{"id":2475,"date":"2022-01-08T18:38:20","date_gmt":"2022-01-08T17:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/?p=2475"},"modified":"2024-09-29T01:25:58","modified_gmt":"2024-09-29T00:25:58","slug":"bedtime-stories-rosemary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/2022\/01\/08\/bedtime-stories-rosemary\/","title":{"rendered":"Bedtime Stories: Rosemary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/age23.jpg\" alt=\"saucy not bossy\" class=\"wp-image-2496\" width=\"188\" height=\"245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/age23.jpg 750w, https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/age23-229x300.jpg 229w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 188px) 100vw, 188px\" \/><figcaption>Age 23<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>Rosemary was a pretty young lady born into a wealthy and powerful family. Her father was a tycoon and later, ambassador to Britain.  One of her brothers became a powerful senator . Another brother became the top law official.  One would even become US president.<\/p><p>Rosemary was not like the other family members. She was peaceful and friendly. They thought something was wrong with her. However, many boys liked Rosemary, and Rosemary liked boys.<\/p><p>Rosemary&#8217;s father was worried that Rosemary would one day embarrass the family. He sent her to a convent where there were no boys. But Rosemary sneaked out at night, and it was not clear that she was avoiding boys.<\/p><p>So her father paid a man to put a knife into her skull and swish her brain. Rosemary was no more trouble after that.<\/p><cite>The End<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Rosemary-noproblem.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2497\" width=\"356\" height=\"347\" srcset=\"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Rosemary-noproblem.webp 474w, https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Rosemary-noproblem-300x293.webp 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 356px) 100vw, 356px\" \/><figcaption>Rosemary stopped going out<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n<p><!-- \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>I remember this story from a college history class.  When I looked it up on <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rosemary_Kennedy\">wikipedia<\/a>, I could hardly recognize it.  It seems that Rosemary was mentally retarded and erratic.  Her father did the best he could with the best medical intervention available at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>However, the doctor who performed the lobotomy diagnosed Rosemary with depression, not mental retardation. There is one fact that is uncontroversial: Rosemary was an under-performer in one of America's performing-est families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>If Rosemary's  lifelong retardation was regarded by her family as problematic, she was nevertheless presented to the Queen of England, and as late at 1939, two years before her lobotomy, she attended the coronation of Pope Pius XII. If her behaviour was erratic, it was at a level suitable for these events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>After her father became US ambassador to Britain, her family complained of her outbursts of anger and depression, but from a modern perspective, what young person can be indifferent to constant criticism and disappointment?  And why wouldn't she try to find comfort and support from the young men who liked  her better?  Somehow the tragedy seems manufactured, and that is how my history professor presented the case.  Wikipedia certainly lost credibility with its very many Kennedy sources for this entry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>The effects of the lobotomy were devastating.  Rosemary had to relearn to walk.  She peed on herself.  She was able to regain the ability to speak, but it was never normal thereafter. She lost the use of an arm.  The Kennedys attributed Rosemary's disappearance from public view to her reclusive nature.  She was, in fact, institutionalized, and would be for the remainder of her life. It would be twenty years before her family would admit that she was even disabled -- by mental retardation, not from their lobotomy.   After her father's death, she was allowed to visit her family occasionally.  She died in 2005 at the age of 86.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Ironically, wikipedia teaches girls the same lesson that Rosemary's life itself did: power matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n --><\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/americas\/the-exiled-kennedy-486688.html\">https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/americas\/the-exiled-kennedy-486688.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rosemary was a pretty young lady born into a wealthy and powerful family. A bed-time story for frisky girls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[93,7],"tags":[132,48,155],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2475"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3873,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475\/revisions\/3873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}