Jezebel: family matters

Oprah: Entire Ohio Family Addicted To Heroin

Tracie — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:00:00 EDT

Today on Oprah, Lisa Ling presented an investigative report on Richland County, Ohio, which is experiencing a heroin addiction epidemic and currently has no rehabs or methadone programs. One family she focused on — two parents, two teenage boys, and one 13-month-old boy — are all addicted to heroin. In the past four years, since the family began shooting up, they have lost their house, their cars, and their jobs. They now live in a homeless shelter and drive two hours every day to pick up their fix. They needed to be interviewed via satellite because they couldn't be away from their drug source long enough to go to Chicago to tape the show. When Oprah asked the family how they make their money to afford all this, they shifted in their chairs. They would only admit to "hustling" and the occasional shoplifting. Tonight, the investigation of the rest of the town goes deeper on Nightline. Clip above.

Is There Something Extra-Special -- And Extra-Stressful -- Between Sisters?

Dodai — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Much has been made about Margaret "Peggy" Seltzer, the writer whose gang violence memoir, Love and Consequences, turned out to be a fabrication. But, the New York Times asks today, what of Cyndi Hoffman, Peggy's older sister? Hoffman is the one who turned "tattletale" and blew the whistle on Peggy. Her own sister. "We have powerful expectations of loyalty from a sister," Marcia Millman, sociology professor and author of The Perfect Sister: What Draws Us Together, What Drives Us Apart tells the Times. "But along with the idealized image of sisters, that they are always close, there is a stereotype that sisters are very competitive. It's the two extremes." They say blood is thicker than water, but is the truth thicker than blood?

We've discussed sisterhood before; but mostly childhood hijinks and run-of-the-mill adolescent torture. Cyndi Hoffman is 47 years old; Peggy is 33. Are they proof that you're never too old for sibling conflict? What made Cyndi turn in her flesh and blood? Is it because, as author Vikki Stark (My Sister, My Self) said on the Today show this morning (see above clip), older sisters are the "caretakers"? Was Cyndi envious of Peggy? (It was a glowing profile in the Times that prompted Cyndi to phone Peggy's publisher and call bullshit on Peggy's claim that she was a half-white, half-Native American girl who grew up in South-Central Los Angeles as a foster child among gang-bangers and ran drugs for the Bloods.)

Times columnist Tara Parker-Pope points out: "While we choose our friends and rely on our parents, siblings remain in our lives by neither choice nor necessity." As both Parker-Pope and Stark say: The relationship between sisters can powerfully influence the outcome of the womens' lives as adults. If your sister was on her way to becoming a best-selling author in a career built on a lie, would you turn her in? Or is it important to be loyal to your family, no matter what? What do you do when being a good person means being a bad sister?

In Sisters, Love and an Urge to Wring Her Neck, Siblings Behaving Badly, Sibling Battles [New York Times]
In Sisters, Love And An Urge To Wring Her Neck [NBC News]

Earlier: Are First-Borns More Successful Than Younger Siblings?
Older Sisters Are All A Bunch Of Hilarious Sadists
An Open Apology To Our Younger Sisters
Did Faux Memoirist Peggy Seltzer Reveal A Culture Of Narcissism Or Racism?
Female Gang-Banging Memoirist Is More Fiction Than Fact

Will the shameless promotion of Jessica Seinfeld ...

Jennifer — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 09:45:00 EST

Will the shameless promotion of Jessica Seinfeld by her husband ever cease? In addition to insisting on his wife's utter genius as a chef and author Jerry Seinfeld has now taken to proclaiming the little missus worthy of a sitcom. Says Seinfeld, "I guess if I did another sitcom it would be about marriage. I'd just call it Mrs Seinfeld." [News.com.au]

Amy Winehouse's In-Laws Are As Douchey As Her Husband

Tracie — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:00:00 EDT

The fight between the Winehouses and the Fielder-Civils is beginning to get nastier than that bloody row between their kids Amy and Blake last week. Blake's parents—Giles and Georgette Fielder-Civil—were interviewed on the BBC's Radio Five Live about the drug problems of the singer and her husband. Giles said:

We would urge Amy's fans to send a message to Amy that her addiction and her behavior is not acceptable. Perhaps its time to stop buying records. I believe the record company have a responsibility. They can either cease the contract and say: 'Until you sort yourself out we're not doing any more work together,' or take responsibility and make the pair enter a proper rehabilitation unit where they can't leave until they're sorted out.

Mitch Winehouse, Amy's dad, shot back at his in-laws comments later in the day:

The facts are that the day after [Amy and Blake] came out of the facility they were at, we had a meeting with the directors of the facility and the two GPs who were looking after them. Unfortunately Giles and Georgette were due to [attend]. But instead of coming to that meeting to sit with the doctors and with me and representatives of the record company, they chose to go out for a drink to a pub with Amy and Blake.

Oh snap! We're on team Winehouse with this one. Who the fuck do the Fielder-Civils think they are? And why are they trying to bring up Amy's career as a bargaining chip? Shouldn't they be concerned about the fact that their own son has no career at all? Also, we happen to personally know that their boy [link NSFW] Blake has been a druggie for quite some time. Interesting that his folks only seem to care now!

Amy's dad also said:

This is the problem we find ourselves up against. We have two families pulling in different directions.

In her interview, Blake's mom Georgette said:

I think they both need to get medical help before one of them, if not both of them, eventually will die.

With Giles adding:

We are concerned that if one of them dies, the other will die. They're a very close couple, and if one dies through substance abuse, the other may commit suicide.

Radio host Victoria Derbyshire called the Fielder-Civils on their own poor decisions regarding Blake and Amy:

I think you did leave your young teenage sons [aged 13 and 14] in Blake and Amy's care didn't you, because you wanted them to experience responsibility?

Georgette answered:

Yes, I did. It will never happen again... I'm afraid they abused our trust. Tragically they both took drugs.

God, it's like are they smoking crack, too? Who would leave their young children in the care of two known drug addicts?

Transcript: Winehouse's parents-in-law [BBC News via The Insider]
Transcript: Amy Winehouse's father [BBC News]