As the coverage around Turner demonstrates, all a woman has to do to be labelled a bad mother is to be pictured having a glass of wine. Everything she does is suddenly viewed through the prism of her child and scrutinized. The moment a woman is pregnant, however, her body becomes public property. They’re allowed to have an identity beyond their offspring. Again, if Jonas was out on the town nobody would be insinuating that he was a bad father. I don’t know if the Mail is aware of this, but it’s perfectly possible to have a night out while still being a good mother. They have juxtaposed these with pictures of Jonas at brunch. The Daily Mail, in true Daily Mail fashion, has had a field day with this story and published umpteen pictures of Turner out on the town having a drink. He has hardly had to give up his career because of childcare issues. He’s doubtless got an army of hired help to look after the kids and do the housework. And, let’s be honest, it’s not exactly like Jonas is making any sacrifices. Whenever a father makes sacrifices that people routinely expect from mothers then people seem to want to give him a goddamn medal. Whenever a father spends time with his own children, however, he gets lauded for “babysitting”. They’re expected to always put their kids in front of their career. Women, after all, are expected to make sacrifices for their kids. That’s it! That’s how banal this breathlessly reported situation is! If the kids had been living with Turner while Jonas was busy with work in a different country then nobody would have batted an eyelid. But do you know why that is? It’s because Turner has been filming in the UK and the two agreed that, because of Turner’s hectic work schedule, it would be best for the kids to stay in the US with Jonas. It’s true that the couple’s young children have been living with Jonas in recent months. “I think I’m supposed to gather from all the carefully placed headlines that a partier and thus a bad mom, while he is the hero dad making sacrifices,” Bassett wrote, “but no one seems to question why at 30 decided to marry a 23-year-old and thought she’d suddenly turn into a tradwife.” Jezebel’s former editor in chief Laura Bassett summed up the gist of the coverage in a viral tweet. “She likes to party, he likes to stay at home,” an anonymous source in TMZ solemnly declared. Jonas, 34, is a devoted father who has been looking after his children all by himself despite the fact that his band is on tour.

Thanks to various “anonymous sources” the narrative that has been spun in tabloids like TMZ and the Daily Mail, is this: Turner, 27, is a hedonistic party-lover and absent mother who wants to go out all the time instead of looking after her kids. What does merit attention, however, is how misogynistic much of the reporting about their split has been. To be clear: Jonas and Turner may be celebrities, but their divorce is nobody’s business.

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