I awoke this morning to hear tales of the condemnation heaped upon the French Magazine 'Closer' for publishing pictures of a bare breasted Kate. Kate of course, if you are unaware of such things, happens to be married to an RAF Officer who is second in line to the throne. The response to this 'outrage' is found in the 'Daily Mail,' the 'Daily Express,' the 'Sun,' and the 'Mirror,' all of whom offers several items, plus numbers of photographs, going into as many details as they dare of this, er, exposure. The Online 'Mail' itself showed restraint the other day by offering a dozen large pictures of Kate, with her man in the background, as they paid their respects to the dead in a Commonwealth War Cemetery. I consider it an outrage that men who died, often from disease, torture and beatings, should be used as a backdrop so that the press can use this woman to make money! These papers condemn the French paparazzi, scream that she ought not to be 'used' like Diana was used, and all the time use her in the same fashion they did Diana. The 'quality press, Times, telegraph, Guardian, Herald, Scotsman, are just as bad. While offering a more thoughtful approach they too know that her picture will help sell their papers. The word 'quality' I must add is used in a very wide sense here.
I am no Diana fan, and I am sick to the teeth of pictures of Kate taking up space in the press. Why were these women there? Because far too many other women live their lives through these women. Diana was as false as a six pound note. The 'fairytale Princess' who used the media to get people on her side, and the media went along as long as desperate women lived their divorce, children or looks through her. She sold papers and magazines every time she appeared on the cover, Kate does the same. Now having an interest in something or someone is good, using them to live your life is bad. Whether it is a princess or a football player (David Beckham, a waste of space is ever there was one, sells papers and magazines although he has nothing to offer!) those who wish to read the minutiae of their life need to step back a moment. It is indeed interesting to know the story of your latest superstar, but there are limits. For one you will never be they who you follow (those eight goals I let in at Dunfermline ruined my goalkeeping career) and they have a right to a private life. More importantly not only will much that they offer be half truths and lies, an image as opposed to themselves, you find that most 'celebs' are broken people, desperate for attention, and require much healing, a little bit like the rest of us who lack their attraction.
The media rush to grumble about the French when really they know the public today would not let them print these pictures in the UK. Although they may be available online (I couldn't find t...er....) the public do not wish her exposed this way. The public (women and sad men) will still rush to read about her, mostly waiting to gush when she announces her first pregnancy. Oh joy...
The hypocrisy of the papers that use this woman, the anger amongst them because they cannot publish the pics they have now stuck up on the office wall, the petulant outrage concerning this tale, on several picture filled pages, makes me hope Leveson and his enquiry actually makes a real decision and does not offer the whitewash I expect.
.
