Jade Goody – a symbol of the culture of our times
SEVERAL decades from now, when historians look at popular culture at the beginning of the 21st century, the saga of Jade Goody will be a black mark on our society.
Here is a young woman who was made famous through reality TV – which, in turn, made her infamous several years later – and whose tragic illness looks like it will be played out in the pages of the tabloid press.
From beginning to end, it has been an extremely unedifying spectacle.
First appearing on Big Brother in 2002, Jade was vilified by the media and became an easy target for ridicule.
Neither attractive nor particularly smart, her flaws were magnified under the glare of public scrutiny.
In 2007, she returned to Celebrity Big Brother and became embroiled in a racism row with fellow contestant Shilpa Shetty.
Diagnosed with cancer last year, her illness has now been revealed as terminal.
Jade became a symbol of our obsession with celebrity, and a nationwide fascination with people who are famous for no greater reason than the fact that they appear on TV.
Now her death is being played out with the same lack of dignity as her life.
Not that Jade's motives in her final days aren't worthwhile – she wants to raise enough cash to provide for her family.
And she has heightened the awareness of cervical cancer, in the hope that other young women will be able to avoid the disease.
But the increasingly fraught headlines, and pictures of a woman who is losing a battle with a terminal illness, are hard to look at.
Jade has become a personification of the culture of our times – an ordinary person catapulted into extraordinary circumstances.
But it is us, the voyeurs, who have watched her rise and seem equally interested as the story moves towards its tragic conclusion, who are most to blame for that.
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Tuesday 14 February 2012
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