primetime - Jezebel

posts about #primetime more →
Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
Katherine Jackson Says Marriage To Joe Jackson Is Going Strong
Comprehensive Sex Ed Versus Abstinence-Only Programs: A Comparison
Would You Tell Someone If Her Drink Had Been Drugged?

Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.

Dsmvwl Admin Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×

fluxus flucker
09/02/09

In reply to Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
Passive Aggressive Abusive Man Child who was married to A Verbally Abusive Type A Woman who had the "criminal" gall to be a working mom (even if said work was in the form of book tours and exploiting her children in a reality show along with said man-child). UGh!

The poor kids.

And who the hell wants to party with this guy?
He's a washed-up, whining, stupidly dressed, fame-whoring, 30yr old*, irresponsible father of 8: what a catch!

*30 is not bad thing. Hell, I'm 30. But, guess what? I've got most of my shit together and I'm a responsible, sensible parent.
Reply

Maritsa promoted this comment Edited by fluxus flucker at 09/02/09 2:31 PM fluxus flucker was starred fluxus flucker was unstarred

rednrowdy
09/02/09

In reply to Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
both of them are immature. mature adults wouldn't do to themselves and their children what both of them are doing right now, big fancy house and college educations or not. stop the show and just do 'follow up' tv specials, continue to write books, and stop the madness.
Reply

rednrowdy was starred rednrowdy was unstarred

morninggloria
09/02/09

In reply to Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
With the hiring of the sexy 23 year old bartending babysitter and series of highly publicized douche frolics with young women who probably would have made excellent additions to the cast of Girls Gone Wild: Famewhores!, he's cemented himself in my mind as the Silvio Berlusconi of octodads.
Reply

morninggloria was starred morninggloria was unstarred

wednesdayam
09/02/09

In reply to Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
I vote "manchild who resents the fact that he married someone who treated him like the semi-child he is". But yeah, they've both got their faults, and there was obviously no communication happening in that house for some time...
Reply

Maritsa promoted this comment wednesdayam was starred wednesdayam was unstarred

GeorgeFayne
09/02/09

In reply to Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
Can't we all agree? They're both giant fucking assholes.
Reply

GeorgeFayne was starred GeorgeFayne was unstarred

greengrey
09/02/09

In reply to Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
I keep wondering if he was a "petulant manchild" before she married him? Was she a "bitch" before he married her? Why do people marry people like that and then complain about them?
HINT: If someone's personality is distasteful, don't marry and have children with them.
Reply

greengrey was starred greengrey was unstarred

Lymed
09/02/09

@greengrey: When you live with somebody 24/7, then have 8 children, and then become wealthy from a reality show, a lot of your faults will become intensified. Their life has changed so much since their marriage, I'm sure it has changed them as well. And I'm sure it didn't help either of them that they could rewatch their interactions, edited to show conflict, on television.
Reply

Lymed was starred Lymed was unstarred

wednesdayam
09/02/09

@greengrey: But you can change them!! You can mold that undesirable spouse into the most perfect person ever! All you have to do it buy all those books that tell you how to do it, destroy someone you claim to love, and then build them up to serve a selfish need!

Or, y'know, get into a healthy relationship where you accept each other as you come and work on making a better life together on equal footing. But that's just so boring!
Reply

LuvEwan promoted this comment wednesdayam was starred wednesdayam was unstarred

Maritsa
09/02/09

@miomoxie: I think this is right - had they stopped at the twins, sure they'd have had their conflict given their different personality types, but I doubt they would have reached the pitch they did.
Reply

Maritsa promoted this comment Maritsa was starred Maritsa was unstarred

LuvEwan
09/02/09

In reply to Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
Jon, you have no discernible talents and no staying power. Soon, the public will have forgotten you. But your children will never forget you--or the way you've behaved.
Reply

LuvEwan was starred LuvEwan was unstarred

Gumbina80
09/02/09

In reply to Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
"I thought stay-at-home parenting would be fun, like riding tractors and reading car magazines. But it wasn't. I had to do stupid, boring things like pay attention to stuff and make sure the children don't stick their fingers in electrical sockets. It was totally lame. And nobody bought me lobster or steak. Jon out."
Reply

Hooplehead promoted this comment Gumbina80 was starred Gumbina80 was unstarred

emfish55
09/02/09

In reply to Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
I was stunned when my mom recently weighed in on this shit show and all she could say is how abusive Kate was toward Jon. I get that when one person is complaining and blaming constantly and the other person is sitting there silently, it's easy to think the louder person is the one causing the problems. But it's clear that Jon's passivity (read: laziness) was at least half the story. And from experience, I can say that the more passive-aggressive, silent, and nonresponsive a partner is, the more you find yourself doing things you have no desire to do, like nagging, because you're exhausted and need help and you know (1) your partner will never do anything without being asked, goaded, and cajoled, and (2) you are just too tired to care whether you look like the nagging wife/girlfriend - you need him to contribute.

But no, wives who nag their husbands are abusive harpies. Apparently it doesn't matter if the nagging is at least partially the result of the man who entered the situation but now acts as though it happened to him and he's just an innocent victim. Shut up, Jon (oh no, am I abusing you by telling you the truth?). The only innocent victims here are your kids. Whom you chose to have. And for whom you take virtually no responsibility.
Reply

Spaceman Bill Leah promoted this comment emfish55 was starred emfish55 was unstarred

Anne Boleyn
09/02/09

In reply to Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
I'll say...abused husband *because* he was a petulant manchild. And Kate is equally at fault in that relationship - she was bitchy and took charge when she probably should have been sitting down with Jon and talking through their issues or going through major marriage counseling. Instead it wound up so that they are resentful of one another because Jon coped by shirking his responsibilities and Kate coped by piling more on him to make him realize that he needed to get his shit together. Neither were fair to one another. Vicious cycle, that is.

