I never imagined that I would agree with the mistress and baby mama of ex-senator John Edwards; however, I have been proven wrong. Apparently, Rielle Hunter and I both think that her photographs, which are printed in GQ along with a recent interview, are repulsive. However, my repulsion is for reasons which differ from the cause of Hunter’s repulsion. According to Barbara Walters, Hunter “cried for two hours” when she first saw the pictures. While the few pictures I saw did not make me shed any tears, they did make me sick to my stomach and sad for the daughter Hunter shares with Edwards.
Again according to Walters, Hunter “trusted Mark Seliger,” who was the celebrity photographer responsible for the photo shoot. (Side note: Why is Barbara Walters defending this woman? Then again, it really doesn’t come as a surprise, does it?) I’m curious what Hunter based her trust of Seliger on. Has she never seen any of his pictures? Just with a quick visit to his website, any person who thinks rationally can see that a vast majority of his pictures are immodest and some are near-pornographic. On top of that, she is scantily clad in, what appears to be, nothing more than a man’s shirt and a pearl necklace. With this in mind, what did Hunter really expect? Maybe she trusted him to photoshop the pictures and make her look less repulsive.
Another reason for my repulsion is that fact that she poses provocatively with children’s toys in, what seems to be, a child’s bed. The picture is simply disturbing and depraved. Imagine the thoughts that will go through the minds of pedophiles when they see the picture. When did the use of children’s toys as props for pictures with overtly sexual tones become acceptable? As if this picture wasn’t enough, Hunter even poses with her toddler in another photograph with sexual overtones. If a mother who isn’t a celebrity mistress posed in such a picture with her child, almost certainly, child welfare would be on her doorstep soon after. I’d be willing to bet money that Hunter won’t get any such visit, which is a shame.
Judging from her statements and actions, Hunter doesn’t value personal responsibility. If she did, she wouldn’t have called Walters crying. Hunter would have sucked-it-up and simply released a statement of regret for posing like she did or she wouldn’t have posed in the first place. Also, if she valued individual responsibility, Hunter wouldn’t attempt to blame the photographer by saying that she “trusted” him. Mark Seliger was there to make money, not to discern right from wrong for her. Additionally, she wouldn’t have made the statement in her interview which basically says, that because her parents were adulterers, she is naturally involved in infidelity. Ironically, she says, in the interview, “But it's also sad to me, [Elizabeth’s] unwillingness to take responsibility for her part in the marriage. And her unwillingness to face the truth. We're all slaves to our unconscious, but she really believes that it's everyone else's fault. And that's heart-wrenching to me, too.” If Hunter’s statement is true, she and Elizabeth Edwards have more in common than anyone realizes.
The quote from Hunter I used, the full interview, and the pictures can be found at:
The Walters quotes can be found at:
It's an epidemic! Nobody wants to take responsibility for their own decisions anymore. Or they don't know how. Our culture pats everyone on the back and tells them that it isn't really their fault. To put the blame elsewhere. Aack!
ReplyDelete