Jezebel 
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New York, 7:44 PM
Mon Nov 9
52 posts in the last 24 hours
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07/06/09
In my opinion, the issue isn't with women being confessional. It's with the 4th estate breaking down the 4th wall. Columns are generally a place for reporters and editors to exercise some more literary writing, to reflect on some personal experience...but when does it become "I'm a name you know, so let me tell you more about myself, and let this inform you every time you see my byline"?
As a journalist, I'd have a problem with trying to maintain an appropriate professional "distance" between my work and my personal self, if the personal side is so viscerally exposed in the professional realm, in the same spot. Now if one retired or quit the job, and then wrote a book, that'd be a different story.
07/06/09
07/06/09
07/06/09
Also, I think poetry and novels and memoirs are meaningfully different from the sort of thing that appears in the Daily Mail. I'm not sure it's fair to lump poetry in with confessional journalism.
07/06/09
*tap tap*
Editors' demands? Deja vu?
More female-on-female snarking, as opposed to possibly confronting what the real problem(s) might be?
And having been possibly pressured by your own editor to feed the argument, for pageviews?
Or having come up with that bright idea yourself?
*headdesk*
07/06/09
I mean, off the top of my head, I can think of a lot of "confessional" type pieces that weren't meant to be particularly incisive, or artistic, or even, I dunno, "serious." Like Moe's tampon piece.
At the same time, there's a difference between that sort of writing, and the "OMG BAW POOR ME" stuff that seems to be the filling in the shit sandwich that is the Daily Mail. All, "I USED LIP GLOSS AND IT WENT ALL WRONG! A heartbreaking expose of one woman's torment!" and "MY LACOSTE POLO LEFT ME FOR A MORE PRETENTIOUS PREPPY! A story of my sadness and VERY VERY SERIOUS NAVEL-GAZING!!!11"
07/06/09
07/06/09
I suppose that's why it doesn't bother me on jezebel (Moe's tampon piece is a great example); jezebel is "Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women." It's not the new york times. I like it this way.
07/06/09
We think of her as one of those because most of her work has been viewed by critics and readers through the lens of her biography. We can't say that that's what she intended to happen.
11/25/08
No one can be "forced" into recovery.
No one can recover without a total change in their life style, coping habits, general habits or social circle.
No one goes to treatment and "is cured" or gets better.
Sobriety and recovery are life long battles.
I think Wonderland should be ashamed of themselves. What they tout is basically like those "I lost 100 lbs and didn't exercise and I ate chocolate and pizza 3 times a day!"
If it sounds to good to be true, it is.
11/24/08
11/24/08
It's what we hear so often that it's become a joke: The first step is copping to an addiction. So if some lame rehab were willing to take any celebrity, not just Linds, and say, "Well, she's not saying she has a problem, but hey, we'll take her money anyway" then they are just as complicit in the problem.
I am not sure Lindsay ever realized and admitted there was a problem, is what I am saying. And while she may be clean now, I think it may be due more to Samantha Ronson than to Wonderfuck or whatever that place is called.
11/24/08
This guy's not doing any of us in recovery (or those who are thinking of recovery) who take it seriously any favors by publicizing/trivializing his clientele.
11/24/08
A certain amount of people are going to be recidivist, that's just the way it is. But for the folks who stay strong, and learn to deal with their addiction, the need for support is vital. And your support network shouldn't be broadcasting your troubles, especially in light of someone who may backslide.
I know if I fail and start using and drinking again, that my self-doubt and fatalistic inner voice will kick in, as they are aspects of my addiction. If my efforts and failures were splashed across the internet and tv, it would only push me further into the dissociative alienation that feeds my problem.
This guy is an opportunist. I wish Lindsay much strength and love in her recovery.
11/24/08
11/24/08
I agree with most of the posts on here that it depends on the individual to get sober.
My only exception is pple think that rehab doesn't work. I know a lot of pple (not talking about celebs here) who were forced to go to rehab and found sobriety there. And for many, it's necessary to be medically supervised while de-toxing. The REASON pple think that rehab doesn't work is because of men like this dude who don't honor anonymity, as well as artists, celebs who don't honor that. There are reasons the founders of 12 step program made it essential that recovery is private. If you go around blabbing about it, and you initially fail...that's just going to cause yet one more addict to think it's bunk.
11/25/08
11/24/08
11/24/08
I seem to remember pictures of Lindsay being taken, out in the world, while she was in rehab. That's just bullshit. Someone serious about recovery would be in a place where there were no paps, and no one knew about it.
Rehab doesn't always work. I went to rehab at 24. I got clean/sober at 34, without rehab. I knew - knew without a doubt, on the day I stopped at 34, that I was going to die if I kept going. That was enough for me to change my behavior. I hope that Lindsay will have that awakening moment, but it's going to require almost an entire life change for her.