As news of Angelina Jolie’s preventative double mastectomy makes the rounds, the usual questions of “Why is this news?” and complaints of “She’s always craving the spotlight!” crop up in the comments and in social media:
The short answer is: Read %$@#ing the article!
However, as is increasingly normal, the denizens of ‘teh interwebz’ don’t have time for such taxing activities like reading or thinking. I mean, it could lead to having an informed opinion and who wants that?
On the off chance there are people who are genuinely curious what purpose is served by publicizing her medical choice but who simply do not have the time to read the entire article, here’s your answer.
“I am writing about it now because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience. Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people’s hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness. But today it is possible to find out through a blood test whether you are highly susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer, and then take action.”
So, there you go. She’s in a position of celebrity and, after coming to a medical decision for her own reasons, she’s decided to make it part of the public conversation for the above expressed reasons. If you’re still wondering why this is news, then that’s your own choice and your own perception that, somehow, the resulting headlines prevent people from finding the news they do want to read. Feel free to shake your fist at this false either/or situation. No one’s stopping you (but we are thinking how silly you look doing it).
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NB: The above rant (in which I shake my fist at people shaking their fists) is just part of my ongoing crusade to remind people that they have almost the entire breadth of human knowledge at their fingertips and still manage to ask stupid questions (yes, there are stupid questions despite what your plastic trophy culture tells you) or come to banal conclusions because they’re just too frickin’ brain-lazy to use the aforementioned instant access to all the answers. In short: If you’re on the internet, start using it for more than just Googling naked pictures of your favourite celebs or watching funny cat videos. They built this gorram shiny thing hoping it would make us smarter and yet, somehow, we’ve decided to do the opposite.
*shakes fist one more time*
