Mackenzie Phillips Has the Worst Dad Ever

He taught her to roll a joint, then shoot up, then repeatedly raped her from 17 until she was pregnant with his child. All of this was said on Oprah. What irked me was the lady O, instead of reaching for her hand or a tissue, grabs for the book, and seems to lack any empathy for Mackenzie, instead letting the "bomb drop" as she twittered previewing her huge exploitative show. Even when Mackenzie appeals to O, "You've also had experience with incest." O counters, "Well, I'll tell you what the backlash will be, 'you were old enough to know better.'" WTF O? Mabes re-read some self-help books on empathy, and victim blaming. And check the headlines, "Mackenzie has sex with dad", still blaming the victim. Not, "John Papa rapist." Coupled with the backlash against the false rape accuser at Hofstra, and just hearing about Tucker Max's existence makes this week for women the worst week ever. And they say feminism is dead.

Bring It Back!

I was surprised to read about Junkies and Prostitutes in my ten year-old journal. Granted, I grew up on the ghetto Lower East Side of the '90s, but still, seeing those words in my scratchy hand was haunting. I guess that should have prepared me for my preteen musings on Holden Caulfield, "He's angry and likes to drink a lot" and my high school stories of a girl getting raped and committing suicide on a beach in Aruba "she was never hungry, sometimes she drank sugar water, but that was all." I wondered what was wrong with me. My artist/social worker father had always encouraged my creativity and now I had pages of prose that stood witness to my weirdness. Yet, there were also notes in the sidelines that made me smile: First Kiss 12/09/98, "my sweat, my eyes, my teenage Authority." Journals housed all my forgotten phases, words waiting to awaken me.

Journals. Bring It Back?

-Royal