From the Clueless Celebrity Chronicles we have Melissa Etheridge, a breast cancer survivor who decided it would nice to criticize Angelina Jolie for how she dealt with the discovery that she’s carrying gene sequences that greatly increase her risk of breast cancer.
Etheridge is apparently pissed off about news reports describing Jolie as “brave” for having had a double mastectomy, and has announced that Jolie actually took the most “fearful” path possible.
“My belief is that cancer comes from inside you and so much of it has to do with the environment of your body,” Etheridge told the newspaper.
"Etheridge, who was diagnosed with the same high risk BRCA gene mutation as Jolie, goes on in the interview to say that Jolie’s choice is “… way down the line on the spectrum of what you can do” and that those faced with the same set of facts should “really consider the advancements we’ve made in things like nutrition and stress levels.”
Sorry Melissa, but “nutrition” and stress relief have not been shown to counteract BRCA mutations. And maybe you should recall having told an interviewer that your experience with chemotherapy (after 2004 surgery and removal of lymph nodes) took you “far down into hell” and left you “close to death”. Maybe Jolie decided prophylactic surgery was better than reliving your experience.*
*it also sounds like Etheridge, who owes her life to evidence-based breast cancer treatment, has gone heavily over to the woo side.
I have an inlaw who’s like that. He came back from alcohol-induced liver failure through the grace of modern medicine, a localized cancerous tumor too, and now swears that doctors dispense poisons and are only motivated by money, and that pharma companies are hiding cures and only sell treatments because that makes more money.
Considering I work in medical research, his statements are deeply insulting to me, and if he wasn’t otherwise a decent human being I’d be tempted to write him off.
Yeah, well, when you’re told there’s an 80 percent chance you’re going to get cancer some fear is to be expected. That doesn’t mean what she did isn’t brave. You know what they say about bravery not being the absence of fear? Oh well. Another celebrity joins the woo brigade.
Well, the fact that she picked David Crosby as the sperm donor for her child clued me in to how unbelievably stupid she was years ago. Her shitty music didn’t help matters. I guess if I’d ever had any respect for her in the first place, this would make me lose it.
Maybe if Angelina Jolie was as much of a sex symbol as Mellisa Etheridge is, it wouldn’t have been a brave decision. It would have been a no-brainer, like having your appendix removed or something. But a major part of Jolie’s appeal is her looks.
She put her health above her vanity, which is something a lot of people wouldn’t have the guts to do.
Melissa Etheridge had a TV show that was all about the woo (I can’t remember what it was called). Her radio show hosts some of her favorite psychics/clairvoyants/bullshitters.
