Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear . . . And Why (28 page)

In 2008, 45 percent of all female murder victims were killed by a partner
:
Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
www.cnn.com/2013/12/06/us/domestic-intimate-partner-violence-fast-facts/
.

“I Slept With a Crazy Woman”
:
“Rebound: I Slept With a Crazy Woman,”
xoJane
, April 17, 2012.

“Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life”
:
“Charlotte Brontë and Robert Southey: A Correspondence,” Rich Byrne.

“He is professor of rhetoric”
:
Selected Letters
, Charlotte Brontë, ed. Margaret Smith.

“intellectual superiority, an imperious temper”
:
The Secret of Charlotte Brontë
, Fredericka McDonald.

“My youth is leaving me”
:
The Life of Charlotte Brontë
, Elizabeth Gaskell.

Some people even believe she may have spoken to him about her earlier attempts
:
The Brontë Myth
, Lucasta Miller.

“Je me vengerai”
:
“ ‘I Pine Away’ … Charlotte Bronte’s Romantic Obsession,”
Guardian
, October 24, 2015.

“truly offensive and sensual spirit”
:
“Mr. Bell’s New Novel,”
The Rambler: A Catholic Journal and Review of Home and Foreign Literature

Obviously, this is Thackeray
:
Thackeray’s daughter brought it up in her memoirs, specifically in her description of meeting Charlotte: “This then is the authoress, the unknown power whose books have set all London talking, reading, speculating; some people even say our father wrote the books—the wonderful books,” Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie,
Chapters from Some Memoirs
.

“dating police”
:
“Julian Assange Captured by World’s Dating Police,”
Huffington Post
, December 7, 2010.

“Are you a scorned woman?”
:
“Anita Hill: ‘We can evolve.’ But the same questions are being asked,”
Washington Post
, April 3, 2014.

Meanwhile, lawyer John Doggett testified that Hill was delusional
:
“The Thomas Nomination: Excerpts from Affidavit About Hill,”
New York Times
, October 12, 1991.

When questioned, she covered for him
:
“Bloodied and
bruised Amy Winehouse stands by husband who ‘saved her life,’ ”
Daily Mail
, August 24, 2007.

“you’d be dead because you weren’t together”
:
“Up All Night with Amy Winehouse,”
Rolling Stone
, August 10, 2008.

A “Rihanna Deserved It” T-shirt was sold on CafePress
:
“T-Shits,”
Jezebel
, February 12, 2009.

And in one survey of two hundred teenagers, 46 percent blamed Rihanna
:
“Teenage Girls Stand by Their Man,”
New York Times
, March 18, 2009.

“Im a women myself and I never want to get beat by a man”
:
“Don’t you think Rihanna probably deserved it?…”
Yahoo: Answers
.

“I decided it was more important for me to be happy”
:
“Rihanna Says She Is Back with Chris Brown,”
New York Times
, January 20, 2013.

“Gone [are] the days”
:
“Rihanna—a Bad Role Model?”
Tell Tales
, March 12, 2012.

“telling young people everywhere that domestic abuse is healthy”
:
“Rihanna Shouldn’t Take Chris Brown Back—He’s a Violent Felon,”
Hollywood Life
, August 20, 2012.

“By every vessel he wrote”
:
Villette
, Charlotte Brontë.

CHAPTER 3: MADNESS

“When Kurt died, I just fell into this endless spiral”
:
“Inside the Mind of Courtney Love,”
The Fix
, February 1, 2012.

“there were people outside her house every day”
:
“Courtney Love Comes Out of Hiding,” Dana Kennedy,
Entertainment Weekly
, August 12, 1994.

“the city of incurable women”
:
Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of La Salpêtrière
, Georges-Didi Huberman, p. 13.

“the camera likes her”
:
“The Girls of Salpêtrière,” Oliver Walusinski, MD, www.baillement.com/lettres/Girls_Salpêtrière.pdf.

“She closes her eyes, her physiognomy denoting possession”
:
Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of Salpêtrière
, Didi Huberman-Georges, p. 144.

“tried to persuade me I was in love with my brother-in-law”
:
“Freud, Charcot and Hysteria: Lost in the Labyrinth,” Richard Webster,
www.richardwebster.net/freudandcharcot.html
.

“those females least embedded in the male ‘Culture’ ”
:
SCUM Manifesto
, Valerie Solanas.

it was Girodias who told the world that SCUM was an acronym
:
The
Manifesto
has never been printed without reference to Warhol; a mention of the shooting in the author bio or preface, a quote from Solanas about why she wasn’t sorry on the back, or (in the e-book version I own) an actual photo of Warhol’s scars on the cover.

As art critic Catherine Lord points out
:
“Wonder Waif Meets Super Neuter,” Catherine Lord,
www.ubuweb.com/historical/solanas/lord_on_solanas.pdf
.

In one study, recovering alcoholics with greater tendencies toward shame
:
“Being Ashamed of Drinking Causes Relapse, Not Recovery,” Maia Salavitz,
Time
, February 7, 2013.

CHAPTER 4: DEATH

“No, no, no. I would never”
:
“Primetime: Special Edition,” November 2002,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmofKdmQSeo
.

“This interview … [from] when Whitney was still all drugged up”
:
“The 10 Best Moments from Whitney Houston’s Infamous Diane Sawyer Interview,” Matt Stopera,
BuzzFeed
, September 10, 2009.

“The Most Disturbing Moment”
:
“The Most Disturbing Moment from Whitney Houston’s 2002 Diane Sawyer Interview,” James Crugnale,
Mediaite
, February 13, 2012.

