Jade to replace Kylie...

[beanieb]

On this forum and other forums I use, when Jade Goody was diagnosed with cervical cancer, there were several threads started to bitch and moan about how she was dealing with her cancer not to mention to bitch about her 'fame' and how it came about. People were/are pissed off (for want of a better phrase) with the way her diagnosis was so publicly broadcast, for how she allowed herself to be filmed etc. As time went on she was lambasted for selling her story. More recently though, as her cancer has changed from treatable to (possibly) terminal, the same forums have seen a whole different response - several threads expressing sympathy for her and for her children. An understanding, even, of why she is selling her story (for her Children's future) and there is even a (possibly several) facebook sympathy group.

Kylie on the other hand received sympathy from the off, people commended her for making people aware of breast cancer, for the fact that so many more women were self-examining and going to their doctor. She, unlike Jade, is a national treasure, her illness mattered to many people.

Admittedly Kylie didn't document her battle with Breast cancer in the tabloids, but then again she didn't really need to. Jade on the other hand had lost any public sympathy she had over 'racism-gate', has two young children, and basically did/does not have the same earning power as she used to or as Kylie has.

She said herself recently "?People will say I?m doing this for money ? and they?re right, I am. But not to buy flash cars or big houses. It?s for my sons? future if I?m not here. I don?t want my kids to have the same miserable, drug-blighted, poverty-stricken childhood I did"

Why is this? Why do we have sympathy for one public figure and not another? Surely if anything we should feel more sympathy for a person who has been mis-diagnosed than a person who's cancer was caught and treated early with the best treatment money can buy?

Despite their different profiles the truth is that both battles have resulted in an increase in awareness of the different kinds of cancer and, regardless of the nature of their 'fame' or the differing 'creative' output they have, surely we can find it in us all to look beyond that and feel some sympathy for the speed in which Jade Goody has seen her cancer attack?

Surely as individuals we have enough compassion and sympathy to take our feelings about her as a 'celebrity' out of the equation?

Have you changed your opinion/sympathies. and what do you really think about it all?

Just felt really sorry for her right from the start. It doesn't matter who she is or how she handles it, it's a hugely tragic story for her whole family.
Not only is she securing her sons' futures by speaking publicly but raisng awareness of the disease and the importance of regular smears.
Anyone who feels in a position to criticise should just be thanking god every day that it's not them. No-one is above cancer.

And no-one deserves to go through what she is going through.

I am wrong to say 'more sympathy', I meant the same sympathy.

I have always had great sympathy for her and completely understood why she carried on working and sold her story.

I still have nothing but sympathy for her and admiration at how she is dealing with this.

I wrote this in another thread about Jade and the reaction to her. Caitlin Moran made some of the same points in her Celeb Watch article yesterday:

Jade is living proof that the media - and a lot of the public - hate less attractive, working class women. She wasn't the only one to act stupidly in BB but the other girls were more attractive so their actions never get mentioned. She has made the best of a very bad hand dealt her by life. Poor girl.

Sadly society forgives people if they are attractive - look at the convicted thug Cheryl Cole.

John Diamond, husband of Nigella Lawson, who died of cancer, was a journalist who wrote about his illness every week in The Times. There was also a documentary on how it had affected his life - his wife and I think children were shown. He also wrote a book about it and probably got much work - maybe just different work - as a result of his illness. Differences - not a tabloid, documentary on BBC and they are solidly middle class - and journalists of course. I'm not saying that his case is exactly the same as Jade's but it's not a million miles away either.

I have always thought that it was just dreadful. I lost an Aunty to a similar cancer and I am having surgery at the end of the month again to reduce my risk of breast cancer.

I think people sometimes tyoe before they think. It must be terrible to have any cancer.

I feel sorry for them both, but agree that Kylie probably (initally) got more sympathy. However, I wouldn't buy a paper specially to read all about their personal battle, because I find it distressing but equally would never find it inappropriate that they would want to sell their story in the hope that maybe just one other person would have a positive outcome.

And while we are at ...do not understand at all how CC has become 'the nation's sweetheart'....?????

I have to admit I didn't know much about her before the other day. I knew her name and had seen her in passing, mainly being vilified by various press for what I don't know. I've never watched Big Brother so haven't formed an opinion of her from that.

