Post Script: The Exoneration of Kate
I’m a bit late to the game — this week’s US Weekly has THE MOST BRILLIANT COVER OF ALL TIME. (Spencer Pratt’s sister claims THE HILLS MADE ME BULIMIC. Genius. If you’d like to write a post on this, please let me know, because I’d absolutely love to see it on the site.) But last week’s cover (the sixth and final in the Jon/Kate series…for now) completely switched tactics — moving from an attack on the consumption habits of Kate to a complete exoneration of her and demonization of her ne’er-do-well husband, Jon.
As I detailed in my last post on Jon and Kate Plus Eight, the tone of the discourse — especially in the gossip rags — has been to demonize the monstrous feminine that is Kate: she’s a bad mother, a horrible wife, a monstrous, irresponsible, indulgent consumer.
But this last week’s issue took an about-face: suddenly, Kate is the absolute victim, while Jon is the unforgivable philanderer. Indeed, the very title — JON CHEATED ON HER BIRTHDAY — calls for female sympathy and solidarity. Instead of detailing Kate’s various expenditures (tanning, plastic surgery) the article points to Jon’s brazen and public displays of affection with what the magazine labels his ‘mistress’ — he is a “Dad gone wild.” While Kate spent her birthday with her eight children, Jon flew to Park City, Utah, ostensibly to help disabled children to learn to ski (again, why?) while in fact ‘canoodling,’ smoking pot, getting drunk, and hanging out with his 23-year-old female friend.
Okay, fine, who knows what is actually going on — but what’s actually fascinating is this about face on the part of Us Weekly. How does it manage to completely shift its perspective on the entire situation in course of a week? Do viewers sense a disconnect — or just that it’s chosen to take the opposite side of the story?
Jon en route to….being a bastard?
While I’m certainly opposed to the covert misogyny manifested in the earlier articles, I do wonder what prompted this shift in tone — did Us realize that they could appease the other half of their readership that felt sympathy towards Kate? Or, with this new information (and exclusive paparazzi shots of Jon in Park City), did they realize that they would be forced to shift their discursive sympathy to the woman wrangling the eight kids back home? When I read this particular article, it’s incredibly persuasive — this guy is painted as a huge bastard, getting drunk with friends, dancing at a club (he is, after all, but 32) and hanging out with this recent college grad, all while his wife deals with the show and the various pressures of raising eight children. But didn’t it manipulate me just as strongly in the opposite direction but a week ago? Detailing the ways in which Kate had neglected her ‘natural’ motherly duties…with Jon the picture of fatherly perfection?
I suppose I’m curious how the majority of readers assimilate this shift in tone — do they have a pre-established opinion of the pair (and the situation) that won’t be shifted, no matter the tone of discourse? Or does a shift in tone in Us Weekly substantiate a shift in public opinion?
Again, I”m not interested in watching the show, or even in them, so much as the way that the mags have handled this particular situation. According to the TLC teasers, the couple have a HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT to make on this week’s show — which might pop them right back on the cover. We can only wait and see.
9 Responses to “Post Script: The Exoneration of Kate”
We were strolling through Logan Airport last Thursday and I saw the US Weekly with She-Pratt’s bulimia declaration on it. ‘Bitch, please’ is all I have to say about that.
Two quick thoughts on this:
1) I’ve been encountering lots of references to An American Family in my readings recently, which apparently ended up an event in 1973 which was a long-form televsion “reality” tv series which inadvertantly recorded the dissolution of a marriage - I think that we can file that under “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose”
2) Having watched a bit of last night’s episode, I was taken with its first half-hour, which was essentially a long-form commercial for John Deere tractors and this strange “Crooked House” product (very hard to explain)…what was interesting is how the kids and family were still pretty much being used as corporate shills, even at the site of their parents’ dissolving marriages.
I can’t resist - 3 quick thoughts
3) It’s bizarre how ridiculously “cool” Jon suddenly thinks he is…there were a couple of weird moments where his outfits (new bling) have changed completely and he drove his tractor around complete with designer jogging-wear, shades, bluetooth phone and blackberry. Very strange.
Also, how can they still have a show?
The show is officially ‘on hiatus’ per TLC. Hopefully that’s a precursor to an actual cancellation.
In full disclosure, I have never seen JK+8 nor have a kept up with the recent gossip fascination surrounding the couple and their show. But I wanted to toss this our there for some thought amongst anyone who is more connected, more entrenched: while I think the gender dynamics are fascinating here, what the mutually exclusive focuses on Jon and Kate might actually disavowal is an absent (indeed, is it?) anxiety over the nuclear family itself. We can critique the misogyny directed at Kate and the evil deeds done by Jon … sure, but are we really missing a more subtle anxiety about the dissolution of the heterosexual family? This might ring especially true within the ongoing national anxiety over marriage.
Apparently there’s really interesting gender ‘play’ (wrong word, but apt) going on as well — see Colin’s post and Chris’s on the first post on Jon/Kate. (Jon is given ‘masculine’ things to do like ride around on tractors and drive motorcycles; Kate does domestic things like go decorate her own birthday cake with all of her children.)
I was definitely struck by the way the about-face dealt with his infidelity — it emphasized that Jon was acting like a small child (or frat boy — getting drunk and smoking pot) while Kate was wrangling her kids all by herself at home. But this might also be figured as him ‘acting out’ in response to her supposed micro-management and control of his life….thus the long-rehearsed scenario of “man leaves wife because she forces him too.”
But you’re totally right about the anxiety over the family — Jon and Kate are simply a magnified projection of the middle-class family (see my other post on their consumption habits and class markers) — they’re both BIGGER and more visible. And when the mom becomes obsessed with appearance and furthering her ‘career’ as a reality star…and the dad wants to be a sexually robust teen again….definitely points to current rifts in heterosexual couplehood.
Yes. I suppose better way to articulate my original point is to note how the ‘gender trouble’ is completely bound up in hegemonic concepts of the nuclear family. As you say, when they transgress their given roles, everything starts to disintegrate.
and let us not forget that jon is merely 32..quite young to be the parent of 8 young children.
1) Re: the heterosexual family aspect - I totally agree that it’s significant and I think this is also what made the show appealing to its audience before it blew up in the media. I was always struck by how heteronormative/Christian this family is - or is edited and produced to appear to be. In their family, there are “boy” things and then there are “girl” things. It always felt like they put concerted effort into gender norms, which bothered me but would be appealing and feel relatable to a certain audience. (Yes, I watched this show a lot pre-scandal. The kids are cute and TLC loves marathons).
2) I think it was easy for Us to make the shift from Kate hate to Jon hate because, honestly, they’re both trainwrecks. The initial attention to this story came from reports that Jon had cheated, so it’s easy enough to go that route and get a cover out of his continued adultery. As a bonus, people probably relish the fact that Jon treats Kate poorly and ditched her on her birthday, so the story works both ways. It’s a goldmine however you look at it, unfortunately.
I don’t think anyone in New Zealand has ever heard of Jon & Kate. Send me some of those trashy mags ASAP!