“Biggly”

Press Meet Post-Release, Jan. 4, 2024

Gypsy-Rose Blanchard was just twenty-three years old when she was sentenced to nine years imprisonment on charges of second-degree murder. Fast-forward to Dec.  28, 2023, her anticipated release from prison had become a viral internet sensation, making waves across most social media platforms. However, ethical debates have arisen from this controversy because of the attention that Blanchard has received. 

Despite the dark past that follows Blanchard, most of society’s criticism is currently of her fans, who have been romanticizing and humorizing her trauma. Blanchard’s backstory is a complicated tale of child abuse, romance, and murder. Her future, however, appears to be a bright path fueled by the trauma that once oppressed her. This is because of the 8.4 million followers Blanchard has acquired on Instagram in the past couple of weeks. 

Consumers on social media can never make concrete claims on a

person or decide whether or not their trauma is valid. That, however, is exactly what people seem to be doing to Blanchard. Her trauma has become subject to memes, over-romanticization, questioning, and a popular topic of debate amongst other influencers. Even her husband is being picked apart by the trolls of the internet. All of this ultimately adds to her exponentially growing fame. 

This, for many people, is the problem with Gypsy-Rose Blanchard: How can she profit so much from murdering her own mother? 

The decision on whether or not to support Blanchard is a personal choice, but in the end she will continue to prosper and her story will always be talked about. Her life will never be normal, so the least she can do is profit off of it. Although I do not condone murder, it is fair and expected for Blanchard to have the freedom to tell her story. She has done so through her memoir, the multiple true-crime documentaries, a fictional thriller movie, and newly released interviews, all of which she has used to create a completely different life from the one she was set to live.

Recidivism rates in California show that statistically, over 60% of convicts post-release will commit more crimes. With that being said, the response to Blanchard’s post-release life has been a strong contrast from those statistics. She is criticized for “romanticizing murder”, but is that really such a travesty when the other option is to commit more crimes?

Gypsy-Rose Blanchard has just begun her post-prison life, and nobody knows exactly where she’ll go from here, but we can always speculate about her past and its relevance to today. There will always be success stories built from tragedy, and Blanchard is just another example of a rags to riches story. Her rags are just stained with blood, and it was Blanchard herself who said, “We do not owe anyone anything. Our family is what matters.”