Rewriting Narratives: How Women's Addictions Are Played Out in the Media

Last.fm

Susie Bright's post  about the media's treatment of Whitney Houston's death, specifically the speculation that her death must have been drug related, is a pretty good primer on how women's addiction is viewed through a different lens than men's. Women addicts are often seen as moral failures; shamed rather than romanticized. However, I think she could benefit from some nuance here:

"Women in pop culture are particularly framed with this “poor little prima donna who destroyed her talent” garbage. When great male musicians die, it’s unusual to have their substance issues splayed forth in the obit headline. 

Is that what happened when George Harrison died? The Beatles, every one of them, could've given Whitney Houston a clinic in drug abuse. When Keith Richards dies, are they going to lead with 'heroin destroyed his career'?"

It's a little presumptuous to say male artists who are also addicts are entirely free from speculation, and that their addictions don't figure into their mythos. Kurt Cobain's heroin addiction is practically a shadow legacy. (George Harrison died from cancer, so his drug addiction -- from a media standpoint -- wouldn't figure into that narrative anyway.) It's true, though, that music's "bad boy" image allows men a certain freedom from judgement. Being a "bad boy" is naughty and debauched,  being a "bad woman" is tragic.