Holy Hell, Tomkat is back. In case you haven't heard, Joey is preggers. I bet Dawson is soooo pissed.Anyway, I knew Scientologist had some, er, questionable ideas. So I wasn't surprised to find out that Katie will have to give birth sans pain killers. But I had no idea that scientologists are not allowed to SCREAM while giving birth.
From the New York Daily News:
Quit yellin', it's only childbirth
Katie Holmes' mission impossible will be giving birth without painkillers - or screaming.
That's because her fiancé, "Mission Impossible" star Tom Cruise, is a Scientologist.
Practitioners of Scientology are against drugs but insist on "silent birth" because they believe it's traumatic for babies to hear their mothers groan or cry.
"Maintain silence in the presence of birth to save the sanity of the mother and the child and safeguard the home to which they will go," church founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote in his best-selling "Dianetics."
That's easier to preach than practice.
Another famous Scientologist, actress Kelly Preston, told Redbook magazine in 2000 that she screamed for an epidural while giving birth at home to daughter Ella.
But her husband, actor John Travolta, who is also a Scientologist, didn't have time to drive Preston to the hospital.
"It got hard-core at the end because she was big," Preston said of her 13-hour ordeal.
Travolta later described it as a "beautiful, still experience that lovingly brings a child into the world without screaming or talking."
Of course, he didn't have the baby.
Scientologists also favor seven days of silence for newborns so their first week on Earth is trauma-free. But this has run afoul of state-mandated blood tests, which require at least a pinprick.-- Corky Siemaszko
Katie should have mated the mantis way. I know Tom would have just grown another head, but perhaps the new one would have been on straight.
*BTW, there is a Buffy episode in which Xander falls for the substitute Biology teacher. She was a mantis (and a man-eater). Yum.
image courtesy aol celebrity
4 comments:
(1) The article assumes that because Cruise is a scientologist, Katie is . .. I don't know if that is true.
(2) The article assumes that all scientologists successfully follow this silent birth practice. And of course, many religions and/or cults don't really acheive total control over their beleivers. Some people who consider themselves Catholics are divorced, get abortions, etc. People negotiate. The article actually suggests this . . .
I mean, this is gossip at its worst, drawing conclusions and making assumptions . . . there is no neccessary or inevitable corrolation between Cruise's beliefs (and that's assuming they match strict Scientologist practice) and Katie's practices. But enough about the article.
(3) Even if it were all true, this would be the tip of iceberg of Katie's participation in misogynist practices. While Dawson's Creek might be interpreted as liberating in various ways, it could as easily not be. That's its appeal, right? Katie's decisions about how she's gonna act in the delivery room will have a far narrower impact than her decisions about how she's gonna act on TV.
(4) However, I see Katie and Tom as a couple that really escapes traditional gender classifications. How is it that Tom manages to base an entire celebrity persona on being a closeted gay man? How can one man be so famously out and so famously in the closet and so famously straight at the same time? And what does young Katie's desire to enter into a romantic pairing with such a complexly gendered star say about her?
So rather than assume that these two celebrities identify with traditional gender categories and that the religion/cult they belong to reinforces them, might we not understand both religous practices and gender identities to be fluid and alway under negotiation, especially in such a wildly strange context as late capitalist US celebrity culture?
I find Katie and Tom unbearably touching, because they are so fuckin' indecipherable.
When you say that his new head will grow on "straight," does that mean his weiner will be heterosexual, too??
"So rather than assume that these two celebrities identify with traditional gender categories and that the religion/cult they belong to reinforces them, might we not understand both religous practices and gender identities to be fluid and alway under negotiation, especially in such a wildly strange context as late capitalist US celebrity culture?"
Yes!!!! Well put, zp.
Celebrity gossip of the tabloid variety is def. shaped by assumptions. The goal is not one of accuracy, but of entertainment. And entertainment of this sort translates into capital. It's ethics are dubious at best. And avid consumers of celebrity gossip seem to find pleasure in debating the accuracy of various reports -- just check out the comments box of any celebrity gossip blog.
I for one, barely believe that Katie is actually pregnant, but that is perhaps beside the point. And whether or not Katie is a scientologist, or whether or not TC will insist that she adhere to the prescriptions of its guru -- I really doubt some gossip rag journalsit is privy to that info.
But I do think it's interesting that what's been covered in the media recently and debated on these message boards relates to what male scientologists have said about practices / issues around childbirth. Tom's denoucement of Brooke Shield's use of anti-depressants was everywhere after his Today show appearance.
And that no screaming thing just really struck a chord with me. I scream my head off regularly.
And Dawson's Creek really sucked. I mean, I watched it occassionally, but I might have tuned in more often had one of the episodes been "the death of Dawson." That would have rocked.
Tom Cruise continues to freak me out. Freak. Me. Out.
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