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Influential social media personality Heather Armstrong, best known as Dooce, sadly passed away on Tuesday. Her boyfriend Pete Ashdown took to her official Instagram account to share the announcement. The popular mommy boggler was 47 years old at the time of her passing. As news of her death takes over social media platforms, her older posts which showcase her TERF beliefs have resurfaced online.
Ashdown told The Associated Press that Heather Armstrong died by suicide. This comes after she relapsed from her 18-month sobriety journey.
Heather Armstrong became a household name in the early 2000s by vulnerably sharing the realities of marriage and motherhood. Her popularity led to her making the Forbes Most Influential Women in Media list in 2009. She also appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
In light of the shocking announcement, a Twitter user mourned the loss of a familiar internet figure. However, they went on to add that they had stopped reading the Dooce blog after Armstrong’s TERF beliefs came to light.
Heather Armstrong’s TERF controversy explained
The influencer shares two children with her ex-husband Jon Armstrong, 13-year-old Marlo and 19-year-old Leta. Heather Armstrong started dating Ashdown around 2018.
According to the Gomiblog, Armstrong was initially accepting of Marlo’s revelations when it came to their gender. However, later on she took to the internet to slam liberal progressive white woman for supporting those with different gender identities. In one blog post Armstrong wrote:
“Gender dysphoria is social contagion…You have got to knock this sh*t off, kids. Because science is real. Biological gender is scientific. Biological s*x is SCIENTIFIC. And we are tossing around these pronouns like goddamn candy.”
Dooce went on to criticize body dysmorphia by saying that “it is not a diagnosis. It’s just a sad, awful state of being human.”
As she continued to put gender dysphoria on blast, she compared it to self-medicating her depression and anorexia with Adderall. In another post, she called the ADD mental health disorder a “b*lls*it diagnosis” and went on to blame the government for people having gender identity revelations.
In August 2022, Twitter user @fatemehx2 also revealed that Dooce “demeaned neurodiverse adults everywhere,” “co-opted the pain and lives of Black women” and “disappeared Black trans women entirely.”
A fellow netizen also went on to add that Dooce compared testosterone usage to “amphetamine abuse.”
Despite garnering a fair share of critics online, she continued to amass fame. Armstrong released four books including That Valedictorian of Being Dead: The True Story of Dying Ten Times to Live, It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita, Things I Learned About My Dad in Therapy and Dear Daughter: The Best of the Dear Leta Letters.
Armstrong had also partnered with numerous brands in the past including Nintendo, Clorox and Ford amongst others.
Following her passing, her friend and author Gabrielle Blair revealed that the mother of two was “trying to stay alive” and “fought for a really long time.” She went on to add that she hopes Armstrong “gets to rest now.”
