When a prisoner leaves the carceral system, questions associated to their stability and assist are paramount: Can they discover regular work? Can they safe satisfactory housing? Can they reintegrate themselves right into a optimistic social atmosphere?
How shortly and the way effectively parolees and freed inmates can reply these questions performs an enormous position in shaping their future. But only a few former prisoners have ever needed to face these challenges whereas additionally enduring the extent of public scrutiny now affixed to Gypsy-Rose Anderson, née Blanchard. (Sometimes often known as Gypsy Blanchard, she’s not too long ago legally hyphenated her surname and up to date the styling of “Gypsy-Rose.” )
The story of Blanchard-Anderson, her mom Dee Dee, and the disturbing occasions that finally culminated in Dee Dee’s homicide in 2015, has been advised and retold throughout the media panorama, most notably in a 2016 BuzzFeed article, a 2017 HBO docuseries, and a fictionalized 2019 Hulu drama, The Act. However Gypsy has acquired maybe her greatest stage ever within the wake of her December 29 launch. She has trended throughout social media, achieved high-profile interviews, and celebrated together with her now-famous jail pen pal turned husband, Ryan Anderson. She’s additionally been selling an upcoming Lifetime docuseries filmed whereas she was in jail. All through all of it, she’s been upbeat, charming, and even inspiring.
Nonetheless her current media appearances would possibly body her, we shouldn’t assume that Blanchard-Anderson will naturally step into the position of public determine.
Anderson, now 32, was 24 when she was sentenced to 10 years for her half within the brutal homicide of her mom, Dee Dee Blanchard. She finally served simply eight years. Her mild jail time was primarily as a result of an enormous mitigating issue: the lifetime of horrific, weird abuse to which Dee Dee had subjected her. From Gypsy’s childhood, Dee Dee had insisted her daughter had muscular dystrophy in addition to different debilitating illnesses that required her to consistently use a wheelchair and a feeding tube, and endure a collection of harmful, painful, and pointless surgical procedures. (Though Dee Dee Blanchard was by no means formally recognized with Münchausen syndrome by proxy, it’s broadly understood she more than likely had the dysfunction; this was the true crime case that introduced the syndrome to the general public’s consideration.)
To be able to additional the fantasy and swindle supporters and profit businesses out of funds, Dee Dee infantilized Gypsy, mendacity about her age and claiming she was developmentally disabled and had the thoughts of a small little one. Gypsy acquired solely a second-grade training and continued to carry out the position of a really younger lady effectively previous puberty. Although her mom restricted her entry to the surface world, Gypsy sought connections on-line, the place she met 23-year-old Nicholas Godejohn, who grew to become her secret boyfriend. Gypsy was then 22, however she spoke and acted like a woman in her early teenagers. Though she was legally an grownup, her mom had gained energy of lawyer over her; she managed practically each side of Gypsy’s life and infrequently allowed her to depart the home.
Compounding all of this, Gypsy has additionally alleged sexual abuse by the hands of her grandfather, who hasn’t explicitly denied it. He additionally allegedly sexually abused Dee Dee, which paints an image of the position household dysfunction and generational trauma have performed on this tragic case. It’s little surprise, then, that Gypsy regarded for a method out. For her, this meant convincing Godejohn that murdering her mom was the one method she might ever really be free. Godejohn is now serving a life sentence with out parole for his position within the crime.
In some ways, it’s a aid to look at Blanchard-Anderson as she performs this press tour: She appears to be like wholesome, and her voice, lengthy that of an eerie little one’s, extra carefully matches her actual age. She largely appears unscathed from her time in jail, and she or he actually appears to have loads of assist.
But it’s additionally laborious to know what to make of the general public frenzy and the media circus surrounding her. She’s been in contrast to the wrongfully convicted true crime celeb Amanda Knox, however Knox got here from a secure middle-class household — she was by no means attempting to flee her life. Some have in contrast her to George Santos, however not like Santos, Blanchard-Anderson’s persona was by no means hers to regulate.
Of all of the current comparisons, essentially the most apt could also be that of Britney Spears and the struggle to finish her lengthy conservatorship. Whereas Britney’s story doesn’t contain committing acts of violence, there are a hanging variety of parallels between the 2 girls’s lives. Each struggled for years to interrupt freed from controlling dad and mom and extraordinarily dysfunctional households, in addition to from a authorized (and, in Gypsy’s case, medical) system that not solely totally failed to acknowledge the hazard they have been in, however actively contributed to their victimization. Each girls discovered new followers among the many public as their plights grew to become identified, and have become causes célèbre within the highway to their final launch.
Britney was a Disney little one star; younger Gypsy carried out for her supporters, who donated to fundraisers for her pretend medical payments. Every of them was manipulated into turning into an entertainer early in life. Each have been robbed of their childhoods, left with little to no company over their very own lives and even their very own personalities. Subsequently, the place most adults can be settling into the center phases of their lives, Britney and Gypsy have needed to start with the very fundamentals of constructing their identities for themselves. And each girls will now must navigate that delicate path below the watchful eyes of hundreds of thousands.
There’s an inherent performativity as effectively to this post-prisoner life for each girls: Britney has been tasked with setting the distorted, poisonous file of her personal life straight, whereas Gypsy has been tasked with speaking her personal profitable rehabilitation. At a primary degree, it is because that’s what parolees must do, however the public’s zeal for reclaiming her — even to the purpose of forgetting there was an precise homicide concerned — takes Gypsy’s mea culpa tour to new heights. Her followers have been eagerly awaiting her launch because it was first introduced in September 2023; anticipation is excessive for no matter she does subsequent. A sure ominous glee mingles with that pleasure, a kind of salacious, prurient curiosity in watching her succeed or fail. Once more, it’s not possible to not consider Britney and the nonstop public scrutiny that adopted her at each the height of her profession and the tip of her conservatorship.
It’s troublesome to ponder Blanchard-Anderson, the budding media persona, with out remembering the traumatized lady who solely gained the general public’s consideration after resorting to an unthinkable act in response to a lifetime of unthinkable abuse. We could also be excited for Gypsy-Rose, however we shouldn’t assume we all know who she is. Like Britney, who has had her share of ups and downs since her conservatorship lastly ended, Gypsy has to completely reinvent herself. That’s a frightening prospect if she additionally has to continuously cease and provides one other interview to Folks journal.
We shouldn’t assume, both, that her story suits into acquainted tropes. As one other inadvertent true crime celeb, Vili Fualaau, not too long ago advised the Hollywood Reporter, these tales typically aren’t as black and white because the media likes to color them. Blanchard-Anderson was completely a sufferer, however arguably to some extent so was Godejohn; it’s a lot more durable to valorize the individual holding the homicide weapon than the one who urged them to make use of it, however each, ultimately, are culpable. There are elements of Blanchard-Anderson’s story that can by no means match neatly into the type of actuality TV survival narrative that the media at present appears anxious to position her inside.
It’s not clear, both, whether or not any of this publicity shall be useful to her in any respect, even when she’s besotted with fame. The reply will not be so simple as “Go away Gypsy alone,” however turning her into some type of Chicago-esque celeb murderess in all probability isn’t the way in which ahead both.
So what if we get a Gypsy-Rose season of Dancing With the Stars? She might need enjoyable — together with the viewers, positive — however would that finally assist her restoration? There’s a trepidation in watching this redemption arc up shut, particularly whenever you’re unsure you’re presupposed to be watching in any respect.
