Tuesday 24 February 2009

Jade


Is it me or does anyone else feel the same distaste for the sensationalism that has surrounded this poor woman ever since she first burst onto our screens...?

I never watched the Big Brother series in which Jade Goody first came into the public eye but I remember how the Press vilified her. As I recall they likened her facial features to those of a pig and took the mickey mercilessly. I felt extremely sorry for her.

I also did not view the Celebrity Big Brother series in which Jade Goody became embroiled in some sort of racial name-calling scandal with a Bollywood actress. If my memory serves me correctly, the Media were very disparaging and placed the blame for the incident solely at her door when the incessant coverage, on both radio and television, seemed to show that there was group culpability.

I paid no attention to her subsequent career, although I was aware of its lows and then further descent into mockery through violence and heartbreak because of the headlines for articles and pictures in various magazines at the hairdressers. I read now that, in some of those instances, she actively courted the publicity in order to capitalise on our new-found celebrity status, with a series of reality television shows and her own perfume. My impression at the time was that she had become a figure of fun to those in the Media establishment.

When I heard that she had cervical cancer, I felt as desperately sorry for her as I would for anyone in a similar situation with young children. But I couldn't quite believe the publicity this news received. Top billing on the hour every hour on the radio for someone that had been ridiculed only weeks before..

Now that this unfortunate woman is facing death, the papers and magazines are falling over themselves to help her out with positive media interest. They are paying huge sums to feature her wedding (and, no doubt, her apparently imminent funeral).

The Press are known to be fickle. The British public suffer from Tall Poppy Syndrome. But everyone feels pity for someone cut down in their prime. Especially when there is money to be made from that sentiment.

The whole thing makes me feel sick to my stomach and I only hope that Miss Goody can take some pleasure, during what must be the most hideously public death, in extracting the maximum cash sum from this vile industry to give her children as protected a future as possible, although nothing will make up for her not being in it.

My thoughts go out to her and her family. Although I can't help thinking that this makes me as hypocritical as the rest of them. After all, would I even care if she wasn't dying?

It is Fifteen Minutes of Fame gone mad.

10 comments:

Jackie Adshead said...

Yes, I agree with all you've said. Its a poignant illustration of the type of "Celebrity" that seems to be popular nowadays. Famous for the sake of just being famous, with no talent for anything else. The media just want to sell sensationalism, one minute she's the devil, the next a saint. Her celebrity life starts and ends with the media. Is it sick? Or just good telly?

h said...

You writes good. I've never even heard of her but I certainly get the drift.

Lady in red said...

hmmm like you I have never and even now I am not following the fortunes of Jade. It is with mixed feelings that I hear of the sudden awareness of cervical cancer following her plight.

It is very sad that it takes someone like Jade to accomplish what others like myself have been trying to do to achieve the same result.

But even with all this publicity there are still mothers who refuse to either have screening themselves or allow their daughters to do the same.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more. And the rumors about the ABC Bachelor series being totally faked and scripted without regard for the feelings of the pathetic souls who "compete" for a chance to find love.

Gorilla Bananas said...

I suppose you wouldn't even know she was dying unless she had become a celebrity. Her relationship with the press seems to be a consensual one unlike others.

justme said...

I agree with you too. Its desperately sad....but of course no worse for her than for all the other young women who are NOT famous for being famous, who are in this position. I suppose its good if it encourages young women to get screened.

Anonymous said...

she can stay in the house and enjoy paradise while the rest can keep up with the festivities.....

A garden tender...

nitebyrd said...

I never heard of her until recently. Were she like Paris Hilton, famous for being infamous, then I could just dismiss her. I feel for her as a mother, though. What she is doing by publicising her cancer story, wedding and I guess, death, to secure her children's future, is noble.

Roland Hulme said...

I never really gave her much attention until Celebrity Big Brother - and then I came to dislike her intensely. I don't think she was racist, but she was a typical bully, who with her little triumvate of chums acted disgustingly.

Since I've been the butt of that behaviour before, I wrote her off as worthless after that. She revealed her TRUE self on that TV show and it wasn't a very nice person at all.

I don't wish her any ill and I think it's tragic that she's dying so young and her poor kids will grow up without a mother. However, she's been lucky enough to have been thrust into the public eye and can at least give her kids some financial security thanks to her fame. Thousands of other people die in obscurity without having that chance and I bet many of them are more deserving.

I think it's an indictment of British society that somebody like her became a celebrity in the first place.

Anonymous said...

Dear Lady.....

Isobel is in church....but looking for a church to attend here in town while busy working making money.....

message to jade.....

a discipling bro....