Opinion Today: Pamela Anderson, unfiltered

She was the universal sex symbol. But there is more to her story, and she's finally telling it.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story January 14, 2023 "I'm probably a case study for any feminist," says Pamela Anderson.Sara Cwynar By Jessica Bennett Contributing Editor, Opinion How do you write a profile of Pamela Anderson without falling into all the tropes? And are they really tropes if the person has built a career around them? These are the questions I was asking myself as I made my way up the Trans Canada Highway a couple of months ago, en route to a tiny town in British Columbia called Ladysmith, population 9,000. This is where Anderson — one-time universal sex symbol — lives these days, and is also where she grew up, on a woodsy compound with her dogs and her parents, overlooking the Salish Sea. It was snowing when I arrived, and as I rounded the bend from Victoria, "Let's Talk About Sex," the early '90s Salt-N-Pepa song, came on the radio. Was this somehow an answer to my question? I'd been thinking about Anderson lately — you remember her, right? The star of "Baywatch"? The one in the red swimsuit? — not just because she has a memoir coming out, or because there is a Netflix documentary about her, or even because of that Hulu series last year, the one that told the story of the sex tape that upended her life. I was thinking about her because it has been 30 years since "Baywatch" made its way to every television set in the world, and it seemed Anderson was overdue for a revisit. This is what we do for women of the 1990s and 2000s, it appears. We look back on the way we treated them, we declare them wronged, and then Hollywood makes a movie about it, or a TV show, so we can all feel better about ourselves for having been part of the public consumption the first time around. It is a cycle that almost has a formula. But Anderson, as I'd learn, wants nothing to do with our high-minded efforts to redeem her. She knows she's "probably a case study for any feminist," she says — and, by the way, she considers herself one. But whether it's her or Britney Spears or Janet Jackson or Whitney Houston or Anna Nicole Smith or Marilyn Monroe or … (who will be next?), each with her own Hollywood adaptation that purports to re-examine the tragedies of her life, Anderson is simply not willing to hand over the reins to her life story that easily. Also, did I mention, her life is nothing like what you might expect? In my profile this week, Pamela Anderson explains that there is more to her story — but that this time, she's finally telling it herself. READ JESSICA'S FULL ESSAY HERE Pamela Anderson Doesn't Need Your Redemption. She's Just Fine. She was the universal sex symbol. But there is more to her story, and she's finally telling it herself. 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