One Sexist Obituary of a Famous Female Author Leads to a Humorous Trending Topic on Twitter

Colleen McCullough
(credit: independent.co.uk)

Regardless of what gender we identify ourselves as, we would hope that our obituaries would steer clear from sexist remarks about our physical appearances and focus instead on our personal and professional accomplishments.

Sadly, in the case of best-selling author of 25 books—including The Thorn Birds—Colleen McCullough, in her obituary that printed  a couple of days ago, she was the victim of such sexism. In the second sentence of her obituary that appeared in the Australian Photograph, the scribe behind it described her as such: “Plain of feature, and certainly overweight, she was, nevertheless, a woman of wit and warmth.”

The internet cannot be blamed for the error because the obituary was printed in paper copies of the newspaper. For not a single person at the newspaper to even catch and express concern about the sentence seems quite ridiculous in the 21^st century.

To channel this outrage at the sexist comments made in the obituary, fellow writers took to Twitter and composed their own sexist versions of their obituaries.

Screen Shot of Obit in Paper

To channel this outrage at the sexist comments made in the obituary, fellow writers took to Twitter and composed their own sexist versions of their obituaries. The “#myozobituary” has transformed into a widely popular trending topic on Twitter. The results are hugely hilarious and ridiculous in their own right as a way to prove just how absurd the newspaper was for publishing McCullough’s obituary without omitting that offensive description. It also sends a message to society about how sexism—especially in the cases of very accomplished women—still needs to be addressed continuously in today’s society.

It also sends a message to society about how sexism—especially in the cases of very accomplished women—still needs to be addressed continuously in today’s society.

Some of my personal favorites include Jennifer Weiner’s “Thin of hair and thick of thigh. Strident. Per NYT, lacked ability to sleep way to top. Puzzlingly, also #1 NYT bestseller,” or Neil Gaiman’s “Although his beard looked like someone had glued it on & his hair would have been unconvincing as a wig, he married a rockstar.” These fake obituaries are not limited to famous writers—a wide range of Twitter users—including several of McCullough’s fans—have been composing their own versions. For some seriously chuckle-producing tweets, I recommend that you head over to Twitter’s “#myozobituary” here and enjoy some humorous fake obituaries.