Why does Gypsy Rose's situation feel like the Hunger Games?

While I wouldn’t say I’ve ever been a hardcore true crime media fan, I’ve seen and listened to enough of it to know some of the big names. For the most part, the genre’s “main characters” are murderers and their tragic victims. Not always, though, which is why it felt like such a weird moment when Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who is often seen as the true victim in her case, was released from prison in December of last year. Maybe she would tell her story. Maybe she would advocate for other abuse survivors.

… or maybe there’d be a Hunger Games-esque media circus around her trauma.

Before we get into that, though, you need to understand the basics of Gypsy Rose’s story. While I’m not entirely sure when her father left (or was removed) from the picture, the result was that Gypsy Rose was raised only by her mother “Dee Dee” Blanchard from a very young age. Normally, that wouldn’t seem like too much of a problem, except for one little thing : Dee Dee suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

Munchausen syndrome is a mental disorder wherein a person either pretends to be or makes themself ill to get attention, which is already a pretty bad look. Munchausen syndrome by proxy, though, is much worse, as it happens when a person pretends that another person is ill or makes them ill, again just to get attention. This is what Dee Dee did to Gypsy Rose, forcing her to use a wheelchair and feeding tube, as well as shaving her head, making her get unnecessary surgeries, and giving her medications she didn’t need… and that’s not even the half of it.

When Gypsy Rose didn’t cooperate, Dee Dee would physically and emotionally abuse her. She had no limits, even going so far as to change Gypsy Rose’s birth year in order to portray her as a teenager for longer. In Gypsy Rose’s own words in The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard,“... it was either her or me.”

Obviously, the situation was untenable. Long story short, Gypsy Rose ended up asking (encouraging?) her then-boyfriend Nick Godejohn to murder her mother for her. The plan succeeded, but both ended up in jail. Godejohn got a life sentence, while Gypsy Rose got a 10-year sentence with the possibility of parole.

It’s the kind of story that’s so fascinating you can’t help but want to learn more, so if you want all the details I’d recommend watching the documentary I mentioned above or The Act, which is a fictionalised retelling of what happened. That story’s been told a thousand times though - what’s much more interesting is how Gypsy Rose is being treated now that she’s been released from prison.

Reality-based television has always felt weirdly gross. Whether it’s competition shows exploiting contestants’ tragic backstories for views, making ordinary people seem like heroes or villains, or news stories highlighting the sordid details of crimes and tragedies, the ethics always seem a little murky. Gypsy Rose is no different. She was released just over a month ago, her first real freedom arguably ever, and immediately she’s been thrown in the spotlight. She’s been to countless TV interviews where the hosts sigh and furrow their brows in pity as she recounts her tragic story and how she’s coming to terms with it. On podcasts and social media, on the other hand, Gypsy Rose has become a kind of meme or joke, with hosts often highlighting some rather cringey comments Gypsy Rose made about her and her new husband’s sex life.

It isn’t too far outside of the norm, and yet this time it really reminds me of the Flickermans from Hunger Games. If Gypsy Rose could sing, I’m sure they’d ask her to go up on stage and sing about her trauma like Lucy Gray. If she were pregnant, that would surely be the positive spin focus rather than her husband, just like it was for Katniss. Hell, you could even argue that her PR team is really just a sponsor like Coriolanus Snow - they might have sympathy for her, but the primary goal is still personal gain. At the end of the day, all of it is about finding drama and pain and turning that into light entertainment to watch during lunch breaks - that's what trauma has become to us.

I don’t think Gypsy Rose’s situation is unique at all. I just think it’s become more obvious because of how well people (think that they) know her story and the sympathy they have for her. If we knew more about the people in reality TV shows, we’d probably start feeling uncomfortable with how they’re dehumanised and abused for entertainment as well - after all, that’s how we feel for the characters in the Hunger Games. Still, I don’t think anything will change, since the reason this kind of media is made is because it’s so popular. There's something dark in our hearts that just longs to see people suffer.

All I can really say is that I hope people exhibit a little bit more humanity and self-reflect more. While trauma-exploitation is probably never going to end, I’d at least like to see Gypsy Rose be given room to breathe rather than have the masses worship her as an infallible queen or cancel her for being problematic. It feels pretty unethical to judge her given that she didn’t choose her life, will probably never fully recover from the trauma she’s experienced, and effectively only entered the real world a month ago.

We wouldn’t cancel Katniss for volunteering to kill other children, lying about her pregnancy for sympathy, or failing to be enough of an advocate once the rebellion was over because we realise how deeply her trauma affected her - and she doesn’t even exist. So why not give a real trauma survivor like Gypsy Rose a break? After 32 years, I think she deserves it.