Professional Widows
With the death of Coretta Scott King this morning, I've been thinking about the concept of Professional Widows. So much so, that Deskmerc and I spent a large portion of the lunch hour contemplating the concept of Professional Widows and what it takes to become one, or how one avoids becoming one.
Some of the factors involved in being a Professional Widow:
Husband has icon status
Strong partnership between husband and wife
Wife is slightly cracked to begin with
Large resources of wealth and/or power at their disposal after the husband's death
Wife continues the legacy of the dead husband, but in his shadow
Entourage is more interested in cashing in than the message, contributes to derangement of widow
I've been trying to separate out Professional Widows from Famous Widows, and here's a rough list we came up with:
Professional Widow:
Coretta Scott King
Yoko Ono
Imelda Marcos
Betty Shabazz
Non-Professional Widow:
Nancy Reagan
Jackie Kennedy
Priscilla Presley
Eleanor Roosevelt
Not sure:
Leah Rabin
Barbara Sinatra
Mary Bono
Anna Nicole Smith
Courtney Love
Suha Arafat
Who am I missing? And where do Rabin and Sinatra fall into place?
Can this concept be extended to people like CIndy Sheehan? Or Rosa Parks?