Back in “the day,” I loved to hate her…that sparkling smile, all that wind-swept blonde hair. She was the anathema of the “feminists.” She was the “air head” that embodied every quality I and many of my friends, did not ever want to have. She was the living objectification of the American woman that made us angry. At least Kate Jackson was “smart” in Charley’s Angels!” But Farrah!? In short, Farrah Fawcett became, for many of us, the woman we never wanted to be.
What we were was jealous. Farrah Fawcett was the woman we knew we never could be.
Few of us thought of Farrah as a “real” person. To us she was a just another “cutie” manufactured by the marketing machine to keep the “weak” in the “weaker sex.” What she did was somehow betray us, trivialize all women. As we fought to break glass ceilings, get better pay and become equals to our male career climbing counterparts, she was just trading on her “looks” to get a career and gain celebrity. There was little she could do to gain credibility as anything but what we “knew” she was: yet another pretty but vacuous blonde to whom we would all be unfairly compared and for whom we would all be somehow rejected.
It would take twenty years of hard work for her to break a stereotype we laid on her. It would take Emmy Award nominations, a stint on Broadway, appearances in countless movies and television shows before we would let Farrah be who she actually was: a working actress with ability, talent and beauty.
She was a modern working woman who tried to juggle career, marriage, lovers and family. She made mistakes. She made great progress. She made some bad choices and some good choices. She worked out. She tried to stay afloat in a world that was getting increasingly tougher in which to swim. But she managed somehow.
Over the years we all grew up. Twenties melted to thirties and beyond. We stopped feeling so jealous and angry. I and my friends found out a lot about ourselves. Through these last few days hearing about Farrah Fawcett, we learned even more. Farrah wasn’t really the woman we knew we never could be.
Farrah Fawcett, in fact, actually was the women we are.
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Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
Salon.com
Comments
I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but she led a self-indulgent druggie lifestyle with O'Neal that severely impacted the future of the children in their lives. She spent a summer in a town where I lived when I was working as an entertainment writer and the picture was not pretty. She was no different than many other actors/celebrities in that regard, but her wholesome image was definitely at odds with the reality. Just take a look at her nose and ask yourself why it looked deformed in recent years, and why anyone would subject themselves to that kind of plastic surgery without a very good reason. Tatum O'Neal has her own axe to grind, but she was pretty explicit about certain elements of her childhood in her autobiography that involved Farrah and her father.
I felt very sorry for her in recent years, and I know that she died from a cruel disease that I wouldn't wish on anyone. What I will always remember her for was her hair -- she had great hair -- her smile, and how she personified the all-American girl.
I loved to hate her back then too and sure, I do think most of it was out of jealousy. However, I don't think it was about her so much as it was about the media incessantly shoving her down our throats - this was well before Entertainment Tonight, Asskiss Hollywood and the rest of the 24 hour Info-tainment news cycle.