Quick Hit: Anne Helen Petersen comments on Charlie Sheen
You know, I was just waiting for her to write about this. If you aren?t familiar with Ms. Petersen?s blog, you ought to be ? she calls what she does ?Celebrity Gossip ? Academic Style.? She?s funny, witty, and intelligent (naturally), but she is not at all condescending (well, at least not most of the time). In short, it?s an academic blog about celebrity written by an academic who loves celebrity. I cannot say enough good things about this blog.
ANYWAY! She wrote a pretty long post about Charlie Sheen, which she says will be included in her dissertation. Petersen writes about why Sheen has been able to get away with his behavior (until now, at least), and how he is currently navigating the gossip industry by being both accessible and extravagant.
Of course, I?d be most interested in a critique of Sheen?s behavior from a feminist standpoint. Firstly, he?s notorious for mistreating the women in his life, and it seems at best distasteful to ?glorify? him (though I suspect that when we call Charlie Sheen ?awesome? at the moment, we?re using the term ironically), and secondly, how does Sheen?s treatment in the media differ from the treatment of female celebrities who have undergone similar meltdowns? From Petersen?s blog post:
In contrast, female stars who lead a similar lifestyle ? whether Lohan or Britney Spears ? have been consistently framed as pitiable. Women who live outsized lives are grotesque, while Sheen is just, in his words, ?grandiose.?
This is a discussion that is happening in a lot of places around the feminist blogosphere, but I think something is missing. Part of the reason there is such a frenzy around Charlie Sheen is because the stuff he?s saying is really and truly hilarious (perhaps in a schadenfreude type of way). We don?t have Lindsey Lohan soundbites popping up as internet memes because she did not get on 20/20 and say, ?I?m on a drug ? it?s called Lindsey Lohan.? This is perhaps because she was smarter than Charlie Sheen, but I?m guessing that it?s more because we don?t allow women celebrities to dictate the terms of their own meltdowns the way that we allow men to.