Picture Legend:
1. Jonathan Groff, Anna Torv, and Holt McCallany of “Mindhunter”
2. Andrea training in 1991
3. Andrea’s mom
4 through 47. Andrea & Lea
48. Lynda Wiesmeier
49. Memorial picture
I recently binge watched the first season of the television show “Mindhunter,” which is distributed by Netflix.
“Set in 1977 – in the early days of criminal psychology and criminal profiling at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – “Mindhunter” revolves around FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), along with psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), who interview imprisoned serial killers in order to understand how they think with the hope of applying this knowledge to solving ongoing cases.” -Adam Chitwood
The show was created by the English Australian playwright and screenwriter Joe Penhall, and produced by such Hollywood ne'er do wells as the director David Fincher (“Fight Club” “Seven” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) and actress Charlize Theron (“Monster” “Hancock” “Mad Max: Fury Road”). It is based on the book “Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit,” written by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker.
It’s pretty good show and I recommend watching it.
Not only that, while watching it I heard two, count’em two, universal truths, uttered by the psychologist character Wendy Carr, played by the lovely and talented Australian actress, Anna Torv. In two different episodes Carr said in an exchange with the characters Holden Ford and Bill Tench:
Holden Ford: “So what are you teaching?”
Wendy Carr: “Um, I'm teaching a class on the intersection of sociopathy and fame. People like, um, Andy Warhol, Jim Morrison. Their celebrity becomes the only thing they need to sustain their ego.”
Bill Tench: “Nixon was a sociopath.”
Wendy Carr: “Very similar.”
Holden Ford: “How do you get to be president of the United States if you're a sociopath?”
Wendy Carr: “The question is, how do you get to be president of the United States if you’re not?”
Indeed, who would want that job other than a sociopath?
And the second universal truth:
Wendy Carr: “In the photo, she looks like the girl next door."
Holden Ford: “You really believe that a young, pretty girl can't be manipulative?”
Wendy Carr: “Even if she was using sex to control him, and you have absolutely no evidence for this, then it would be what many women do to have an ounce of power in this world.”
“...an once of power...”
Indeed, how much and of what type of power do women really wield in this world?
Well if you don’t live in China, near the border of Tibet in the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, and are a Mosuo female, or a Minangkabau woman of West Sumatra, Indonesia, or an Akan babe of Ghana, or a Bribri lass in the Talamanca canton in the Limón province of Costa Rica, or a Garo chachka in the North-East Indian state of Meghalaya, or a Nagovisi belle in South Bougainville, an island west of New Guinea, which are all matriarchal societies, you don’t inherently wield that much power really... unless you’re rich.
In the United States men typical hold more power than their female counterparts. They get paid more for the same work, they’re usually the nominal head of their respective households, maintaining their dominance through the power of the purse.
We’ve discussed the inequality of women and men before, here, and here.
We discovered that most societies are designed to keep women powerless compared to men, in every way imaginable. What inherent power (and we’re not talking about the rate of doing work, the amount of energy transferred per unit time. Oh no! We’re talking about the ability to influence or outright control the behavior of people. The term "authority" is often used for power perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as endemic to humans as social beings. That’s the kind of power we’re talking about!) women do possess most often relates to their appearance and sexuality, and by extension (and more than likely subconsciously) their reproductive capabilities.
In this country a woman’s sexuality and physical beauty is celebrated, and often used as a standard of worth or value.
It is said that a man’s attractiveness is based on their ability to earn money, or their possession of other pragmatic social and professional qualities, and a woman’s solely on her youth (which translates into the amount of years she is able to bear children) and sexual desirability (in parts of Asia, Northern Africa and the Balkans a dowry may enter into the desirability of a prospective bride). In order to enhance one’s natural feminine features, and in doing so one’s personal feminine power, a multi-billion dollar (per annum) cosmetic, diet, and bikini (fashion) industry arose and exists.
In other countries males fear the sexual power of women and attempt to suppress it, quite often brutally.
So, what our psychologist character observed above holds true in the real world. Woman use their sexuality to gain advantage in the society they find themselves in.
Feminine sexuality and desirability is a powerful advantage in many ways (often with undesired side effects. Look at this video of an attractive brunette silently walking through the streets of Manhattan for ten hours wearing jeans and a crew neck T-shirt), but a fragile one which depends on the reaction of others to practically take effect, and one that is fleeting and doesn’t age well.
Little Andrea Absolonová was born at a very early age in what was formerly Czechoslovakia (Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved by parliament. On January 1st, 1993, it separated into two independent countries, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic).
Andrea and her sister were chosen along with 13 other girls and 15 boys out of 2000 hopefuls to participate in swimming and diving training with coach Michael Ľuptovská. At first she trained twice a week.
And she got better. At the age of 10 she won the women's championship in diving, then 4 times more. She won bronze at the European Championships and people began to consider her as a jumping prodigy, one that appeared every hundred years or so. Naturally she became a member of the Czech National Olympic Team.
And then on May 18th, 1996, in Atlanta, two months before the beginning of the summer Olympics, Andrea prepared to jump from the three-meter board. She leaned forward, swinging up, and ... something ruptured in her spine. She did not jump, she fell literally into the water. She could not get to the surface. She had to be pulled from the water before she drowned.
She required hospital rest, massage and physical therapy.
She got better. She started to run. Although very painful she pushed herself.
She took to the diving board again, making small jumps without spectators.
Naturally she and her family began having financial difficulties.
She persisted and continued training but did not qualify for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Her financial problems also persisted, so she retired from professional sports and her life took a different path.
60 miles east of Prague in the city of Pardubice, while using a public swimming pool, she met a well known advertising photographer by the name of Adolf Zika. He told her of his idea of a calender featuring, of all things, pictures of naked females, and he asked if she would consider posing for such a project.
