- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 2
- 6
-
Sparkle (4)
Many people were surprised in August when it was announced that former American Idol winner and Broadway actress Fantasia Barrino was hospitalized after a suicide attempt. What was more surprising is how quickly she returned to the spotlight. She appeared on the talk show circuit, openly discussing the recent tribulations that caused her to take a handful of aspirin so she, in her words, could "sleep forever:"
"I always covered up everything so well," Fantasia said, sipping a glass of wine at a Beverly Hills hotel after taping "Lopez Tonight" last week. "I'm always the bubbly life of the party. And for so long, I pushed and pushed and pushed. And, this day, I had no push in me."
The catalyst for her suicide attempt was a married man whom she believed was separated from his wife. But when pictures of the couple surfaced, the wife of her boyfriend filed for divorce, named Barrino in the papers, and accused her husband and Barrino of making a sex tape (you would think that in this day and age people take the camcorder out of the bedroom, but apparently not in this case). According to Barrino, the disapproval of family members, harassment by strangers and the fear that the affair might ruin her career put her over the edge.
Unlike other people -- both celebrities and "regular" folks -- Barrino seemed to bounce back quickly. She didn't spend time in a facility to bolster her mental and emotional strength, or retreat from the public eye to spend time with her nine-year-old daughter. Instead, she hit the talk show circuit and said that one of the reasons why she was so fearful of the media's spotlight was because as a darker-skinned woman, she was more criticized and had gotten fewer opportunities than lighter-skinned female musicians and actors.
Fantasia told Vibe:
"They never put me in those magazines [featuring] the red carpet. Everybody there has long hair and everybody is bright-skinned, and I was like, 'But wait a minute. They never gave me that.' That bothered me." She continued, "And then I tried hard to find people to dress me, and they still would not put me there [in those magazines].”
The comparisons Barrino used call to mind singer Alicia Keys, who recently married producer/rapper Swizz Beatz. Beatz was allegedly still married when the two started dating, and Beatz's ex-wife, Mashonda, also publicly called out the mistress of her husband. Some have questioned whether Keys, who is due to give birth later this year, had an easier time in the public eye because of her light skin. From The Root:
They painted Keys' wedding as a fairy tale, even though she allegedly did what many women other than Angelina Jolie consider to be the unthinkable: steal another woman's husband and get pregnant before the divorce is even final. Most women on the receiving end of that behavior would take the pregnancy as a great big open-handed slap to the face. Of course, we don't know if Keys "stole" Beatz from his wife -- no one knows what goes on in marriages -- but it appears that she was romantically involved with someone who was married. Beatz's wife, Mashonda, maintains that she was blindsided by the affair with Keys, who was even a guest at her baby shower.
I'm wondering why the mainstream media are so willing to let Keys off the hook for what many would call socially unacceptable behavior at best, and immoral behavior at worst, while taking Barrino to task for similar behavior.
On one hand, it is surprising: Keys is vastly more successful than Barrino, yet Barrino can outsing Keys with a sore throat. Keys' public persona is one in which she can do a duet with Bono and be invited to perform in front of President Nelson Mandela at the World Cup. She seems to easily move between having a "street" attitude (shown in her first album) and and a classy demeanor. Barrino, on the other hand, has a reality show (which I can't get in Canada) that
