If you think about the nineties, your mind may jump to a red swimsuit and a legendary blonde blowout. A run along the beach may seem a trivial and insignificant action, a thoughtless energy exercise. This may be the case for some, but not for Pamela Anderson.
A Look Back At The Past
The release of ‘Pamela: A Love Story’ immediately became popular on Netflix when it debuted in January 2023. Pamela Anderson recalls and reminisces about her life in and out of the public eye. Through personal journals and exclusive footage, viewers are given a narration of Pamela’s life in her own words.
Pamela opens the documentary by retrieving decades-old videotapes of herself and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. From this point onwards, she gifts the viewers a collection of candid interviews, speaking ardently of her life.
Documented Misogyny
Watching television from previous periods can be a culture shock to everyone. Still, the level of misogyny that Pamela had to persevere against is an astonishing and challenging watch. Interviews with David Letterman and Howard Stern leave a sour taste in one’s mouth as they are shameless and unapologetically intrusive with their questions.
Pamela comedically recalls how she was asked so frequently about her breasts, saying, ‘[her] boobs had a career, and [she] was just tagging along.’ Of course, the objectification of women was not a topic that seemed to dominate the media the way it has in the 2020s, but that doesn’t mean it was ever the correct way to act.
Pamela appears exhausted over the incessant and overly-personal questions, even laughing awkwardly in interviews and being outwardly uncomfortable. These interviewers pushed the first domino into a perverted obsession that led to an even darker media storm- the theft of her sex tape.
Credit: Tinseltown / Shutterstock
The First Viral Video
In 1996, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee discovered that their safe was stolen from their garage. They were later mailed their sex tape, which Pamela’s son, Brandon, dubs the ‘first viral video’.
Despite being offered five million dollars for this tape, they declined and insisted the sex tape be returned. The tape was later released.
On their first night out after the birth of Pamela’s first child, the couple was pepper sprayed by a swarm of paparazzi. During this ordeal, a paparazzi repeatedly yells at Pamela, ‘Where’s your child this morning?’ Pamela expresses the stress of the situation and explains how they attempted to fight back for the rights to their tape. Pamela was asked about her child during a night out, and Tommy was not.
A Court of Misogyny
Pamela later says, ‘the lawyers said ‘you’re in Playboy, you have no right to privacy.’ She explains how she was questioned about her sex life in the tape instead of the actual crime at hand. There was, once again, misogyny at the heart of what Pamela was being asked, just like in the interviews she had encountered previously. She explains how they put naked pictures in the courtroom and recalls asking herself, ‘Why do these grown men hate me so much?’
With the rise of the internet, sex tapes spread rapidly, much to the dismay of Pamela and Tommy. This now seems to be foreboding as to the power which the internet yields.
‘It was Different For Him’
In an interview that Pamela had with Howard Stern, he proudly admits that he had it on DVD. Watching her shift uncomfortably is heartbreaking as everyone in the studio laughs around her. They lost the rights to the sex tape in 1997 to the Independent Entertainment Group.
This was yet another instance of misogyny that Pamela faced as she details the difference in how the sex tape affected her and Tommy for years afterward:
‘It was different for me than it was for him. Tommy is a rockstar. It all adds to the image of the craziness. But I knew at that point my career was over.’
Pamela Anderson- ‘Pamela, A Love Story’
This seems to be something that is greatly overlooked. It is still celebratory today to be a man who enjoys sex and is open with this. If a woman does the same, she is not given this treatment.
A Modern Repeat
Similar to how Pamela was shamed with her Playboy career, women are still subjected to this attitude if they do the same, particularly about OnlyFans.
The rapid spread of OnlyFans as an online platform used to sell content quickly declined into a storm of angry men giving online abuse to women who utilized this platform for pornography. It is disturbing, though scarily unsurprising, to see the blatant misogyny continue. The rise of the internet has only shed light on what already existed.
The Second ‘Leak’
Close to the documentary’s end, Pamela talks about the recent Hulu show, ‘Pam and Tommy,’ a series fronted by Lily James and Sebastian Stan depicting the theft of their sex tape. It appeared that Pamela’s privacy was again subject to invasion as it was twenty years prior.
The same thing can be noted in the opposing reactions of Pamela and Tommy as it was when the sex tape was leaked initially: the effect being dependent on their gender. Pamela said the series ‘gave her nightmares’ when she heard about it. When Tommy was questioned in 2022 about the release of the Hulu series, he appeared unbothered as he smiled while saying: ‘It’s cool .. Nah, I’m stoked that’s cool.’
The Internets Misogyny
Of course, the production was highly ardent and heartfelt as the public received what is correctly titled, ‘a love story’, as Pamela highlights her journey navigating life, relationships, and fame. The love story with herself is the undeniably true sentiment of the piece.
One of the more troubling things that can be taken away from this narrative that Pamela puts forward in this documentary is that women will still suffer. The blatant misogyny is subject to more of a restrictive medium in the modern age but still seeps into social media’s stomach. It flows like a life force through the comment sections of Instagram, and it can be the heart of a TikTok. It spreads to the culture of memes and leaks into services like Twitch whenever a girl dares to enter such a predominantly male space. Misogyny exists in the veins of the internet, and it’s not difficult to see how this space has become polluted with such a narrative.
The treatment of Pamela by the media in the nineties depicts this blatantness and it becomes no shock as to how the internet has grown into this looming shadow of anonymous misogyny, where the comments you make may not be met with a consequence.
