Ranty Friday — Elements of the UK Media

Not all of it, obviously.  But some of it.  “It” being media outlets in this country.     Two things in particular this week have seriously pissed me off.   Made me want to bang my head against my desk and wonder if this is 2018 or the dark ages.

The first was this tweet, with a link to an article in the Daily Mirror asking “What will happen to Holly Willoughby’s kids while she’s presenting I’m A Celeb”:

 

Oh give me a break.

I will tell you what will happen, one of  two things.  a) They will go with her and her husband, carrying the permission of their school and a whole load of work to do in the three weeks they are there.  b) They will stay at home, with her husband.

Why is this even a question?  Let alone an article in a newspaper.

Has ANYBODY ever asked that of a man?

Does anybody say to Simon Cowell before the round of Judge’s Houses on X Factor that sees him in the Caribbean / LA / Portugal:  “But who will look after little Eric?”

No of course they wouldn’t.

Dec Donnelly, one of the regular presenters (half of Ant and Dec, Holly is temporarily replacing Ant) is currently expecting his first child with wife Ali.   Hopefully this time next year he will be playing the role of daddy to a healthy baby.   Will we see this headline, mocked up by my son Jonnie, in August 2019?

 

No.  No we won’t because that is not how the media works.  And why is that?  I don’t know but fuxxake I wish the media would stop with this idiocy.

A gorgeous friend of mine Molly recently went on a three week work trip, leaving her two daughters at home with her husband.  Mostly the messages she received whilst occasionally documenting her trip were supportive but there were some that asked how she “leave” her kids.  Why was she being so selfish etc.   Why?!  Why is it deemed that she is being selfish because she is working away from home, with childcare firmly in place with a supportive husband and family, just because she happens to also be female?

It is because of shitty headlines like that.  They might be clickbait but they need to stop.

Probably more importantly, because it is more damaging on a wider scale, is this story:

 

That’s the meanest thing I’ve ever seen. @celebsnow … pic.twitter.com/k8KvuxyXjB

— Stacey Solomon (@StaceySolomon) August 28, 2018

Why on earth would a magazine, aimed at women, put something as hateful as this on the front page?  Presumably written by a woman, about another woman.   It is headlines like this that make people ill.  Men, as well as women.    The idea that the public, or indeed, anybody might be feeling like us is what can cause all sorts of personal issues.   Scarlett Moffatt is another celeb who has been vocal recently in her hatred of mean headlines directed at her.

What is the matter with editors that they think this is how they want to fill their publications?

Articles about “how to get a revenge body” inside this magazine because why exactly?  What the hell is a revenge body anyway?  And why should anybody be encouraged to change how they look in order to get revenge.   Is it only fat girls that need to take out revenge and that by becoming thinner they have exacted their revenge?  I am fairly sure whoever the revenge is directed towards couldn’t give a stuff by taht point.    And why would the woman need to get revenge and spend months slimming miserably in order to do so?

The best revenge story I know of is a friend of mine taking her ex’s car keys and parking it in the short term car park at Heathrow.  Letting him find it, and a huge bill once he did.

Stacey is right when she says this is just mean.  It is.  It isn’t journalism.   It is mean, and nasty, and has to stop.

The magazine have since issued an “apology” though it sounded far from sincere to me, and Stacey didn’t seem too impressed with it either.   The magazine claimed it was not the view of the magazine but was written to “spark debate”.   No it wasn’t.  There was no question in the headline.  No “Is…..”    The phrasing read as a statement.  As though this IS the view of Now Magazine.    It was written to throw somebody under a bus with no regard for their feelings or how we no longer want to read this kind of crap.  If, indeed, we ever did.

Both of these appeared stories on the same day that new statistics were released on how incidents of self harm are on the up.  It is reported that 1 in 4 14 year olds are now self harming.    Mental Health issues are very real for all age groups in this country and at just as much of a crisis point as the obesity crisis.     Articles like this one will do nothing but fuel that crisis.

When we all got involved in sharing photographs of ourselves in swimming suits it became such a wave on social media because it was something we would never do normally.   Many of us would never have the confidence to do it had it not have been for hearing Kate in our ears (my blog post on #BeMoreWitWitWoo is here ).   The reason for those negative body images and thoughts is because of articles like that.   Because in our head that is what we think everybody at the beach, the swimming pool, the park is saying about us.    We think people are sick of us.   That a photograph of us in a bikini, laughing, and looking relaxed will be shared alongside some hateful text.    Not in a magazine but online somewhere.    Or shouted at us by a passerby.

There really should be no place for this kind of article in any publication anymore.   We shouldn’t want to have any part of that debate.