Tuesday, April 24, 2007

One Little Pig

By now, you've probably heard about Alec Baldwin's telephone rant to his 11-year-old (or 12, as Baldwin mistakenly notes) daughter, Ireland.

What I find most disturbing about this leaked voice mail message, after his threats to "straighten [her] ass out" upon their next meeting, is his reference to Ireland as a "thoughtless little pig." True, he modifies "pig" with "little," but being labeled a pig is the last thing an adolescent girl needs to hear. Especially when your mom happens to be Kim Bassinger. . .

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've heard only very little about this, and have no idea what this girl looks like, but come on, "pig" has a lot of connotations. Greedy (and it doesn't have to be for food- could be, for example, for money or material things). Selfish. Spoiled. slovenly. overly promiscuous (whatever that means).

None of these, of course, are nice things to say to one's daughter but I don't automatically equate "pig" with "fat". I've know lots of skinny "pigs".

TrixieBelden said...

Yeah, I was aghast at that whole message, but when I saw the word "pig" I just shuddered. To have your dad speak to you in that manner and tone, no matter what you have done, AND to have it be heard by everyone you know, AND to have him call you a pig is just unthinkable. I know I immediately jumped to the conclusion of weight when I heard the word pig. We have no idea what she thought when she heard it, but it definitely wasn't a happy thought.

Carrie Arnold said...

Hmmm...I have a response for Ireland:

This litte piggy went to market.
This little piggy stayed home.
And *this* little piggy told daddy to shove it...all the way home. :)

That's telling 'em.

Salma Gundi said...

My connotation for pig is selfish and wallowing behavior, not body image or food related.

Who knows what kind of baggage his daughter will pick up from that? I feel sorry for all of them, but especially in that it is bad enough to live through something like that as a family - it is a thousand times worse to have it immortalized by the media and know that a thousand strangers will define you by being party to that comment for a very long time.

BigAssBelle said...

i don't know all of the specifics of this matter, but along with everyone else, i abhorred the message.

however, i do believe that parental alienation syndrome is a real thing and if this is occurring in the baldwin-bassinger breakup, i can understand baldwin's frustration.

along with anonymous, i don't always think of pig as being a fat thing. coupled with selfish, it has more of a connotation of . . . well, selfishness.

with the little bit i've heard about this (is this news?? really??), it keeps me mindful that there are two sides to every story and that everyone has a right to privacy. bassinger did apparently violate a court order ~ typical of parental alienation syndrome ~ in making the message available.