The disappeared
So, according to Peepul Magazine, Madame Toussaud’s Wax Museum has unveiled a lovely set piece of a celebrity family: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and Shiloh Pitt-Jolie.
Awww. Ain’t that sweet.
But wait!
What’s missing?!
Where’s Maddox, adopted from Vietnam?
Where’s Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia?
What, they dropped off the face of the earth while I wasn’t celebrity watching?
Oh, my! Quick, someone point me to the news stories about their disappearance! Brad and Angelina must be devastated! Horrors! What’s happened to the chiiiiiildruuuun????
Y’know, all sarcasm and facetiousness aside, I’m normally not one to get hot under the collar about perceived “adoptionism”. A lot of things that would have the Big List in an uproar would leave me shrugging my shoulders and going, “Eh.”
I do get bothered by, say, an obituary for 80-year-old men that lists his 45-year-old son as “his adopted son, so-and-so”. But adopt-a-something-or-others, seen as a True Adoption Horror Story by some, are seen as a learning moment by me. And these days I try to grit my teeth and gracefully segue away from conversational gambits such as “Oh, you are such GOOD people to adopt one of Those Poor Girls!” or “You know they…” (whisper) “…kill little girls Over There, don’t you?!” Luckily, such topics seem to have faded away a lot recently.
But something as glaring and obvious as this, simply dropping two kids out of the picture because they’re not bio-babes, has me pretty grumpy. What kind of message does this send out to adopted kids who tour the museum? This–mom, dad, bio-babe–this is a family! But you–adopted kids–well, it’s not quite the same thing, don’t ya know?
Or maybe it’s that they’re of a different race?
I don’t know what lack of braincells prompted this adoption gaffe. I don’t really care. I just think it’s pretty horrid.
I’m indebted to Kirei Kirei on the Adoption Debate board at NOTI for this tip.
Just a quick note to folks who have dropped comments for me in the past few days–OmegaDad is out of town (again!), things are hectic at work (again!), and I’m behind on responses. I’ll be doing a roundup soon! Promise!
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