Michael Rowe shared this on Facebook with the following comment: “I can’t help but wonder what it would look like if a male author who had sold 30 million copies of one book (in this case, THE THORN BIRDS, which was made into the second-highest rated miniseries of all time) was eulogized as being “plain of feature and certainly overweight,” especially in the first paragraph of his obituary. I’m still wondering, because I just can’t picture it happening. (Photo by @vanbadham, via Twitter.)”
Thanks Peter K for sharing
Because obviously her plain features and her weight were more important than her creative talent and her intelligence. /end snark font
Ugh. Just ugh.
I know! ARGH!
That whole first paragraph just leaves me wanting to smash things and rage. It rates her appearance above everything else she’s accomplished. She’s a best-selling author, and they started off with that, but went straight for the appearance angle. Never mind that, she’s a freakin’ neurophysiologist. What about discussing that in the first paragraph. *headdesk*
Reblogged this on move the dog fitness.
Reblogged this on M. Fenn and commented:
Woke up to this lovely obit this morning. What old coot (in attitude if not age) wrote this?
Dear God, it never stops, even after death .
Reblogged this on inventing real life and commented:
If this were my obituary, I would come back to beat someone.
I don’t understand how is that even relevant….
Outrageous. Whoever wrote that is surely going to regret it. One of my favourite philosophers (and I have a few) is Luce Irigaray and the obsession with the way women look always makes me think of her work. We haven’t gotten very far…..
How sad that a newspaper would print this as relevant in 2015, or how sad that it is actually relevant in 2015? Not sure which is true. Next they will tell us what she was wearing when she passed. And thanks for solving why the hashtag OzObituary (or similar) was trending the other day. Now I get it.
It’s sad, and also sadly unsurprising. We’re judged by our looks first, and our abilities second – and not just by men. I was out recently with some female work colleagues, who were criticising our new, also female, chief executive for her style of dress and her haircut. After listening to them lay into her for a while, I interrupted them to ask if they’d criticise our former chief executive in the same way. “Oh, but that’s different,” they all said. “He’s a man.”
How a woman looks does influence how she is treated in this society.