NME Magazine
, which had nominated her
:
“Amy Winehouse Up for Villain of the Year,”
Now Magazine
, January 29, 2008.

“little scabs that raid her face”
:
“Up All Night with Amy Winehouse,” Claire Hoffman,
Rolling Stone
, July 10, 2008.

“remarkable musical achievements were often overshadowed”
:
“Amy Winehouse’s Death: A Troubled Star Gone Too Soon,” Jenny Eliscu,
Rolling Stone
, July 24, 2011.

the Elton John rewrite of “Candle in the Wind”
:
Which, of course, had been about Marilyn Monroe’s death in the
first place; the celebrity death script was so well worked-out, by that point, that you only needed to make a few lyrical adjustments.

which became the best-selling single of all time
:
“Elton John: Biography,”
Rolling Stone
.

In 1999,
The New York Times
endorsed author Sally Bedel Smith’s posthumous diagnosis
:
“Shrinking the Princess,” Frank Kermode,
New York Times
, August 22, 1999.

“kissing Hitler”
:
Billy Wilder in Hollywood
, Maurice Zolotow, p. 263.

“I’m the only director who ever made two pictures with Monroe”
:
Ibid., p. 264.

“I have been besieged by newspapermen”
:
Ibid., pp. 265–66.

A
Ladies’ Home Journal
profile of her was killed for being too sympathetic
:
“The Woman Who Will Not Die,” Gloria Steinem, PBS, 1986.

“An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument”
:
“Last Talk with a Lonely Girl,” Richard Meryman,
Time
, August 17, 1962 (republished in the
Guardian
).

“including the half-drunk bottle of champagne she used to wash the pills down”
:
“The Things She Left Behind,” Sam Kashner,
Vanity Fair
, September 30, 2008.

“the ‘Cadillac of caskets’ ”
:
“Death of Marilyn Monroe,” Wikipedia.

“I’m a sucker for blondes and she is the ultimate blonde”
:
“Hugh Hefner Talks About His Memories of Marilyn Monroe,”
CBS Los Angeles
, August 3, 2012.

“If I croak, if you don’t put me upside down over Marilyn”
:
“For Sale: Eternity with Marilyn Monroe,” Jeff Gottlieb,
Los Angeles Times
, August 14, 2009.

Bidding started at $500,000
:
It’s tempting to judge Elsie for this—the eBay auction is a particularly tacky touch—but you really shouldn’t. Given the nature of his last requests, Poncher is lucky his wife didn’t sell his skeleton to the nearest haunted house.

“I wish I was dead already”
:
“Lana Del Rey: ‘I Wish I Was Dead Already,’ ” Tim Jonze,
Guardian
, June 12, 2014.

“I’m a big jazz aficionado”
:
“Love, Death and Jazz: Seven Outtakes from Our Lana Del Rey Interview,”
Fader
, June 20, 2014.

“I was playing a gig in New Jersey, walking across the yard”
:
Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon
, Donald Clarke, chapter 18.

“And I said to myself, new angle, new angle, new angle”
:
Ibid.

“I could play in theaters and sing to an audience of kids”
:
Lady Sings the Blues
, Billie Holiday and William Dufty, chapter 19.

Articles “by” Billie Holiday, on the topic of her addiction
:
Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth
, John Szwed, chapter 2.

“I’ll never forget that night”
:
Holiday and Dufty, chapter 1.

“[Instead] of treating me and Mom like somebody who went to the cops for help”
:
Ibid.

“beat the shit out of her so she sings good”
:
Clarke, chapter 14.

“Everybody was happy about the crowds”
:
Holiday and Dufty, chapter 20.

“When I sing, it affects me so much I get sick”
:
Holiday and Dufty, chapter 9.

“There is so much of human suffering, sensitivity and music in her voice”
:
Szwed, chapter 1.

“This reviewer is no squeamish prude”
:
Ibid.

“My book is just a bitch”
:
Ibid.

“I’m not supposed to get a toothache”
:
Holiday and Dufty, chapter 23.

“We’re all doomed, baby”
:
Szwed, chapter 1.

In the four weeks directly after her death
:
“Effect of the Death of Diana, Princess of Wales, on suicide and deliberate self-harm,”
bjp.rcpsych.org/content/bjprcpsych/177/5/463.full.pdf
.

The overall U.S. suicide rate rose by 12 percent
:
“The Science Behind Suicide Contagion,” Margot Sanger-Katz,
New York Times
, August 13, 2014.

CHAPTER 5: SHUT UP

“probably the stupidest thing I ever did”
:
“Tara Reid Opens Up About Plastic Surgery,” Amy Bonawitz,
CBS News
, October 13, 2006.

“I was smiling like a fool and people were snapping away”
:
Ibid.

“ ‘moving on’ from the botched breast augmentation”
:
“Tara Reid: The Truth About My Body,” Amy Eliza Keith,
People
, November 10, 2008.

“It wasn’t really the pictures that hurt me”
:
Ibid.

“I figured, I’m in Hollywood”
:
“Tara Reid Gets ‘Ugliest’ Breast Surgery Repaired,”
ABC News
,
abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2573773&page=1
.

“I couldn’t wear a bikini”
:
“Tara Reid Opens Up About Plastic Surgery,”
CBS News
.

“the first American singer-songwriter”
:
“Lost Women Found,” Robert Forster,
The Weekly
, June 2009.

“you are bringing up the greatest critic we heard of in America”
:
“Vanishing Act,” Paul Collins,
Lapham’s Quarterly
.