I don't know where I got this from, but it's been in my head for a long time:
Death comes in 3s (Don't ask me now, I just told you - I don't know where it came from!).
But when my husband told me
Ed McMahon had died Tuesday at 86 years old, I knew there'd be two more - and soon.
Sure enough, 48 hours late
r and within a short span of about five hours, both Michael Jackson and
Farrah Fawcett were also dead - at the relatively young ages of 50 and 62 respectively.
While most of us remember Farrah's hair and this most famous pin-up and her Jill Munroe on Charlie's Angels - the role I absolutely most a
dmired
was her portrayal of Francine Hughes in "
The Burning Bed." Back in 1984, it spoke to domestic violence against women by their spouses in a way that no one expected from the former "angel." The little blond from Corpus Christi had finally nailed a grown-up role, and she was good in it.
I remember watching the movie with some girlfriends. And when that damn bed went up in flames -
with her abusive husband in it!??! Well, let's just say - we'd all had enough of his ass!!
Men had some real problems with that movie though (
FEAR of frying maybe?). They totally ignored the brutal and constant beatings she suffered at the hands of this man who supposedly
loved her and instead, zeroed their criticisms in on the way women all over the country were
"celebrating" (according to them) his death.
Lumps!! They couldn't even see beyond the patriarchy far enough to understand what the
real celebration was about.
It's been 25 years since that movie came out and women worldwide are
still being beaten, killed - and in more cases than we as a human race care to own - locked up for simply defending themselves.
R.I.P. Farrah...
Sure enough, 48 hours later and within a short span of about five hours, both Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett were also dead - at the relatively young ages of 50 and 62 respectively.
While most of us remember Farrah's hair and this most famous pin-up and her Jill Munroe on Charlie's Angels - the role I absolutely most a
dmired was her portrayal of Francine Hughes in "The Burning Bed." Back in 1984, it spoke to domestic violence against women by their spouses in a way that no one expected from the former "angel." The little blond from Corpus Christi had finally nailed a grown-up role, and she was good in it.
I remember watching the movie with some girlfriends. And when that damn bed went up in flames - with her abusive husband in it!??! Well, let's just say - we'd all had enough of his ass!!
Men had some real problems with that movie though (FEAR of frying maybe?). They totally ignored the brutal and constant beatings she suffered at the hands of this man who supposedly loved her and instead, zeroed their criticisms in on the way women all over the country were "celebrating" (according to them) his death. Lumps!! They couldn't even see beyond the patriarchy far enough to understand what the real celebration was about.
It's been 25 years since that movie came out and women worldwide are still being beaten, killed - and in more cases than we as a human race care to own - locked up for simply defending themselves.
R.I.P. Farrah...
7 comments:
I am currently living out of motel rooms because of working out-of-town, so I do have cable or satellite or whatever it is. One thing I noticed when I channel surfed was nearly all of the fake news channels and entertainment channels were all-Michael-Jackson-all-the-time, as it were. Where was the Farrah stuff? I think Lifetime aired a program with Fawcett. My initial reaction was the woman, of course, was being ignored. WARNING: The following sentence is way too long. I simply do not comprehend mega-stardom, and I guess it depends on whether one was more attuned to television or pop music as a youngster, but I remember back in the day when it was all-Farrah-all-the-time on magazine covers and in tabloids. Perhaps she committed the unpardonable crime of becoming an aging female. She was not fortunate enough to become old.
Follow-up to my own comment. I noticed a couple of cable channels showing Charlie's Angels shows and more about Fawcett Saturday night and Sunday.
ea...I truly don't think that it was a "woman" thing with the mainstream media - more like a ratings/big bucks thing.
Because he was Michael Jackson and all that meant: innovative, color-line breaker (there were NO Black artists on MTV until Michael), consummate singer-dancer-performer, huge philanthropist, tabloid fodder (from Bubbles the Chimp, the hyperbaric chamber, hanging out with Brooke Shields and Liz Taylor, marrying Elvis's daughter, his skin color, his plastic surgery, the child molestation accusations/trial, etc. etc.) for them - he was the media cash cow.
There was not much Farrah stuff because, well, there was just not that much Farrah stuff from which they could squeeze those kinds of dollars/ratings - it was the pin-up and Charlies' Angels for which she is most remembered, and later, The Burning Bed. And she was only 62 and still quite beautiful - not old at all by today's standards.
Looking back, I think you are right. I simply have not been tuned-in to--I do not even know what to call it--all the〈i〉interest〈/i〉since I was ¿16? I am not a join-the-masses kind of person, unless it is about reproductive and other civil rights or peace, etc. I have also gone long periods without television and don't regularly shop in stores that have tabloids at the check-out counter.
Hey ea! I'm not a "joiner" either - about anything. I support issues in which I believe but prefer not to be considered "one of the group." Hell, being Black and female is group enough! No "joining" necessary for either of them. :-)
I'm beginning to "go long periods without television" these days (partially because of all the going here-there-and everywhere lately) and it feels good! But when I finally got time to sit and check out what had been happening during my brief hiatus, I was like, "Yep, this world is going to hell in a hand basket!" Cynthia McKinney imprisoned in Israel!!!! Surreal!!! Did the Changeling call for Cynthia's release as did other countries for their imprisoned countrymen/women?
And one did not have to regularly shop in stores that have tabloids at the check-out counter to hear all the shit about Michael Jackson through the years. The MSM was more than happy to put it out there.
Here's an interesting and informative piece by Ishmael Reed at counterpunch that may help explain what I mean: http://www.counterpunch.com/reed06292009.html
Not a follower of broadcast MSM either, but I did read the Reed article. Not a surprise. What I do not understand is how the talking heads have an audience.
ea...Simple. Journalism is slowly becoming a circus and Barnum & Bailey has always been a hit in America!
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