Scan barcode
A review by supplantedbearer
The Last Days of August by Jon Ronson
2.0
Ronson teases a lot with this podcast, and most episodes end with an interviewee saying something tantalising about how they're going to "reveal everything" or words to that effect. The truth ends up being pretty banal and not worth all the theatricality: August was a troubled young woman with serious trauma in her past, who was in a less-than-perfect relationship, had had a very bad day where it felt like all of twitter was ganging up on her, and had taken some substances which could have impaired her from thinking completely rationally. She was in a dark moment, and she made the choice to kill herself, a choice which can't be undone later when things don't seem so dark. The "never-before-told" aspect of the story seems to be that August had recently done a scene she didn't enjoy which amounted to a form of sexual assault, and during which the male members of the crew had failed her, compounding the failures of other men in her life, like her husband and her father. The link between this specific incident and her suicide seems somewhat tenuous, and isn't much more explanatory than the already-public narrative. It thus seems pretty unsavoury for Ronson to go rifling around in her widower's history, no matter how unsympathetic a character he can come across as and how problematic their relationship was. Ronson seems to realise this, and brings up how bad he feels about pursuing the story more than once, but of course that doesn't stop him from airing the dirty laundry all the same.
I recall briefly following the story of August's social media shaming and her subsequent suicide when it was happening; I can't recall if I first encountered the story before or after she committed suicide, but I can recall not thinking there were many admirable figures to be found in the saga. August's tweet was homophobic, and it was frustrating to me that Ronson didn't address this at all in the podcast. That probably stems from his history of writing about victims of social media pile-ons; his interest is obviously in the experiences of those victims, not in being judgemental concerning the reasons for their shaming. But I think there should be room for us to say both that (1) yes, women and sex workers have the right to control their bodies, and if August didn't want to do a scene with a particular man, then she shouldn't have to, but (2) August's stated reason for not wanting to do the scene was discriminatory and ignorant, and she chose to air that discrimination in public, adding to the stigma of a marginalised group. Those, like her husband, who defended her by citing women's right to control their bodies were obfuscating from the legitimate accusation of homophobia. It would be right to expect substantial backlash to what she said, and the fact that she subsequently killed herself shouldn't make the criticism any less correct. This is not to excuse the more toxic responses she received, like the "cyanide pill" tweet from Jaxton Wheeler, whom I actually think Ronson doesn't cast enough judgement on (I think Wheeler also experienced his own pile-on after August's suicide, so Ronson again probably wasn't interested in targeting him). Even though Wheeler's tweet was sent after August's death, and thus couldn't have motivated her, it was still grossly intemperate and deserving of the strongest condemnation. As I said, not many people came out of the story looking good.
Ronson's previous series on the pornography industry, The Butterfly Effect, I thought was quite good, so this is a somewhat disappointing follow-up. To salaciously suggest that there was something more to a woman's suicide, thus dishonestly insinuating foul play on the part of her husband, is more of an exploitative move than I would expect from Jon Ronson, no matter the caveats and hand-wringing he includes in the body of the series. Those reservations expressed, however, he does still have a very even-handed and sober view of the industry which comes across in this series. He's neither a prudish moral crusader, nor someone who dismisses the serious abuses endemic in the industry. It may just be that this story, which must have seemed so sensational at the outset, turned out to not be all that fruitful after all the digging had been done, and Ronson had to make the most of the work he and his producer had sunk into it, the result being a series heavy on teasing followed by distancing from what that teasing suggested.
I recall briefly following the story of August's social media shaming and her subsequent suicide when it was happening; I can't recall if I first encountered the story before or after she committed suicide, but I can recall not thinking there were many admirable figures to be found in the saga. August's tweet was homophobic, and it was frustrating to me that Ronson didn't address this at all in the podcast. That probably stems from his history of writing about victims of social media pile-ons; his interest is obviously in the experiences of those victims, not in being judgemental concerning the reasons for their shaming. But I think there should be room for us to say both that (1) yes, women and sex workers have the right to control their bodies, and if August didn't want to do a scene with a particular man, then she shouldn't have to, but (2) August's stated reason for not wanting to do the scene was discriminatory and ignorant, and she chose to air that discrimination in public, adding to the stigma of a marginalised group. Those, like her husband, who defended her by citing women's right to control their bodies were obfuscating from the legitimate accusation of homophobia. It would be right to expect substantial backlash to what she said, and the fact that she subsequently killed herself shouldn't make the criticism any less correct. This is not to excuse the more toxic responses she received, like the "cyanide pill" tweet from Jaxton Wheeler, whom I actually think Ronson doesn't cast enough judgement on (I think Wheeler also experienced his own pile-on after August's suicide, so Ronson again probably wasn't interested in targeting him). Even though Wheeler's tweet was sent after August's death, and thus couldn't have motivated her, it was still grossly intemperate and deserving of the strongest condemnation. As I said, not many people came out of the story looking good.
Ronson's previous series on the pornography industry, The Butterfly Effect, I thought was quite good, so this is a somewhat disappointing follow-up. To salaciously suggest that there was something more to a woman's suicide, thus dishonestly insinuating foul play on the part of her husband, is more of an exploitative move than I would expect from Jon Ronson, no matter the caveats and hand-wringing he includes in the body of the series. Those reservations expressed, however, he does still have a very even-handed and sober view of the industry which comes across in this series. He's neither a prudish moral crusader, nor someone who dismisses the serious abuses endemic in the industry. It may just be that this story, which must have seemed so sensational at the outset, turned out to not be all that fruitful after all the digging had been done, and Ronson had to make the most of the work he and his producer had sunk into it, the result being a series heavy on teasing followed by distancing from what that teasing suggested.