Katie Price is something of a cultural phenomenon. She has distorted her body to turn herself into a brand: "Jordan". Her past as "glamour model" - there is a piece of newspeak for sordid pornographic model- has given her an entry into the basement of celebrity.
Since then, she has parlayed her fifteen minutes of fame into a certain ubiquity, and now even the so-called serious press in the UK feels obliged to report her affairs. The latest is the breakdown of her marriage to one-hit wonder himbo, Peter Andre. As the squabbling couple fight their battles on the pages of the newspapers, I feel increasingly repulsed.
The incredible immaturity that this hard boiled misfit shows is a truly disgusting example of the coarseness of modern Britain. Though apparently she sees herself as a role model, it is hard to believe that using your children as a weapon against their father is anything but the lowest form of behaviour.
After a while I ask myself what it says about our society that a woman with a pretty open house approach to her bedroom can be given such wealth and adulation. Does it say that she is a freak, and that few of us regard her lifestyle as anything but bizarre? Or does it actually say that many of us- at least those that buy the celebrity magazines- actually aspire to be like her? Perhaps she is right, she is a role model.
If so, it is a role model for a society which has extraordinarily low aspirations. Trashy ghost written novels, "glamour pictures" and self indulgence is not exactly a brilliant CV.
In any event it is our poverty of ambition that seems to be condemning Britain to the hard shoulder in the global race for progress. We should expect hard work, we should expect competence as the norm, we should aspire to be the very best that we can be.
Jordan is a symbol of failure- and the time has come to push her freak show out of the limelight.
Since then, she has parlayed her fifteen minutes of fame into a certain ubiquity, and now even the so-called serious press in the UK feels obliged to report her affairs. The latest is the breakdown of her marriage to one-hit wonder himbo, Peter Andre. As the squabbling couple fight their battles on the pages of the newspapers, I feel increasingly repulsed.
The incredible immaturity that this hard boiled misfit shows is a truly disgusting example of the coarseness of modern Britain. Though apparently she sees herself as a role model, it is hard to believe that using your children as a weapon against their father is anything but the lowest form of behaviour.
After a while I ask myself what it says about our society that a woman with a pretty open house approach to her bedroom can be given such wealth and adulation. Does it say that she is a freak, and that few of us regard her lifestyle as anything but bizarre? Or does it actually say that many of us- at least those that buy the celebrity magazines- actually aspire to be like her? Perhaps she is right, she is a role model.
If so, it is a role model for a society which has extraordinarily low aspirations. Trashy ghost written novels, "glamour pictures" and self indulgence is not exactly a brilliant CV.
In any event it is our poverty of ambition that seems to be condemning Britain to the hard shoulder in the global race for progress. We should expect hard work, we should expect competence as the norm, we should aspire to be the very best that we can be.
Jordan is a symbol of failure- and the time has come to push her freak show out of the limelight.
Comments
I'm no great fan of either Price or Andre, and I think they should both be slapped for what they're dragging those kids through. People can get divorced in a dignified manner. You don't have to turn it into a media circus.
However much I despair of the fact that young men and women see the sort of fame attained by Price and Andre was worth aspiring to, I am concerned at a disproportionate sense of disapproval at a woman who behaves in this way. There are plenty men out there who have an open door approach to their bedroom who don't attract as much vilification.