A Break from the Norm
I don’t know about you but I’ve been a tad disturbed of late by the coverage of Jade Goody’s final moments.
It is becoming increasingly more uncomfortable and voyeuristic, seeing this young woman fight a loosing battle against cancer. It’s as if she no longer knows how to stop being an object of the celebrity culture which created her.
A few days ago I overheard a discussion between a couple of media types. They were suggesting that the reason for keeping her in the public eye was so she could make enough money to ensure her children were provided for after her death. This also seems to be the justification her advisers are giving for parading her in front of photographers on a daily basis. But what they are actually doing is milking her for every penny they can.
After all, this isn’t the 19th century. Her children won’t be taken into the workhouse. They will be looked after by a loving family.
Eventually her children will have access to all this money and how will that feel?
Well at first it will feel great; they’ll be wealthy and happy. But then the sting in the tail. They’ll begin to see what their mother had to do for this money. It will creep in on them slowly with every penny they spend. They’ll see that she had to die in front of the nation. They will see all those people who booed her out of the Big Brother house. And finally they will think about the goggling slack jawed masses who bought papers with her picture on the front, pictures of her with and without the headscarf which kept her head warm after her treatment caused her to loose her hair.
What is unfolding on the front of tabloid newspapers is no less than a horror story. It’s time to turn the cameras away and let this woman spend her final moments in peace.