I've seen some clips now, pictures, articles...from what I can gather she was chosen for BB in order to be mocked, because she's uneducated. (Notice I don't use the word 'stupid' - I don't think she's that)

I think her childhood and unbringing was awful, she has missed out on being a child - so perhaps behaved in a rather childish way at times. To me she looks incredibly vulnerable - a bit like a baby I suppose. Then seeing her being a mother she seems utterly mature and very sensible.

I don't know her, but I would like to - I think she's very much mocked and it's not a good way to treat a person.

I think she's great.

I probably know even less aboput Kylie but fwiw her career has never been about being mocked. JG was set up viciously from the outset. It makes me very angry.

Surely though the response will depend on the perception of the individual in the first place.

Kylie has always had quite a large fan base. Plus she is a global icon, so it was inevitable that news of her illness would provoke a sympathetic response from her fans.

Jade on the other hand only became famous for appearing on reality tv, and then went on to earn money through selling her soap opera life to the tabloids. When she needed a career boost she went back to the same reality tv show that gave her fame in the first place, and turned fame to imfamy by revealing herself to be a racist bigot.

The fact that she has cancer is of course tragic both for her and her family. But it hasn't turned her into a saint - the people who hated her and what she stands for shouldn't be expected to become fans purely because she's now dying.

And I think it is somewhat that selling your story to tabloid after tabloid is considered to be "working." I think there is something seriously wrong with a society that is prepared to pay to read about the intimate details of someone's illness and subsequent death.

Caitin Moran makes a good point, but not sure for me it's a class issue.

I like Jade Goody as a person. What I don't like is that she has been celebrated for being stupid.

That she has made a career out of her 15 minutes of fame is great and good for her, especially in hindsight as she's terminally ill.

But a lot of people have booked in for smear tests based on hearing her story, and for that she deserves positive recognition.

Cholatey, I totally agree with your points (I noticed that Caitlin Moran article and wondered if, either you were actually one and the same, or she had read your post).

What about Jon Diamond, though, Wannabe? Plenty of people paid to read his story/column in the guardian.

John, sorry

I don't think it's a class or attractiveness issue either. If Kathy Burke or Barbara Windsor got cancer I expect the reaction would be quite different.

"he people who hated her and what she stands for" - I find the idea that people hate her quite a weird one, and am a bit about what she stands for TBH.

As for Cheryl Cole I think it was only the fact that her husband cheated on her and the way she dealt with it that redeemed her in the eyes of some. if I remember correctly she was quite disliked after her alleged racist outburst.

was John Diamond renouned for being a racist/unpleasant individual before he developed cancer though?

At the end of the day anyone with any compassion would sympathize with someone who was dying of a terminal illness. But that doesn't mean they have to change their opinion of that person as an individual.

And while I think that death-prediction websites are totally wrong on every level, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to find the publishing of a book/selling the details to the tabloids wrong either.

And I find the setting up of support groups on facebook utterly bizarre tbh.

I suspect though that the people who disapprove of Jade selling herstory via books and the tabloids didn't disagree with JD doing the same though. Now I bought some of JD's books and I doubt that I will buy Jades's as I loved JD's black humour and witty writing style, which I don't think Jade has, but that doesn't mean that I think she is wrong and he was right.

I struggle to think of why anyond would find it wrong actually..

I agree teh facebook groups are bizare and i've been surprised by the people who have 'invited' me!

what makes me upset is how it's being protrayed almost as if no-one else is/has suffered in the same way. She is just a "celebrity" and I like her total honesty in why she is doing the publicity bit but hate how it's as if no-one else is suffering right now or in the past.

Unfortunately I am not a Times columnist LaDiDa but I must admit I thought the same thing when I read her article - she has written about reading Mumsnet, hasn't she?

I think attractiveness definitely comes into it. The others girls on BB who were equally racist never seem to have it brought up now.

I think the point about John Diamond is that he was making money and getting publicity from his illness. Another poster in the other thread mentioned Gloria Hunniford and her daughter's illness. Another poster said that everyone over the age of 8 knows who Jade is so if drawing attention to cervical cancer and the need for screening can be achieved through her talking about I think that can only be a good thing.

what facebook groups beanieb?

it only seems to be Danielle Lloyd who it never is brought up about
Jo Mears is a virtual recluse now I think, she had a baby iirc
but it put paid to her restarting her pop career
and it was Jade who said the most vile things when she was shouting and in a rage

for compo facebook groups

oh I see, thanks

I think it's unfortunate in many ways that she's been the engine on a gravy train with many passengers.