Wednesday 26 December 2007

Harvey Stickers

I heard about this a few days ago and it upset me, but didn't surprise me:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23423515-details/Heat+magazine+apologises+to+Jordan+after+printing+sticker+of+disabled+son+Harvey/article.do

What happened was that Heat magazine published an article teasing Jordan's 5-year-old son Harvey. It said he was overweight and even gave out stickers showing the boy's face and the words "Harvey wants to eat me!" Harvey has actually got a congenital disease that makes him overweight; it also stunts his growth and has left him blind. Heat has apologized, but Jordan originally wanted to take the matter further and sue them. I don't blame her!

It's amazing how we see celebrities and treat them in ways we'd never treat "ordinary people". It's as if they're not even human. These magazines showing shameful beach-shots of stars showing their flab or with sand in their knickers make me sick. They had an editor from one of these mags on TV and she said: "Before you feel sorry for them, remember they're being paid up to £4 million a time for a photoshoot." So does that mean if you're rich then you're automatically deprived of all the rules of human respect and dignity? This sounds like envy to me! We're so focused on The One Goal of Life! money, status and fame are the only things which matter. Therefore thlose who have achived them are effectively living in Heaven! In fact this is not the case at all. rates of depression and suicide among the very rich are far higher than the average; if being rich and famous was paradise then those rates would be lower.

What have we become!? It says a lot about society in general that mass media can descend to these levels. Even to degrading a little boy who's seriously disabled! If Harvey was anyone else's child it would be unthinkable, but because he's Jordan's son it's good popular fun! We're so twisted and engorged with envy and bitterness! Hatred, there's no other word for it, of the rich and famous comes from our obsessive focus on the material and conventional. It's made us truly pathological.

2 comments:

Bev said...

This is so very cruel of Heat Magazine, they really have stooped to an all time low.

Maybe the ones involved in this need to get a reality check, by actually spending some time working with some disabled children. Or on a kiddies cancer ward.

Ben Emlyn-Jones said...

Good idea! They need a reality check big time! I would stop reading Heat in protest, but firstly I don't read it anyway! And secondly, it's sadly only a symtom of a nasty streak in society anyway.