Sunday 22 March 2009

Jade Goody.

I just thought I'd copy and paste this blog written by my teenage daughter. It says it all about the recently grotesque media coverage of the death of Jade Goody.

While I agree that her death has raised awareness for Cervical Cancer, I can't help thinking that this is an extremely horrific situation for her children. I believe there are better ways than this to bring the issue to the public eye that would not be exploiting someone in a vulnerable position.

So - Here's Linzi's blog.

Jade Goody and why I'm pissed off.
Today at 17:13

I'm probably gonna get so much shit for writing this.

Right, I got an invite to an R.I.P Jade Goody face book group which had the message: 'PLEASE IF YOU HAVE A HEART INVITE EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO THIS GROUP. THE MORE PEOPLE THERE ARE THE MORE PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT CERVICAL CANCER.' I rejected the invite.

Why? Multiple reasons. Jade Goody was a loudmouth nobody who got famous for being a loudmouth nobody. I have to hand it to her, she knew how to keep herself in the spotlight and milk it for all it was worth. The past few weeks, however, have been vile. I did NOT want to see Jade Goody's slow death documented by countless magazines and newspapers. I know I have a schaudenfreud sense of humour but fuck, I don't want to see someone die. The fact that her publicist Max Clifford and Jade Goody herself were shoving it down my throat didn't help her gain a sympathy vote off me. She claimed she wanted a quiet last few days until she died but it seemed to me that she was still everywhere which honestly pissed me off.

Don't get me wrong. She died and it's sad. On the plus side she's helped women become more aware of cervical cancer and how to prevent it. More women are going for smear tests. However I don't agree with her shoving countless stories of herself and her poor kids (who must have been traumatized enough by their mother dying without people shoving fucking cameras in their faces) into the media.

Why does Jade Goody get the front page on newspapers? What about all the other people who are dying or have died of cancer? I understand she helped with cancer awareness but what about Iraq? Global Warming? People starving to death or dying of diseases in Africa?

Why is the death of Jade Goody so much more important then the deaths of countless other people?

Again it's sad and I don't hate her or anything. I just can't get my head around the fact that she gets so much attention when there are other people suffering.

Rant over.


Enough said. I'm a very proud parent tonight.(swear words aside ...)

Your opinion as always is very welcome.

2 comments:

P.J.Delisle said...

Thank god somebody said it

TonyKenealy said...

Sam,

I agree with everything that your daughter said, she has a good head on her, I am not surprised you are proud of here.

Tony