There was an article by the Press Association about Kerry Katona's appearance on a breakfast TV show in the UK this morning.
The article chose to focus on the top Kerry was wearing, which they describe as being "dangerously low-cut ".
So, since when has a top been dangerous? And isn't this woman's career, success, family, fame and handling of bipolar disorder worth more of a mention??
Such interest in Kerry’s breasts rather than her success is simply sexism and far from professional, balanced journalism. Furthermore, the derrogatory and mocking tone of the article does nothing to encourage education, tolerance and understanding of mental illness.
Particularly worrying is the fact Kerry Katona has been made to feel it is better to skip her medication which may cause her to slur than “appear to be drunk” on TV because of the criticisms she has received in the past. This decision and the misplaced importance given to her style of dress over her health may influence others with similar conditions, who, until some advance is made in their treatment, are able to lead much fuller, safer lives by regularly taking their medication.
What happened to professional journalism??!
I copy below the article:
Kerry in ‘warts and all ’ appearance
Kerry Katona has made another “warts and all” appearance on breakfast The former Atomic kitten singer was interviewed on GMTV wearing a dangerously low-cut top.
In a typically unguarded style she chatted to host Andrew Castle about her mental illness, medication and family life, saying there were “kids everywhere” in her home.
Katona came under fire at the end of last year for appearing on another ITV programme, This Morning, with slurred speech, which she blamed on medication, not alcohol.
She said she had not taken her medication for bipolar disorder on Thursday night, to avoid her speech being affected.
She said: “I never took my medication last night because I was so embarrassed about what happened on This Morning I didn’t want to slur. I don’t mind doing it on my show. But I thought if I take my meds last night, because it’s early in the morning I’ll start slurring I’ll just get criticised again because the public don’t understand it.”
The reality TV star insisted she had been “nationally embarrassed” by the erratic appearance, which was down to her illness.
Katona, 28, said: “What annoyed me about it was they never approached me and asked what medication I was on, ‘what is bipolar?’ They just said to me ‘have you been drinking?’”
It was reported this week that This Morning host Phillip Schofield had banned her from another appearance on the programme.
Describing the effects of her condition, which involves sharp mood swings, Katona said she spends “loads of money” when she is on a high. The mother-of-four has struggled financially in recent months and said she was “skint”.29 May
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Don't you know that low cut shirts are a leading cause of death in woman?
Once I wore too low-cut of a top and my breasts exploded. At Thanksgiving, no less! Mammary tissue all over everything. Now I wear turtlenecks - no mess, no fuss.
That is terrible - the bit about people preferring her to skip her meds than to slur on TV made me want to vomit. Meds can be life-saving to people with mental illnesses, but no, who cares if she winds up throwing her life into disarray because of missing them, god *forbid* her speech should sound strange on TV!
I also wonder how much of this is because of her sounding drunk specifically and how much because society can be impossibly narrow-minded when it comes to someon's speech sounding a bit different than it's "supposed" to. I have a speech disorder myself, so I'm curious.
"...I also wonder how much of this is because of her sounding drunk specifically and how much because society can be impossibly narrow-minded when it comes to someon's speech sounding a bit different than it's 'supposed' to. I have a speech disorder myself, so I'm curious."
Good points.
I've heard of people in the U.K. who aren't deaf or hearing-impaired still watching TV with the closed captioning on for all sorts of reasons, including these:
"...They're especially invaluable when watching Never Mind The Buzzcocks, where Mark Lamarr speaks incredibly fast..."
"...when I watch the TV of an evening I want a little quiet; in order to be able to hear the dialogue you have to endure the over-the-top supposedly back-groud music!!..."
"...For most American shows subtitling is a must - especially where the leading actors' have a southern drawl!..."
"...the quality of diction is often so bad that it is difficult to interpret the mumblings..."
"...I find some accents very difficult to decipher..."
Instead of merely demanding that the programs change, they change their own viewing habits. I bet these viewers wouldn't want Katona to go off her meds!
That article is something I can really sympathise with *g* as I have something of a hearing issue myself; I'm not deaf or hard of hearing, but there is nevertheless clearly something wrong (hypersensitivity, difficulty filtering out background noise, mild auditory processing disorder, probably something along those lines). Captions are a godsend, I tell you.
Anyway, what I was driving at was that people have the tendency to interpret oddities about speech as somehow having a bearing on the person's character - this runs from the various stereotypes associated with accents all the way to how very many people think of speech disorders as character flaws rather than medical conditions or disabilities. As someone who has to worry about what snap judgements people are making about me every time I open my mouth, I found it really interesting how even though Kerry has an impeccable reason for slurred speech she still got slammed for it - it seems to tie into the same phenomenon.
Mina,
Have you ever heard some of the English accents? I'mEnglish and sometimes I struggle to understand some of the speakers.
Watching the subtitles makes sense and is not to be sneered at.
"Watching the subtitles makes sense and is not to be sneered at."
I totally agree! :) I'm sorry that my comment came across as sneering, because I was trying to share a cool idea I found. Watching the subtitles is a way of not being impossibly narrow-minded when it comes to someone's speech sounding a bit different.
The idea seems to be 'my not understanding your speech is my problem, not yours. I'll turn on the subtitles on my TV instead of wanting you to change your accent, stop taking your medicine, etc.' :)
Theoretically a boob could pop out, and kill everyone in the studio.
Actually, that would make a great episode of Fringe.
Another example of how scared we are about women's sexuality as a society.