The debt all women owe to Jade and Wendy Barbara Ellen
The Observer, Sunday October 12 2008
It seems that I, along with all the females in the country, should be thanking Jade Goody. But first maybe the British public should ask themselves - how real is our interest in her plight? Or is this just more 'grief porn' for the masses?
Not so long ago, Goody was the ultimate Celebrity Untouchable, only useful to be occasionally ridiculed in photo spreads about bad shoes or sweat patches, or apologise yet again for bullying Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty in the Big Brother house. A year or so on, Goody was still all but excommunicated from the world of celebrity; the standard reaction to her name would be a mewl of disgust.
Odd then, even rather distasteful, that since the announcement of her aggressive cervical cancer, we suddenly can't get enough of her. Even odder, perhaps, that some appear to be blaming Goody for this.
What does it say about British society that we have such a powerful mawkish streak? Nor does it take the death of an uber-icon such as Princess Diana to inspire it. Never mind the Queen of Hearts - this runs all the way through the celebrity alphabet from A list through to Z. Moreover, say what you like about the 'over-sentimental' Americans, but even they are more temperate in such matters.
When Paul Newman died, there was certainly interest and grief in the US, but there wasn't the kind of eye-dabbing, nose-blowing weepathon of the kind you'd expect over here. It has long struck me that not only are the British ambulance chasers, but that we're not averse to waiting patiently at the depot for the ambulance to leave. At the risk of being facetious, there is almost an element of: 'Ooh, someone's really poorly; let's make a day of it.'
Indeed, one wonders how former EastEnders Wendy Richards must be feeling about the media coverage of the return and spread of her cancer? Richards reacted in a no-nonsense manner by saying she was furious about its return and bringing forward her wedding to last Friday. One hopes the event was not marred by the grisly sense of media countdown that now dogs 'Battling' Wendy's every move.
It has been suggested to me that celebrities such as Goody and Richards can often seem more real than the real people around you and this goes some way to explaining the exaggerated public reaction to their health problems. However, it also shames those who criticised Goody for going too public with her plight, to the point of giving paid interviews to publications such as OK! magazine.
Are we seeing here the flipside to the British appetite for grief-porn? As in: it's all very well for the public to circle like vultures, and for the media to use it to shift product, but somehow déclassé for Goody to be proactive? Its almost as if she should eschew such tacky behaviour and instead lie in state, awaiting her fate, like some 'Bermondsey Evita', all the more worshipped because she is quiet and still. Phooey to that, Goody evidently thought, and we should be grateful she did.
The squeamish (and, yes, I do mean men) should maybe look away now for I must speak of 'down there'. Which brings me to why females should be thankful to Jade. How many of us sheepishly made a long overdue appointment for a smear test when we heard about what had happened to Goody? I did, scuttling to the GP the first chance I got. By the same token, how many people immediately stopped umming and aahing about the new cervical cancer vaccination for young girls and realised it was a great idea?
This is what Jade has achieved with her horrible health luck, 'too public stance' and supposedly tacky OK! interviews - a heightened awareness of cervical cancer that has probably been more powerful than a 100 NHS campaigns combined. Similarly, Richards has underlined the need for vigilance even after you've got the all-clear.
Indeed, if we feel the need to criticise, we should maybe take a look at that element of ourselves that likes to gawp. Not that this necessarily means we should stop. In a roundabout way, the part of us that reacts to Jade's story is probably the same part that sends money to charity appeals.
In a nutshell, there is nothing bad, and plenty good, about the ability to feel empathy for a complete stranger - so long as we're aware that what is happening isn't an old soap plotline of Wendy's or a PR stunt of Jade's. So long as, just like what's happening to them, our sympathy is real.
Observer
