical and sexual critique. This is disturbing, and I think relatively new in our culture. For example: yeah, I might be interested in knowing about Marilyn Monroe having an affair with JFK in the Oval Office. Seems scandalous enough to sip my morning coffee to. Do I want to see a grainy night-vision video entitled, "One Night in Marilyn?" Not particularly. When the story hit that there was a tape of Erin Andrews in the buff floating around the internet, I can't tell you how many male blogs, message boards, and even facebook statuses were racing to try and find the link--and then share it with the rest. It obviously wasn't filmed with her permission--you didn't need to even wait for her to release a statement to know that, given the description of the tape. Moot point. The dudes were still clamoring to find it, and then boast about how "AWESOME!!" it was to FINALLY see every man's fantasy ("A hot chick who knows about sports? But--but she must be the only one in THE WORLD!!") naked.
Even now--now that the perpetrator has been caught, jailed, bonded, and a court date is set--we're still not taking this to be as serious of an issue as it is. Today, Fox News opened an article about Michael David Barrett's crime this way:
"He was a minor-league creep with a major-league obsession. The alleged stalker of ESPN hottie Erin Andrews was a bland insurance salesman who in his spare time tracked the TV sports babe across the country and repeatedly tried to get close to her, her lawyer told The Post. "The stalker targeted her and was obsessive in his attempt to victimize her," Marshall Grossman said yesterday. "Clearly, Erin was the victim of a major crime." (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,559828,00.html?test=faces)
...STFU, FOX NEWS!!
Even though they have a statement from her lawyer calling this a major crime, the words "hottie" and "babe" trivialize any meaning that statement has. "Yeah, he was a creep but, who can blame him, right? It was ESPN HOTTIE Erin Andrews! Am I right? Am I right?! High-five!" It's this mentality that victimizes women in our culture before a crime is even committed against them, and creates a never-ending cycle of big picture problems. In worst-case scenarios, those "minor-league creeps," or "average insurance salesmen" (another article's description) like George Sodini blow up when the "hotties" and "babes" don't give them the time of day, and shoot up gyms in Pennsylvania--and receive applause from other "minor-league" "average" men on their stupid little Alpha/Beta websites. (If you want to see examples of this, click here.)
Furthermore, Jezebel writer Anna summarizes an article by Jennifer Pozner, outlining other recent news making murders with misogynistic undertones:
"In 2006, Charles Roberts IV killed five girls in an Amish schoolhouse after allowing male students to leave. He may have been motivated by guilt over molesting girls many years earlier, and by a desire to molest again. Also in 2006, Duane Roger Morrison took six girls hostage at Platte Canyon High School, sexually assaulted them, and shot one. And Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech killer, had been accused of stalking female students before his deadly rampage."
No one murdered Erin Andrews. But someone COULD HAVE. Because she is a sex icon--because she is a "babe," a "hottie," whatever--because she is sexualized, she is also demoralized. She loses her family, her career, her personality, her favorite song, the way she takes her coffee. Her identity is stripped from her, so that it is more comfortable for us to ogle her, which makes it a lot easier for men to search out grainy camera phone videos of her ironing naked in a hotel room. It also makes it easier to hurt her. And because it's easier to hurt Erin Andrews, it's easier to hurt other women.
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I think celebrity is ridiculous as I do the fact that she was likely hired to be a pretty face. She may be completely competent in her job, but I have seen over the years how physically attractive women like Andrews have ended up on the sidelines doing reporting during football games purely to drive rating and keep men watching.
but that's not the point. First, she is very competent at her job. Second, regardless of whether or not she is qualified for her position the OP is trying to point out how taking away her identity and turning her into an object is no different from what happens in the rest of america that then makes it okay for women to be killed, and raped by men who think that its alright since we are somehow below them
This is exactly the type of comment and outlook that perpetuates injustice against women - the idea that women first and foremost are hot bodies and pretty faces, and only secondarily competent. This is what makes our lives dangerous and uncomfortable when we meet the expectations placed on us, and just as much when we don't (because then, we get dissed for not being "well groomed" and "professional looking"). I should know. I worked on television. Didn't last (a long story). Despite the fact that I have a Mensa-level I.Q. and a Master's Degree in International Political Economy, I felt like a walking target with a big bull's eye on my forehead. Everything I did was wrong. If I didn't primp and preen, I wasn't smooth enough and didn't look professional. If I did primp and preen, I was asking for attention and of course men would look at me and would want to harass me. Har har har wink wink wink - I kid you not. I could not win.