It takes two to tango, and I'm tired of them blaming each other for all of their problems (but to be fair, I think Kate is being much more reasonable in the aftermath than Jon is!)
Reply

Flackette Goes Retro promoted this comment Anne Boleyn was starred Anne Boleyn was unstarred

Flackette Goes Retro
09/02/09

@saya: I'm going to say that these are two people who probably never should have gotten together, much less brought 8 kids into the middle of their issues.
Reply

colormeroutine
09/02/09

In reply to Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
Can't he be both? Why does being either of those things invalidate the other? why does one of them have to be the bad one? Or I should ask, why does one of them get to be the good one?
She was verbally abusive towards him and extremely patronizing. He would be an immature ass either way. They are two less than awesome people who were completely wrong for each other and intensified all of each other's worst qualities. I refuse to pick a side because I would not want to be in a room for 20 minutes with either one of them
Reply

Edited by colormeroutine at 09/02/09 1:59 PM colormeroutine was starred colormeroutine was unstarred

bluebears
09/02/09

@colormeroutine: seconded.
Reply

bluebears was starred bluebears was unstarred

BabyJane
09/02/09

In reply to Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
Lame fish, doesn't really work for me. How about:
Tired trout?
Sleazy salmon?
Lazy lobster?
Self-centered snail?
Media whore shrimp?
Reply

BabyJane was starred BabyJane was unstarred

Bgirl_Hamster
09/02/09

@BabyJane: Grumpy guppy.
Reply

Bgirl_Hamster was starred Bgirl_Hamster was unstarred

Flackette Goes Retro
09/02/09

@BabyJane: Creepy crawfish?
Reply

labeled
09/02/09

@BabyJane: Media whore shrimp sounds really good. Like there'd be cream and champagne involved.
Reply

labeled was starred labeled was unstarred

TheExperience
09/02/09

@BabyJane: Don't forget crabby crustacean and wholly-immature whale!
Reply

BabyJane promoted this comment TheExperience was starred TheExperience was unstarred

Santos L Halper
09/02/09

@BabyJane: Groveling geoduck.
Or, my personal favorite: Sea creature who became a parent of too many children too young and is now swimming in a media circus, donning Ed Hardy and pining for a lost young adulthood, all at the expense of 10 children's well-being.
Reply

Edited by Santos L Halper at 09/02/09 2:04 PM Santos L Halper was starred Santos L Halper was unstarred

Bgirl_Hamster
09/02/09

@BabyJane: It could be worse. Lobsters eat their babies. Thus, Jon Gosslin is a better parent than a lobster. Congratulations, Sir.
Reply

Bgirl_Hamster was starred Bgirl_Hamster was unstarred

Lymed
09/02/09

@BabyJane: Loser Loch Ness?
Reply

Edited by Lymed at 09/02/09 2:14 PM Lymed was starred Lymed was unstarred

LaComtesse
09/02/09

@BabyJane: Nasty Nessie. Unscrupulous Scrod.
Reply

LaComtesse was starred LaComtesse was unstarred

Artemis47
09/02/09

@BabyJane: Sad-sack seahorse. (Maybe he'll figure out how to raise his kids in a pouch next!)
Reply

BabyJane promoted this comment Artemis47 was starred Artemis47 was unstarred

kookla
09/02/09

@BabyJane: Slothy Mollusk. Just look at him.
Reply

kookla was starred kookla was unstarred

amsci
09/02/09

@Santos L Halper: I second geoduck, because both look like enormous dicks.
Reply

BabyJane promoted this comment amsci was starred amsci was unstarred

Eriu
09/02/09

In reply to Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
He seems bitter about the fact that he had to stay at home with the children while Kate traveled on book tours...

Interesting, because in the first few seasons she seemed bitter about having to stay at home with the children every day while he worked full-time and then complained about having to do anything for the children when he got home. Funny how that works.
Reply

Maritsa promoted this comment Eriu was starred Eriu was unstarred

Yahtzii
09/02/09

In reply to Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
Christ, do these people even have a show anymore? For every hour on TLC, we have about 87 hours of obsessive media coverage about what they're doing and not doing. At this point a "reality" show seems a bit redundant, right? The emperor has no clothes!
Reply

Yahtzii was starred Yahtzii was unstarred

bluebears
09/02/09

In reply to Jon Gosselin: Abused Husband Or Petulant Manchild?
eh. I'm torn. I don't like him and he's clearly a fame-whore (as is Kate) but I don't think its crazy-talk to assert that a spouse who continually put you down was emotionally abusive.
Reply

bluebears was starred bluebears was unstarred

pssshwhatever
09/02/09

@bluebears: Before their breakup and any of that became public, it used to seem to me like Jon was the victim of at least some mild to moderate emotional abuse. I felt like if we had seen a husband act towards a wife like Kate acted toward Jon on tv, it would have been yanked from the schedule and there would have been a scandal. I don't know if I feel the same way anymore, since we've gotten a more honest look at the way Jon actually chooses to act when left to his own devices. Kate obviously doesn't handle conflict well, but her behavior seems more reasonable in light of his, I think.

So, in a nutshell, I kind of agree and I'm kind of torn.
Reply

bluebears promoted this comment pssshwhatever was starred pssshwhatever was unstarred

bluebears
09/02/09

@pssshwhatever: yeah, I mean maybe Jon was passive aggressive or emotionally abusive in his own right in more subtle ways. I just feel like, if you think the partner you have is lazy and good for nothing, actually do something constructive about it rather than just constantly insulting the person. Which accomplishes exactly nothing.
Reply

bluebears was starred bluebears was unstarred

Earlier discussions Other discussions Show all discussions Show featured discussions only Start a new discussion