Following the tragic suicide of television presenter Caroline Flack, aged 40, people are joining forces against the media’s incessant attacks on celebrities, specifically, their relentless vilification of young women. News of Flack’s death came as a shock to all, as social media streams were flooded with tributes from fellow celebrity figures, as well as beloved fans of Flack’s previous, and perhaps most well known presenting gig, Love Island. However, though the act itself shocked many, nobody seemed to have any trouble deciphering the reason behind it.
Being a figure in the public eye, Flack, like most other celebrities, had always been vulnerable to criticism on a far wider scale than you or I could imagine; but since the end of last year, this criticism took on a life of its own. December 2019 saw Flack arrested and charged with the assault of her boyfriend, Lewis Burton, an event which catalysed the downward spiral of her public image. With headlines like ‘Caroline Whack’ and ‘Flack attack’ painted across tabloids and timelines, The Guardian reported that in that month alone, negative press surrounding Flack increased to 35%, compared to the 3.5% negative press the month before.
Amongst the sharing of condolences and heartfelt memories, the same media outlets that once tore this vulnerable woman to shreds could then be seen posting about the shock and atrocity of her death. No remorse, no responsibility, merely attempting to jump onto the bandwagon that they had set in motion. A hypocrisy that was quickly noted and condemned.
Speaking on her radio show, close friend and Flack’s love island replacement, Laura Whitmore, was one of the first to speak out against the media’s behaviour. She soon denounced the malicious comparison of women that worked its way into our ‘norms’, in addition to the mindset that abusing people is okay when it can be done from behind a screen. It is often said that celebrities sign up for these comments; that they know what they are getting themselves into; what we can clearly see from this case, as well as the recent and all too similar deaths of past love island stars Sophie Grandon and Mike Thalassitis, is that this is not the case, and should never have been the expected one.
In a more recent statement, singer songwriter Paloma Faith released a post on instagram entitled ‘Shut up and look pretty,’ in which she depicts an industry grounded in patriarchal values. ‘We live in a patriarchal society,’ she writes, ‘which means that it is designed and is managed by heterosexual men. All of our pressures and our businesses and our media are cultivated to appease the male gaze.’
Whilst she does go on to emphasise the need for more kindness and compassion in every aspect of life, calling for people to lay down their metaphorical weapons, she goes on to ask an integral question;
‘I wonder if Caroline was a man she would have been treated in this way?’
This query fits in with one particular line of narrative that kept popping up across twitter feeds following Flack’s suicide, one that vilified the media vilification and tore down messages of condolance - labelling them rather as broadcasts of ignorance and stupidity.
The reasoning behind these messages was that Caroline was an abuser, so therefore, she did not deserve pity; that if she were a man who had beaten up his girlfriend, no one would sympathise.
Whilst it is true that Flack was charged with abusing her boyfriend - a charge that she had not been convicted of - is it really fair, or even true, to say that had Caroline been a man in this situation, no one would allow her to play victim? I believe the answer is not that she wouldn’t have received sympathy after suicide, but that the likelihood of her committing suicide would have been reduced in itself. It seems that so much is spoken about how one false accusation could ruin a man’s life; one ‘accidental’ touch taken the wrong way by the woman it lands on could end his career.
But the thing is, it hardly ever does.
As Faith correctly states, “Let us not forget that Chris Brown still managed to have a career after brutally attacking Rihanna but we don’t allow our women and girls this freedom.” People speak of ‘cancel culture’ and the irreversibility of its damages, yet the Chris Brown’s of the world are able to walk free. Even on the far lesser scale, after being accused of sexual misconduct and manipulation in a video seen by millions, people feared that You-tuber James Charles would never be able to recover.
His subscriber count, now as high as it ever was before, would beg to differ.
The statement ends with an anecdote in which Faith recalls once receiving a tweet following a television appearance with the words ‘shut up and look pretty,’ writing in her piece, as I now do in mine, ‘this just about sums it up doesn't it?’
For too long women have been viewed as pawns of the industry, beckoned, bent and broken to the will of the men who watch. We as women need to fight against such a system as this, a system that labels berating a vulnerable female as ‘entertainment,’ or sees pitting women against each other as a comical societal norm. As Whitmore declared in her piece, we have had enough; and you should have to.
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