VivirLatino

I admit, I have occasionally watched Jon and Kate plus 8. The show is not that engrossing–your basic family of 10 experiencing the day. But it’s something safe to watch with the kids, and somewhat interesting just to see “how the hell does one stay organized with 10 people in the family?”

But now, the kids are back at school, and I’m too tired to trudge through depressing stories of parents fainting over Obamadoctrination and poor people saying they don’t want free health care. Because then…we’d all be pinkos. Or something.

So, instead, I am turning to the gossip columns. And boy, was I rewarded. Turns out Jon and Kate are not the organized put together couple we all thought they were.

Accusations of abuse don’t surprise me here. Rumors of Kate’s aggression have run rampant for a while (including accusations of child abuse). I have to wonder though, at how much of the reaction to Jon’s statements is colored in the fact that he is a man.

Everybody knows that Kate has acted questionably. And yet, when Jon *says* he was abused, suddenly everybody is all concerned about how the kids are going to react to this news–and *cautioning* Jon about “tit for tat” antics. He doesn’t want to make the kids hate him, right?

But..what happens if the kids are getting the sharp end of Kate’s “tat,” too? And what happens if in 20 years, one of them tries to say, “yes, my mother hurt me,” and *can’t* because everybody believes the t.v. illusion?

Why do we believe that Jon is being bullied by his wife…until he calls it abuse? And then we think it’s just “messy” divorce?

Is it because we think that being “pussy whipped” is funny? Because we think that Jon has the male god given right not *not* be abused if he really wanted it? So he must secretly like it?

And what does any of this reaction have to do with the fact that he is Asian and Kate is white? (And before any men’s rights folks come here moaning about how unfair life is, let me just point to how Kate has been treated in all of this. And how it’s mighty easy to get caught hitting your kids when you are the primary caregiver.)

Ai, maybe ‘escaping’ in celebrity gossip isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be?