mysogany killed Amy Winehouse?

[festi]

why did such a lovely and beautifully talented woman demise to the needs of such a horribley untallented man.

I feel sad that Amy and many young woman feel the need to be so powerless to such men and the need to be loved and be in love.

I understand drugs and alcohol pays some price but she could and should have had all the power.

Her partner/husband helped her get addicted as far as I understand. Drugs and alcohol can be a way of controlling someone.

Given that male pop stars kill themselves with drugs and alcohol once in a while, I really don't see how it's a feminist issue if a woman does the same. You might even say it's equal opportunity (gruesome thought). Yes, maybe the music industry takes some blame, but then again, adults are responsible for their own actions, and getting hooked on chemicals is something everyone should know is a mistake. You'd think that fame and heaps of money would be enough for people, but evidently sometimes it's not.

I was under the impression she used before meeting Blake, but may be wrong. The media hardly helped her addiction though. :(

Thought it was the mahoosive amount of class A narcotics and alchopops she indulged in that finished her off myself?

Women chained themselves to railings so we could get all deep and meaningful about Amy WInehouse????????

Some people with talent and imagination do seem to have a higher than average liability to become interested in alcohol and drugs.

I think if you put that together with lots of money, it becomes easy, and let's be honest, it's fun (never done drugs really myself, I don't count a couple of spliffs at Uni 20 years ago).

No disrespect to Amy Winehouse but she was not a conventional beauty, so the industry she was in would have added pressure to her. Then she fell in love with someone who was a disaster for her. Then you are in a spiral.

My friend keeps playing her album, I just want to cry when I hear how much she loves what I think of as a scumbag, but I only have the press reports to go on, Kurt Cobain, Sid Vicious, Janis Joplin, Michael Jackson, loads of others, were they scumbags or individuals with problems?

Every woman is worth fighting for, Madame Castafoire.

I may be wrong, but I think I read somewhere that the rate of mental health issues in creative industries is higher than average, and certain conditions leave the sufferers with a greater likelihood to become addicted to something.

I don't think we can label someone a "scumbag" for becoming an addict. People don't just become addicts. It's often the result of underlying issues, and those issues need addressing. Who knows what issues we're dismissing by being so quick to dismiss those with addictions.

I don't think her death was particularly shrouded in misogyny. Bajillions of male rock stars have died from drugs/alcohol and no-one says "it's cos he was vulnerable after his relationship with person x".

Oh apart from Kurt Cobain, who was obviously killed by Courtney Love

I don't think there is any way of knowing whether her celebrity and / or men in her life were responsible for or even contributed to her addictions.

MadameCastiofire she died in the end of a massive overdose of alcohol (vodka IIRC) so I'm not sure where your rather sneering misinformation about alcopops and drugs has come from. I also don't understand what is wrong with talking about the death at a very young age of an extremely talented young woman, who was terribly famous, and for some of us a local person.

I suppose some people will always think of people with addictions as being "scum" and sneer at them and look down on them, however talented they are. Unfortunately being very creative often seems to come hand in hand with the kind of psychology that can end up in dependency, and of course having piles of money and an irregular working pattern when you are very young probably doesn't help either.

It does seem that a lot of very creative people tend to be unstable and vulnerable and more likely to mess themselves up with drugs. I think there probably was an extent to which generalised misogyny added to Amy Winehouse's problems: she got quite a kicking in the press for being a drunk, drug-using woman whereas male stars-and-addicts still tend to get seen as heroic rebels.

Yes
And the fixation with her appearance
Oh look she's drunk and a wreck
Oh look she looks sober now, she's still got funny hair though
Look at her tattoos
She too thin
She's put on weight
She's pregnant
She's on drugs
She's off drugs
She's with him
She's dumped him

Much worse than for equivalent male slebs.

It would have been terribly hard for anyone. I like to think she didn't give a fuck but she must've really. Being an addict and having your worst excesses all over the front pages the morning after must have been hellish.

SGB, that's very true indeed. The likes of Cobain, Hendrix, etc are still idolised for their lives which weren't so different from Winehouse's. Somehow, Doherty has escaped this idolisation, but I can't help but wonder if that's because he's still alive, perhaps? But even then, his criticism came for his antics. Winehouse was criticised for every angle of her life going. :(

Um, possibly because Doherty's band are crap and always were (well apart from I Get Along which I expect the Kens in the band wrote anyway). CObain and Hendrix had a few good tunes.

We'll have to see what her image is in 20 years or so. I'd say that Janis Joplin has a pretty equivalent image to Jimi Hendrix at this point.

As for the fixation on the details of women's lives, it's a bizarre thing that the media and the public conspire in. Just what is the significance of Pippa Middleton, anyway? I hope she hasn't got an addictive personality.

I like The Libertines and Babyshambles. Not sure why poor old Pete gets suck a kicking.

Can't decide if this is best wind-up, or stoopidest OP in a long while...

Why are some posters attacking the OP because of a perceived lack of education/erudition?
Regardless of opinion as to the 'worth' of the subject of a thread, making snide comments about the way somebody (another woman) writes is pretty low.

Sisters under the skin, y'all? I rather think not.

Well said, nursenic.

Nursenic, not sure why you are assuming that we are all "sisters". That is suggesting that we all think and act in the same way. A whole range of people post on here from those who hate feminists, to those exploring feminism and those who are radical feminists. I'd rather you didn't lump us all together.

Although I have to agree, I do wonder why those posters bothered to come on this thread, just to be rude.

I know, naive of me to have hopes of a forum for objective debate from posters regardless of their opinion. By 'Sisters' I refer to my hope that women will one day resist bitchy, spiteful comments towards each other. That's all.

Although we are all built pretty much the same under the skin.

Stewiegriffinsmom

I agree. It's a shame that on this board, of all the boards,women still carry on being catty towards each other.

Yes it is.

I always gathered from the song 'you know that I'm no good' that she had very severe self-esteem issues, in light of the way the media deals with women as a whole, being a specific target for a misogynistic industry was hardly going to help, was it?
IMO it is very relevant.