Gypsy Rose Blanchard: The Incarcerated It Girl
Once again we're obsessing over a murderer, but this time, it feels justified.
Last month, in the height of pre-Christmas chaos and speckled amongst all of the usual “holiday season” content, my TikTok feed was flooded with fan edits. The fan edits weren’t my usual Succession compilations, Lady Gaga interviews or Lana Del Rey edits; they showed a demure and soft-spoken woman testifying in a courtroom, with Azealia Banks’ 212 blasting in the background.
For a fan edit, it doesn’t break away from the usual format, but the subject is where things get hairy—because the woman the comments are gushing over was, at the time, serving the last month of her 10-year sentence for the second-degree murder of her mother.
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I am well aware of who Gypsy Rose Blanchard is, I’ve covered her case on my podcast and, like millions of other people, I became semi-obsessed with her story after watching the 2017 documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest. Her story is fascinating and terrifying; for her entire childhood and teenage years Gypsy was physically, medically and psychologically abused at the hands of the one person who should have kept her safe… her mother.
Gypsy’s mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, suffered from Munchausen Biproxy disorder, a pretty rare psychological disorder marked by attention-seeking behaviour by a caregiver, through those who are in their care. Simply put, Dee Dee convinced doctors, nurses, family and possibly even herself, that Gypsy Rose was terminally ill, despite her being perfectly healthy. In turn, Gypsy was subjected to years of unneeded and invasive medical procedures.
Gypsy’s life was a continuous doctor appointment and the pair would survive off charitable donations and government handouts, given off the false premise that Gypsy was dying. Gypsy was encouraged to infantilise herself and act as if she was developmentally challenged and she was never, ever, seen without her mother.
The house of cards came crumbling down in 2012, Gypsy was biologically 21 years old, and she secretly met Nicholas Godejohn on a Christian dating site. The pair fell in love and two years later, they plotted and carried out the murder of Gypsy’s mother. They went on the run, Bonnie and Clyde style and posted some pretty wild stuff on Facebook which led to their arrest. Gypsy took a plea deal and would serve 8 years of her 10-year sentence, and was released last December.
The excitement that Gypsy’s release has caused is pretty monumental. This is not the first time that a viral murder case has witnessed an early release—the 2022 release of Adnan Syed of Serial fame comes to mind, however, the overturning of his case has turned out a little more complicated—but it is definitely the first time I have seen someone convicted of such serious crimes, be wholeheartedly accepted and embraced by both mainstream media and the internet, upon their release.
It’s far from the first time the internet has thirsted over murderers though. We are a macabre-obsessed society, whether we want to admit it or not; True Crime is the most popular podcast genre according to Pew Research with 24% of the top podcasts focusing on the genre and according to Google Trends, Ireland tied for second in the world with Australia, for searching the term ‘True Crime’. The genre’s audience is dominated by women too, with a study by the University of Illinois finding that 70% of Amazon reviews on true crime books are by women.
Now, the critique/discussion around the female obsession with True Crime is a topic for another newsletter—but the reaction to Evan Peter’s portrayal of the serial-killing cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, in Ryan Murphy’s 2022 Monster: The Jeffree Dahmer Story, was the perfect example of getting our wires crossed. There is, it seems, a very fine line between the morbid curiosity of a heinous crime and the person who can commit it, and the sexualisation of a bonafide psychopath that then ensues.
During its airtime, TikTok was flooded with fan edits showing a shirtless Evan Peters, in slo-mo playing the killer; a part that he has openly stated was psychologically challenging for him due to the revolting nature of the crimes. The romanticisation of Dahmer rightly led to a widespread critique of how we metabolise this content as viewers and how Hollywood chooses to portray them.
But it’s questionable whether things will ever change; men like Dahmer have always received floods of fanmail while incarcerated, so this goes beyond an online obsession; Charles Manson, Richard Ramirez, the Menendez Brothers and Ted Bundy all got married while behind bars—as did our It Girl, Gypsy Rose.
So what makes Gypsy Rose’s case any different? Well, it’s important to note she did not wield the knife that killed her mother despite her planning the act, nor was she charged with murder in the first degree. I think, however, it’s mostly because our perception of her is not that of a violent psychopath, rather, we see her as someone who escaped being a victim of one. Munchausen By Proxy is a rare but serious disorder and according to some studies, the mortality rates can be as high as 20%, however, it is important to note that many cases go unnoticed.
Gypsy has admitted that she regrets the murder of her mother and how she felt like her situation was going to end in her own death if it went on any longer, which is easy to understand. Dee Dee had successfully convinced the world that Gyspy Rose was dying since she was 4 years old, she was forced to use a feeding tube (through which Dee Dee would administer various unneeded medications), had her saliva glands removed and was made use a wheelchair, despite being able-bodied. It’s easy to see how Gypsy fell into fight or flight mode.
Our perception of Gypsy is not of a violent psychopath, rather, we see her as someone who escaped being a victim of one.
In our eyes, Gypsy Rose has been given a second shot at life; she is free from the figurative and literal shackles of her old life, she’s served her time and now, in TikTok’s words, is ready to serve c*nt.
It helps that Gypsy seems to know exactly how to play into her new status as the internet’s favourite outlaw; the second she got out of prison she set up an Instagram account and immediately amassed millions of followers in a matter of hours. Her first real post? A selfie captioned “First selfie of freedom!” currently has almost 6 million likes.
A recent interaction with her new husband on Instagram helped catapult her as an internet darling; trolls were saying some pretty unsavoury things about her marriage to Ryan Scott Anderson so she decided to bite back. She wrote beneath one of his posts:
“Ryan, don't listen to the haters,"I love you, and you love me. We do not owe anyone anything. Our family is who matters. If you get likes and good comments great, if you get hate then whatever because THEY DON'T MATTER. I love you“ and added "Besides they jealous because you are rocking my world every night…yeah I said it, the D is fire happy wife happy life."
This response is anything but the sterilised and media-trained response from public figures that we’re used to—which is surprising seeing as Gypsy, or so we presumed, is looking for public approval. But it seems Gypsy doesn’t care about that, despite having an e-book to sell and a newly released 5-part documentary to promote, she’d rather act like any other NPC online. She likes posting Zara OOTDs on TikTok, flexing her new wedding ring and showing off her new set of acrylic nails.
Gypsy is new to this social media thing though, and I do fear that she could feel the wrath of it sooner rather than later. It seems inevitable that every It Girl of the month has a humbling moment; whether it’s Matilda Djerf’s clothing line being blasted for copyright infringement policies or Alix Earle allegedly smooching a 17-year-old, the internet doesn't care how sweet or funny you are, they’ll take you down regardless.
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As user @setaminata outlines in her video above, “Gypsy Rose is not an influencer, she is the survivor of mental abuse”, and in a world where we are used to people commodifying their traumas and repacking their worst experiences for content, it is pretty easy to forget this.
“Gypsy Rose is not an influencer, she is the survivor of mental abuse”
@setaminata
For now, however, Gypsy Rose is enjoying her time as the people’s princess and I can’t help but route for her. It’s refreshing to see someone having a second chance at life; not just after incarceration, but after a life of torture and neglect from her own family. I just hope we can all show her the grace she deserves as she navigates her new world.