How the Media treats celebrity Adulterers Based on Their Sex
Images Courtesy: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP/Shutterstock/ Dave M. Benett/Getty Images
Another day another celebrity couple divided by infidelity. What else is new? The latest male celebrities to be criticized by the media for diverting from their marriages are Maroon Five’s Adam Levine and the Try Guys’s Ned Fulmer. These cases are as disappointing as the last ones, beautiful and successful women being cheated on by their husbands who let the rush of fame and wealth get to their heads.
Image Courtesy: Instagram
From John F. Kennedy to Tiger Woods to Tristan Thompson, it seems as though 9 times out of 10, when it comes to adultery scandals, the cheater is the guy. That’s not to say that there haven’t been notable instances of infidelity on the female's part. Most recently, Jada Pinkett Smith was under fire for admitting to an affair with singer August Alsina when on a “break” from husband Will Smith. Another famous instance involving Kristen Stewart was on the cover of every tabloid in 2012. There was major publicity following the shocking revelation that Stewart had been cheating on Pattinson with the married Director of her latest movie, Snow White and the Huntsman.
These two instances of celebrity adultery scandals in which the woman were the culprit are, however, some of the few examples that can be presented. It raises the questions of why men are so much more susceptible to cheating on their spouses, and how does the media respond differently to these cases of infidelity.
While Kristen Stewart only cheated on her boyfriend, she received much more criticism than her accomplice, Rupert Sanders, who was married with children during the affair. Seeing that the media was much more critical of the woman involved than the man in this case, it appears as though there is some sort of media bias when it comes to female versus male adultery.
Image Courtesy: FameFlynet
While the media is notorious for being significantly harder on women for reasons such as as personality and lifestyle, I found that the scrutiny that the media places on celebrity adulterers is actually not directly related to sex. As much as I would like to write an article about how female adulterers are treated noticeably worse than their male counterparts, this is simply not the case. When it comes to cheating, the key predictor of media scrutiny is fame and relevance.
Kristen Stewart received an immeasurable amount of public criticism because not only were her and Pattinson involved in a committed relationship, they were on-screen love interests in one of the most popular movie franchises at the time. The shattering of a teenage fantasy of the on-screen lovers being romantically involved in real life was the major motivating factor for the scandal’s media attention, not so much the fact that she was a woman. Rupert Sanders received significantly less criticism because he was significantly less centered in the Hollywood limelight than Stewart.
Tristan Thompson,the romantic partner of Khloe Kardashian, has had numerous cheating scandals plastered over every media tabloid because of the relevance of the Kardashians and the sheer outrageousness of the scandals. Impregnating another woman while he was planning a surrogacy with Khloe? Getting caught with one of the Kardashian’s family friends in the wake of a previous cheating scandal? The public is outraged and they love it; the newspapers keep publishing about it because they know the people just can’t help themselves, eager to hear more.
Image Courtesy: Instagram
Arguably, the media has been kinder to female cheaters than males in some instances. While Prince Charles (now King Charles III) was an object of hate for cheating on his wife Diana with Camilla Shand in the late 80s and early 90s, the scrutiny that Diana received for her own affairs was significantly less harsh. Because of Diana’s famous charm and the public's perception that their marriage was already crumbling as a result of Charles’s affairs, Diana’s public image was largely unscathed by media backlash for any extramarital affairs.
Image Courtesy: Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images
Taking us to the present day, both Adam Levine and Ned Fulmer are certainly not being spared of any media scrutiny. In fact, the public is giving each of these men a harder time than their own wives are; both women have continued to stand by their unfaithful husbands in the face of the scandals.
Though inequality among the sexes is certainly still prevalent in our society, you will not find it in the public backlash to cheating scandals. The Hollywood married life is clearly a bleak one, but the tendency of our society to disapprove of marital infidelity among the A-listers, regardless of sex, may offer a beacon of hope.
Strike Out,
Writer: Jane Miller
Editors: Katie Sharp, Natalie Daskal
