I’m finding the various drive-by parenting “concerns” about Bindi Irwin interesting following her speech at her father’s memorial service. Oh, the pressure’s too much, she’s too poised (must be in denial, how sad), blah blah blah.
None of us know her, or the family, just because they’re on TV. Her upbringing has been entirely different from the way any of us are bringing up our kids because of the wildlife warrior stuff, away from a normal streetscape and school community but astonishingly rich in other ways. None of the child psychologists pontificating for the papers know her or her family either, and if they had any integrity when journalists ring them up they’d be a bit more honest about their lack of omniscience.
She looks healthy, confident and clever – why can’t people stop breathlessly awaiting her apparently inevitable descent into overstressed madness or at the very least spoiled-brattery? Are people that desperate for the next celebrity sob story?
Categories: relationships
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Thank you for putting my thoughts into words!
I reminds me of the coverage of Natascha Kampusch here in Yurp.
It seemed as if most of the first round of coverage was holding its breath waiting for Kampusch to break down in psychological trauma. When she didn’t and showed herself to be remarkably self-possessed and not eager to spend her fifteen minutes in the spotlight, the Media didn’t know how to play it.
The current Media spin on Kampusch is to annoint her as a saint. Check out last week’s out the “Paris Match” cover.
The Kampusch story is problematic for the nuance-challenged amongst us, because she’d adjusted to a life with her abductor in a non-simplistic fashion. Which is quite comprehensible given the abnormality of the relationship – she did what she felt she needed to to survive, but none of that pragmatism was especially heroic, and the media doesn’t know how to spin that.
The way she poses with head-coverings is interesting – it certainly says something about the expectations of her abductor, yet he took on ski holidays. His choice to commit suicide means that quite possibly we’ll never get answers about his motivations, but the media craves answers and they’re confronted by an attractive blonde – what are they to do?