Jessica

Vozel

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January 23, 2008

Heath Ledger’s Death and the Cultural Double Standard

In the days following 28-year-old Heath Ledger’s tragic, too-young death on Tuesday, possibly the result of an overdose – as suggested by the prescription medications scattered around his body – I hope that the media will start to loosen their grip on the similarly troubled young females in Hollywood. 

There are a plethora of lessons to be learned from a familiar face losing his or her life to preventable causes, as seems to be the case in Ledger’s death. And granted, many of these lessons are more pressing than the amount of attention given to each gender in the media.

But it seems relevant to explore why the media salivate over the drug use, drunk driving and other mental instabilities of blonde, troubled young women, but tend to give males of similar celebrity a free pass. Did anyone know that Heath even had a drug problem? A close friend of Ledger told US Magazine, “To tell you the truth . . . we saw it coming. Heath has gone though a rough road of trying to get sober.” While every Britney Spears’s rehab entrance and exit is intensely scrutinized, few seemed to know that Heath was battling a substance abuse problem at all. 

Scarce a day goes by without a breaking story about Britney’s latest breakdown or Paris’s latest party antics, and the fascination with Hollywood “bad girls” has hit a fever pitch. Across the pond, too, British signing sensation Amy Winehouse was recently caught on video tape smoking a crack pipe and mumbling about taking “six valiums.” As a culture, we are fascinated by girls gone bad.

Perhaps it’s because they defy the long-standing cultural norms of what is expected of women and refuse to apologize for it. Perhaps boozing, drug overdoses and wild behavior is considered standard for male celebrities. The partying lifestyles of male rock stars are the stuff of legend. Either way, it’s a ridiculous double-standard that males should be expected to sow their wild oats while females remain genteel and straight-laced. 

On January 15^th, once-rising star Brad Renfro, just 25, died of what some suspected may be a drug overdose. Last year, British rocker Pete Doherty was caught on tape, in Amy Winehouse fashion, shooting heroin into his own forearm. Now, as the details of Heath Ledger’s untimely death become clear, it seems that he, too, has succumbed to a deadly vice. The first two news events were barely a blip on the pop-culture radar.

Brad Renfro’s popularity was comparable to that of Anna Nichole Smith. Both had once been recognizable faces with bright futures, both went on a downward spiral after their peak of celebrity, each defined by their transgressions rather than any actual professional work. Both had lives that ended early, at a point when their names were fading in the Hollywood memory, and both left behind a child. Yet the news coverage dedicated to the two deaths is incomparable.  Those who didn’t know who Anna Nicole was when she passed away surely came to know her in the days that followed, while those who didn’t know of Brad Renfro before probably still don’t. 

When a troubled female celebrity also happens to be a mother, the outcry gets even louder. Tabloids love when they can accuse a celebrity of being an unfit mother. Again, it seems unnatural for a woman to choose a night of partying over a night of sitting at home with the kids.

There is certainly some validity to this sentiment. If one wants to have children, she should probably accept that binge drinking and late nights will have to become a thing of the past, no matter her ease of access to nannies and unlimited mind-altering substances. However, seldom do fathers receive that same scolding media treatment. Colin Farrell, for example, has a young son and a notorious hard-partying reputation. Jack Nicholson has five different children by four different women, yet remains an Academy Award winning actor and American favorite. Anyone who makes the choice to have a child should make it his or her duty to keep clean and care for him or her. 

Hard-partying has become a problem for both sexes of Hollywood young people, and one that seems to be producing more and more tragic consequences for those who get wrapped up in it.  Rather than glamorizing these behaviors or shaming women for going against their nature as pillars of virtue, we should examine ways to combat the problem and keep it from seeping too deeply into the conscience of America’s non-Hollywood youth, and that includes addressing that partying too hard holds consequences for both sexes. 

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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