Was Winston Churchill right ?
"History is written by the winners " is a quote attributed to our wartime Prime Minister
2020 is being touted as a watershed year where the portrayal of women especially in the media will alter and there will be change in the way we behave towards vulnerable people; famous or otherwise. This latter point has had a sharper focus recently with the Caroline Flack tragedy. However history shows that words, no matter how eloquent can be forgotten or ignored quickly.
In 1978 my aunt, Julia Naish co wrote two articles in the Guardian where she discussed fashion photography selling “an idealised image of women” and why she objected to the media’s treatment of women’s fashion. Sadly a lot of what was written 42 years ago is still true.
Social media can make this worse with the rise of the “influencers” who tell their 000s of followers that true aspiration is a perfect body, private jets and exclusive parties. In reality this is an eating disorder, photo shopped images and an unaffordable drug habit or two. Add the MailOnline click bait articles and you have the perfect storm of young, vulnerable women who strive for a meaningless life.
However all is not lost; all of us us and and the media are going to be nicer to people, famous or otherwise, right? We didn’t mean to kill poor Caroline and promise nothing like that will happen again. Hollow words, bullshit. A couple of weeks ago I showed my then team at A+E Networks this YouTube clip from 2009 which shows James Corden’s predecessor on The Late Late Show, the brilliant Craig Ferguson’s (or Bing Hitler to an older generation) mea culpa when a young Britney Spears had a breakdown.
Ferguson’s straight to camera monologue was powerful stuff but we've learnt nothing. Graham Norton took the piss out of Amy Winehouse when she was vulnerable before admitting in a Radio Times article “Audiences don’t find Amy Winehouse funny anymore because now it’s the walking wounded. Something bad is going to happen; everyone has that sense. And so, although she could be a very useful punchline, we avoid it” Sadly he didn’t learn, joking after Flack’s X Factor sacking in 2016 “ “The writing was on the wall for Caroline … you could get better odds for Anne Boleyn returning to Wolf Hall.”
Depressing isn't it ?
#carlolineflack #theguardian #womeninmedia #craigferguson #grahamnorton