How the Media’s Treatment of Women Shaped My New Horror Novel (Exclusive)

Did you know that every young starlet in the early aughts was a crazy, disgusting, homewrecking diva? That’s how it seemed to me coming of age at the turn of the century, standing in line at the grocery store skimming magazine headlines, or at home scrolling through an infamously mean online blog that I shall not name. Being young and impressionable, I lapped up this gossip with morbid curiosity. Lindsay Lohan, Brittany Murphy, Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears — just to name a few — were all presented as cautionary tales. They taught me an important lesson; there is nothing the world celebrates more than a beautiful young woman, except for her downfall.

There’s been a recent revival of Y2K aesthetics, from butterfly clips to flip phones to, tragically, low-rise jeans. Finding clothes that you wore in high school in a vintage shop is enough to make a person really sit with their feelings and reflect on that bygone era. After reading both Simpson’s and Spears’ memoirs, I began to think more deeply about their experiences and how the media treated them back then. I recognized that the narratives created around them had not only been damaging to them, but to me, and to every single person who bore witness to the public shaming of these women and internalized that shaming as normal.

Naturally, I channeled my Millennial angst into my new haunted house horror novel, Play Nice. There was no better home for my feelings about the media’s treatment of women than a haunted one. I was so bitter over how my transition into womanhood was shaped by watching these bright young stars get gleefully ridiculed for just trying to survive. I’d been so afraid of becoming the wrong kind of woman — one who ate too much, talked too much, dressed too provocatively, acted too wild — that I made myself smaller, quieter and blander in the process. More palatable at my own expense. I figured the only way for me to exorcise my demons was to write about one.

It’s difficult to say if the tabloids of the aughts were particularly cruel and our society has since matured out of engaging in that sort of malicious public debasing, or if with the rise of social media, that cruelty has simply dispersed into the comment sections. I guarantee if you were to visit any young starlet’s Instagram right now, her comments are filled with some toe-curling vitriol. Play Nice is set in the present, and in writing it, I had to ask myself if things have really changed.

It was Free Britney until Britney was free, and when she didn’t immediately hop back on stage performing perfect “Slave 4 U” choreography looking like she did in 2001, the conversation shifted. Did we actually want her freedom or were we just nostalgic for a past version of her? Is she crazy for dancing in the kitchen with knives? I don’t think so, but I wouldn’t blame her if she was, considering everything she’s been through.

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Watching the media discourse around Spears, and around famous women in general, I’ve come to understand that it’s an unwinnable game. The public expects these women to live up to impossible standards, and the punishment for any perceived mistake is humiliation. Any attempt to explain their imperfect behaviors is dismissed as crazy, because to listen and to understand would mean confronting and deconstructing the reason why we’re all so keen not only to let the shaming happen, but to participate. 

We see it now with Duchess Meghan Markle, whose likability is a hot topic. Likability is interesting because it often seems to be determined by the media, who largely control the narrative, and because in our current culture, empathy is staked on likability. Our society has decided that only the likable are deserving of compassion.      

That’s why in Play Nice it was important for me to write a protagonist who, as an influencer, understands the need to carefully curate a public image. She presents her polished veneer as a beautiful, successful, talented young woman — while keeping her less socially acceptable qualities off the grid. She’s full of herself, selfish, promiscuous, superficial and working through profound grief and trauma. She deserves empathy. But the moment she fails to maintain her perfect public image, it’s easier to label her as crazy or unlikable than to accept the truth of her pain. Just like with Meghan. And Britney. And Amy Winehouse, rest her soul.

The truth is, we all bear some responsibility for how our society treats women. If we remember that, we can take back control of the narrative. I was heartened to see the mom-shaming of Sophie Turner immediately shut down in the wake of her divorce. Maybe there is hope for a cultural shift toward empathy for vulnerable young women just trying to figure it out. It’d serve us well to lead with compassion, because we all have our demons.

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Play Nice by Rachel Harrison hits shelves on Sept. 9 and is available now for preorder, wherever books are sold.