The money he was offering was good, and she was a uniquely beautiful girl.
“She has grown up as a beautiful woman with a perfect figure,” said her former coach Ľuptovská, creepily.
Andrea agreed to the photo shoot despite the misgivings of her family. The calender was a success. She began to associate with people who used nude women to make money, attending parties and other social gatherings. She tried modeling and was successful with this as well. She began to get used to the interest and admiration that was thrown her way.
She once came to see her mother and said, "Mom, they offered me the porn movies, what do you think?”
“You can try it... maybe it's going to help you deal with yourself.”
By all accounts Andrea entered the porn business in a professional manner and worked it as a job, and important, conscientious job. She was punctual, accurate, in detail, “studied the roles.” She filmed over a hundred porn videos (including “Hot Property,” “Le Parfum du Désir,” “Broken English,” and many other fine films), performing in them under the "artistic name" of Lea De Mae.
She first showed up on American screens in a series of features for Private Studios (a Swedish production and distribution company that distributes adult entertainment via print publications, DVDs, the Internet, and mobile). She eventually returned to Europe, shooting more films but, after a brief period of time returned to the United States.
She made a lot of money and enjoyed new hobbies like parachuting and rafting. She met a guy named Martin Vesecký, and so had her first serious romance.
After an accident while skydiving (while diving in tandem they hit the plane due to wind gusts), they broke up. Martin was soon replaced by hockey player Sparty Maskarinec.
It started with headaches. Strong, long, exhausting. The pain increased, and occasional loss of balance.
Tomography told the doctors Andrea had a brain tumor... and it was growing, apparently at the rate of 1.1 millimeters per day.
On August 13th, 2004, Professor Beneš operated at the Na Bulovce hospital in Prague. The tumor was successfully removed but later analysis provided a bleak picture.
Andrea was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer (the most common length of survival following diagnosis is 12 to 15 months, with fewer than 3% to 5% of people surviving longer than five years. Without treatment survival is typically 3 months).
Her family and friends realized Andrea was going away, it was just a matter of time.
The word went out. Money was solicited internationally in the hope of finding some experimental procedure or medicine that would reverse the damage her cancer was causing. Fans from around the world and fellow workers in the sex industry supported a medical fund that had been set up for her in Prague.
Andrea suffered terribly. Her mother collapsed not being able to cope with the idea of her daughter dying, and the efforts needed to keep her alive on a daily basis. She ended up as a patient herself and was placed in a room upstairs from Andrea.
Although it was unbelievable, Andrea lived much longer than expected. The hard body of the sportsman and the hard will refused to retreat to death. She won until December 9th, 2004, 17 days shy of her 28th birthday.
Date: Nov 14, 2005
For Tom and, and everyone else about that basically hates her and every person for what she, they do for a living.
I never ever did call Andrea by Lea. Because from our conversations Lea De Mae was a mask. She considered what she did for a living an occupation. Overall she loved it. But there were times she did not like what she was doing. There were certain people she liked and did not like performing with. There were days she did not want to shoot. She had called me a few times complaining and even sounding tiresome of it. Just like a job for anyone. Yes, this was a job. For those of you that think when these performers say they want "it" all the time and really mean it. Your living in obscurity. It is their job. Usually they are under contract and much of the time that includes putting on a show behind as well as in front of the camera. It's all about selling film.
For some, it is so easy to think and call these persons sluts, whores, prostitutes, etc. when in fact it is totally diffrent. Some turn into the business because there is no other choice. Some turn because it is the best choice. Most little boys and girls would not grow up wanting to be a porn star when they grow up. For a lot of people the money is better than what they could get elsewhere. Would you not give a job a try if you think you might like it and it pays more? I bet you 95% or even higher would do it. If you like it you would stay. Hell, so would I.
Then you have the question of morality and religions. What exactly is the good of morality when you cannot have an open mind about things? And how can God forgive if you do not sin? I know for a fact that the religion thing was on Andrea's mind. She told me. She had pressures about it personally. She was upset very much at times. Does that make anything she or anyone else does right when we feel bad. Of course not. Andrea was just really starting to find herself when tragedy struck. In my opinion she had Atheistic views. But she definitely knew that there is a higher power. She at times when it came up, very reluctant to talk about it. But she was starting to change it seemed.
Yes, Lea De Mae worked in the porn industry. But Andrea Absolonova was a bright, kind, humble, person. Who loved life, and what life had to offer. I am lucky that I got to know Andrea side as well as the Lea side. I could tell them apart. Maybe that is why I felt so close. Maybe that is why she confided to me thing she might not have confide to others closer to her. I don't know. Maybe Tom and XXX, and others cannot comprehend the difference.
Tom, lets say you would be hit by a car and Andrea was one of few people there to see it. No one there to help? Or would she be one of the first to reach you if no one else were there for you? Would it then matter to you what she did for a living? I wonder, if you even care to know the true answer? I even wonder if you care to know the true person she was and not the actress? If you could blink from your TV once in a while you might be able to see some truth. Reality is out here man. Reach for it all with an open mind.
Andrea is the second lady Joyce’s Take has remembered and celebrated who succumbed to brain cancer, the other being the lovely Playboy model and actress Lynda Wiesmeier, who passed away on December 16th, 2012 in Ramona, California.
On this, what would have been Andrea’s 41st birthday, Joyce’s Take is proud and honored to present this small remembrance, memorial, and celebration of her all too brief life. It is sad that she left us, but that she was with us for a time is a treasure beyond words.
Her life and death teach us, reminds us, how precious life is. How it’s not to be taken for granted, and if it is at what cost. And that each and every day, no matter how mundane it may seem at the time, that day is unique and should be cherished as part of a well realized life.
