Farewell Farrah

RantWoman knows that the King of Pop just expired. The whole internet / Twitterverse hiccuped rather severely when his passing was announced; this hiccup caused RantWoman an immediate spasm of desire to say as little as possible of anything that would get her own offerings snagged in further hiccups as topical additions to the internet get indexed. RantWoman sends deep condolences to all of MJ's loved ones and fans. RantWoman really does not relate to music videos or The Gloved One's musical ouevre. RantWoman is also glad MJ seems to have close personal friends who enjoyed and appreciated him, especially since RantWoman found herself reading too high a percentage of media references that caused her to go "Ewwwww." RantWoman generally has a reflex not to believe every lurid news bit that crosses her path; in this case though RantWoman is just glad she is not close enough to the gloved one to have to help digest every horrid sensational item that oozes out of the global media.

With all the above out of the way, RantWoman now proposes to leave the poetic memorials and playlists and public adulation to fans who truly appreciated The King of Pop and to get about memorializing Farrah Fawcett, the figure more solidly on RantWoman's mind.

It's not even that relating to Farrah is a slam dunk for RantWoman. Well, RantWoman is horrified to look at some of her high school classmates graduation pictures and to see Farrah's hairdo repeated over and over. RantWoman on the other hand is a brunette. RantWoman is much more Kate Jackson than Farrah Fawcett, that is if RantWoman's female detective idol Nancy Drew, the old Nancy Drew with the boyfriend named Ned and the roadster fits anywhere in the Charlie's Angels pantheon in the first place.

RantWoman has read acres of feminist objection to the 70's sexism of Charlie's Angels, Fawcett's best-known role. RantWoman herself has watched many an episode where RantWoman found herself yelling pointlessly at the screen not to do x or y because of course it will lead to difficulty. Nevertheless, RantWoman secretly enjoyed images of women who knew how to take command of the situation, who drew their guns when needed, and who thought about more than whether Tide would take out stains or what to serve with Hamburger Helper. RantWoman never related to the blond shag, but she did relate to the three women being a team. RantWoman found Charlie sort of revolting and is glad he left the on-screen heavy lifting to the women. RantWoman did not exactly find the angels adequate role models, but they did work better than, say , Barbie.

RantWoman is also glad that Farrah Fawcett got to play other more complex roles. RantWoman admits she has consumed a lot less of Fawcett's later roles and she is inclined simply to take other chroniclers' word for it as far as the quality of these roles.

What draws Farrah back into RantWoman's mind though is her struggle with cancer. RantWoman is puzzled because some media accounts mention one specific kind while Wikipedia mentions a whole bigger scarier pantheon. RantWoman feels no particular need for excessive precision: whichever it was, there are more than sufficient ways for things to be awful.

RantWoman watched RantMom struggle through round after round of treatment for two cancers. RantWoman on purpose took pictures of RantMom sans hair when RantMom was wearing both fashionable turbans and, not to understate it, disagreeable wigs just to keep her bald head warm during MT winters. RantWoman can only imagine the monstrous indignity not only of losing one's hair but of being Farrah Fawcett and losing hair during cancer treatment. RantWoman remembers kind of having to insist that RantMom let people who love her help her through some of the worst of it and RantWoman is pleased to see that Ryan O'Neal stuck by Farrah to the end.

So how to say farewell: RantMom is cancer-free; RantWoman is sorry that did not happen for Farrah Fawcett. RantWoman hopes Farrah will be well-remembered and that other fans will pry themselves away from doing the Moonwalk to give Farrah her due.