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In the 90s, it was practically an urban legend.
Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lees first date was in Cancun.
The ceremony was held on the beach, where a crowd recognized the famous couple and formed around them.
Spring breakers followed them into the waves, swimming around the couple as they kissed.
As is their nature, urban myths tend to shift over time, adapting to fit new cultural mores.
The miniseries trades the bikini-contest girls for BFFs, and there is no dick tattoo.
A breathy flash of veneers.
Clinton had just been elected on the principle of Its the economy, stupid.
Anyone can get HIV.
They spent money like they hated it, the real-life carpenter Rand Gauthier toldRolling Stone.
The real Pamela Anderson was accessible, though.
She was a savvy social-media user before shequitInstagram, Facebook, and Twitter last year and is outwardlyleftist.
She is creative, sharing poems on herwebsite.
The character James and thePam & Tommywriters created without Anderson is far more simple.
Pam is the nice girl who fell for the wrong guy.
Shes the SWERF fantasy: a woman so used to pleasing men that she cant stand up for herself.
All we see are the tropes: Pams the pinup, shes the bombshell, shes the bimbo.
Taking on the damage of a repressed bisexual nation is hard work.
(Anderson survived it; Marilyn Monroe did not.)
But doing it twice in one lifetime doesnt mean youve been redeemed by anyone.
Its Pams big scene, yet it falls flat, the delivery automated.
New generations respond to Anderson because of shifted values.
Women online have come to claim the termbimbo.
And besides, what girl with a dating app on her phone hasnt at least sent nudes?
Shes actually a victim.
But its just another trope inside of which the same violence takes place.
Pam remains a threat to an economic system underpinned by the top-down promotion of family values.
She is the trespasser, an intruder.
But theres another legend wherein Pamelas character is seen as more of a warrior.
