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Rebecca Roy, M.A., “The Industry Therapist” is asking the question why the death of Heath Ledger is being treated differently by the media than Britney Spears’ mental illness.
“Heath Ledger’s death is being treated with kid gloves, for instance, yet Britney Spears is afforded no privacy at all in dealing with her issues,” Roy said. “It’s as if there are jackals at the gate just waiting for her to commit suicide. It’s a travesty.”
It seems that male stars get a pass when they are in trouble, but female stars are practically drawn and quartered if they have real human needs and problems. “Not only do the women have to deal with an impossibly high body image standard, but they are savagely attacked when they don’t meet expectations on that front,” Roy said. “Add this pressure to perhaps a pre-existing mental disorder and you have the makings of a very tortured soul.”
Because Heath Ledger was a wonderful actor and highly respected, no one wants to delve too deeply into his death. The same was true of Owen Wilson’s recent hospitalization.
But many of the women have had their mental health and substance abuse issues paraded before the world. “Though women sometimes express pain more openly than men, they also deserve some respect and understanding that they deal with enormous pressures that are simply different than men’s pressures in this Industry. They are human beings too,” Roy said.
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I think this author is correct, but should also add that other women are a troubled woman’s worst enemy in many instances.
Instead of being supportive and understanding that there are many ways to deal with motherhood and relationships, they attack based on the celebrity woman’s being different.
Way too much of that has gone on with the Spears issues!
With Britney, it has been the big build up. The anticipation of what is going to happen. It is pretty sad how she is the center of the media circus.
Thing is, she probably had a few issues before. Perhaps she was an ADHD child and singing and dancing was an outlet that got out of hand. What is sad is no one has come to her defense.
Lots of disapproval though…no empathy.
Maybe she’s a little bit more under the microscope because she chose to have children and then ends up doing things that could harm them? I’m not sure but that could probably be the difference.
We sure don’t hear much of Paris any more, do we? Or maybe I’ve just not been paying attention?
There was a guy involved here that also chose to have children. He needs to be included in this attention and child welfare theory.
Britney Spears is just caught up in the fame and fortune. I am sure she thought that she wanted all of the attention at one point, but now it is just getting to be too much.
There is definitely a lot of misogyny that has come into play. However, in the case of Heath, he pretty much kept the aspects of his sordid life under wraps. Lindsey and Britney’s unfolds in front of the camera for all to see.
Also, Heath presented overtly as being more balanced/emotionally stable. That is, until in retrospect you watch his last few interviews and can see his problems were starting to manifest.
Any way you slice it — a total waste of a life and a talent.
Have you heard the song by Ben Harper which Heath asked him to write for his daughter when she was born? It’s on YouTube and is called “Happy Ever After In Your Eyes”. So very sad, yet beautiful.
SageMother, I think I’ve heard enough of Britney Spears that I don’t care to hear any more about her
But you are right, there is always that sense of competition between women and sometimes we are just so ready to chop each other to pieces, it’s not even funny.
EviesEarth, you really have to wonder, with her being the center of all this crazy circus media, that it actually has contributed to her irrational actions.
SageMother, I sure can’t remember if there ever was a time that the world was empathetic towards Britney Spears.
I remember when she first came out and parents didn’t approve of the adult tones of her teeny boppy music.
Katharina, I think Paris has learned her lesson, especially after the jail stint. I guess that can do that to you.
Not to mention that she’s made ammends with Nicole Ritchie. And you know what they say about motherhood being able to change even the most rowdiest women…..
SageMother, that *guy* is getting paid a lot of money to keep the kids.
But, I guess if it was a choice between the two, the court found it better to leave them with the father eventhough I don’t think that is the best solution either.
Did you know Britney’s parents took control of her estate?
Trick-r-treat, every child star I think has to go through this process.
I remember when Drew Barrymore went through a similar stint like this. Look how she turned out! Better than everybody expected.
Samantha, no, I havent’s seen the video. I will go and check it out.
If you can remember Owen Wilson’s overdose, it was gone as fast as I can remember.
It’s really quite biased, I think, they never talk about all the good Lindsey and Britney have done in the past. I guess it sells more papers talking about the bad stuff.
I actually have an article slotted for release in the next week about Lindsey’s involvement in a charity.
No matter how you look at it concerning Britney I just feel that we are watching her unravel on tv and I don’t want to see where it could end u.
Tater03, it’s really quite ironic that when I pass by the local supermarket checkout counter, I haven’t seen any front page gossip about her lately.