Nothing has changed for women since John Lennon and Yoko Ono 50 years ago
The wives and girlfriends of pop stars are still getting the sharp end of the stick.
John Lennon left The Beatles in 1974 and 51 years later, the girlfriends of musicians are still taking the wrap for their partners.
A new film titled One to One: John and Yoko has been released this weekend and focuses on the couple’s controversial relationship in a brief moment in the 1970s.
The film addresses how Yoko Ono, 92, was considered a ‘b***h’ who broke up the band and was hated by the same group that revered Lennon.
Although the documentary film focuses on a time and attitude from decades ago, this attitude towards Ono has not changed.
Her name is to this day used as a punchline to describe when a band fights over a woman, or when a relationship is the cause of a band breakdown.
Additionally, the villianisation of women because of the actions of a man is still rife.
Yoko Ono met John Lennon in 1966, and two years later, Lennon confirmed his divorce from his first wife, Cynthia Lennon.
He later insisted the marriage was over before his relationship with Ono in an open letter, per Billboard.
‘As you and I well know, our marriage was over long before the advent of L.S.D. or Yoko Ono … and that’s reality!’ he wrote in a note dated Nov. 15, 1976.
In 1969, three years after meeting Ono, the couple married, and later in that year, Lennon told The Beatles that he was leaving the band.
Immediately, there was hatred targeted at Ono, who was blamed for Lennon leaving the band and was subjected to extreme hatred from the media and public.
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Lennon appeared on The Dick Cavett Show in 1971 and revealed the real reason the band split, dismissing accusations leveled at Ono for the breakup.
‘She didn’t split The Beatles because how could one woman split The Beatles? The Beatles were drifting apart on their own.’
Lennon then joked: ‘If she took them apart, then can we please give her all the credit for all the nice music that George made and Ringo made and Paul made and I’ve made since they broke up.’
Ono added that Lennon had outgrown the band and complimented the other members for their immense talent.
‘I think it’s very difficult for four artists who are so brilliant and talented to be together and do everything together. It’s just impossible. Whatever they were doing, it was almost miraculous that they were together,’ she said in the interview.
Even if Ono had been fundamental to Lennon leaving the band, she did not deserve the sexist and racist hatred that was aimed at her.
The villainisation Ono has faced all of her life is misogynistic and ridiculous, and more than five decades later, the wives and girlfriends of pop stars and rock stars are still getting the sharp end of the stick.
Lennon died in 1980 when he was assassinated (Picture: Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images)In 2015, Zayn Malik left One Direction, and hatred immediately turned to his fiancée at the time, Perrie Edwards, who was blamed for Malik’s departure.
Fans compared her to Yoko Ono and said that Malik’s comments about wanting to lead a normal life were egged on by his fiancée.
The former Little Mix singer was forced to deny that she was the reason behind his departure.
‘Zayn is his own person and makes his own decisions. Whatever he wanted to do during that time, I was going to support him 100 per cent.
‘Whatever people think, whether they know the truth or don’t, it’s his decision. He’s made it, the boys have supported him, I’ve supported him, and his fans have been incredible.
‘It’s just the way it is, I’m happy if he’s happy,’ she told OK! Magazine.
The singer later confirmed that he left the band at a time when contracts were renewed, and he was struggling with fame and friendships in the band when he left.
‘I completely selfishly wanted to be the first person to go and make my own record,’ he said in 2023 to Alex Cooper on her podcast Call Her Daddy.
He added: ‘There were obviously underlying issues within our friendships, too.
‘We’d got sick of each other if I’m being completely honest.’
Although they both made it clear that their relationship didn’t cause Malik to leave the band, the couple should not have been forced to explain this.
A grown man is capable of making an unpopular major life decision about his career all on his own – without a woman being blamed for coercing him.
Perrie Edwards was blamed when Zayn Malik left One Direction (Picture: Instagram)When Mac Miller died aged 26 of an apparent overdose in 2018, many devoted fans took aim at his ex-girlfriend Ariana Grande. So much so that #ArianakilledMacMiller has become a trending hashtag on Twitter.
The hatred aimed at her was so extensive that the star was forced to disable her Instagram comments during a time that she was mourning a man she loved.
Fans insisted that she was to blame for his addiction issues, despite the fact that she and Miller had remained on good terms in the two years since their breakup.
The comments were horrific and placed Grande in the role of his babysitter and keeper, who shouldn’t have been able to move on with his own life and should feel guilty about his death.
It’s obvious that Grande shouldn’t have been blamed, and while she has been able to move on from this horrifying time, it’s devastating that placing blame on her for an ex-partner’s death is a part of her history.
Mac Miller and Ariana Grande dated for two years after being friends for several years (Picture: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)More recently, Hailey Bieber’s treatment is another troubling example of the girlfriends of famous stars being blamed for their partner’s decisions.
Concern for Justin Bieber has been increasing in the past few months with his social media posts and his public appearances.
The star has been snapped shouting at paparazzi, sharing bizarre videos on social media and admitting on social media that he sometimes hates himself.
Among the concerns, many are convinced that he is having problems in his relationship with his wife, and Hailey has caused his erratic behaviour and appearances.
The star has been open about his mental health struggles and his addictions to drugs and alcohol, and for years, his wife has been by his side.
Despite supporting Bieber, the Rhode beauty creator has been pulled apart by fans who claim she is trying to control him, trapping him into a marriage, and is to blame for much of his erratic behaviour.
The treatment of Hailey highlights a tradition of misogyny within fanbases and how women who love these celebrities face an uphill battle to not be seen as a villain and the person who ruined their partner in the eyes of their fans.
Hailey has been villainised in recent months (Picture: Justin Bieber/ Instagram)It is evident that the women who love famous musicians are still treated as the scapegoats.
The treatment of these women reeks of sexism and even decades on from Yoko being blamed for Lennon leaving The Beatles – it’s still happening.
The parasocial relationship that exists between stars and their supporters shouldn’t give fans the right to critique their relationships, but for the last half a century, it has.
The patriarchal society we live in dictates that women are to blame when their partner’s decisions – we can only hope that this isn’t still the case in another 50 years.
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