Assess Hollywood

In case anyone's forgotten, I hate Dr. Drew Pinsky. So it was with much ugh that I read the news HLN is giving him his own primetime show to debut this spring.

A certified physician who specializes in coping with addictions, creating healthy relationships and navigating struggles between parents and children, Pinsky will be reflecting on the news stories and newsmakers HLN covers throughout the day and providing relevant observations and perspectives.

Dr. Drew tells CNN, "I'm looking forward to becoming part of the HLN family and digging deep to bring out the stories behind the stories that people are talking about."

Yeah, great. I can't wait to see Professor Emeritus from the Dr. Bill Frist School of Diagnosing People Via the Teevee doing his version of Access Hollywood in which he not only reports on the comings and goings of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan and other "bad girls" but also helpfully adds his "insights" about their mental health and mercilessly slut-shames them with a look of faux compassion on his smug fucking face. Barf.


Gee, I hope he does interviews. It would be great to see him sit down with Mischa Barton or one of the Olson twins for a trenchant-as-hell interview where he asks penetrating questions like, "Isn't it horrible what a horrible person you are?"

One of the things I most despise about Pinsky is that he actively feeds a culture in which young women in particular are encouraged to eat each other alive with judgment and shaming. Part and parcel of that horseshit is women viewing one another as competitors and/or each other's moral police, both of which significantly undermine female solidarity, which is the most important bulwark against female exploitation and oppression.

He also actively encourages young people (young women in particular, by virtue of his involvement with the extremely popular Teen Mom franchise on MTV) to have an unhealthy deference to authority, urging young people to work on relationships with parents (and partners) that are deeply dysfunctional and frequently abusive, even when there is no evidence that the toxicity is likely to change.

Pinsky's not even uniquely bad. He's just another anti-feminist authoritarian who shouldn't be anywhere near advice-giving to young women. Or anyone else, frankly.