Tuesday 5 October 2010

'Irresponsible and cynical'

Mail columnist Sandra Parsons has written the following about X Factor contestant Cher Lloyd:

After, I switched over to The X Factor. This was car-crash TV, with a vulnerable 17-year-old girl in the role of test dummy. Cher Lloyd is clearly troubled and much too thin. Her throat was so sore she couldn't even sing, but she was still put through to the final...

The message this sends to young girls is that if you want to succeed, you need to be unstable, too thin, and to cry at the slightest provocation. But it was obvious Cher was going to be put through, because her fragility guarantees ratings. The question is not if she breaks, but when.

Exploiting this girl is irresponsible and cynical...

Perhaps Parsons should speak to her employers because Lloyd has been mentioned in eight articles that were published on the Mail website today.

In one, Alison Boshoff, like Parsons, talked about Lloyd's similarity to Cheryl Cole.

In another the Mail made the stunning discovery that Lloyd had bought some salad and a drink for her lunch.

In the most pathetic of the lot, the Mail's headline asked 'Is Cher Lloyd acting like a diva already?' Why? Because when she was followed by a herd of paparazzi to a cash machine, she took steps to stop her pin and balance from being caught on camera.

And as Jonathan from No Sleep Til Brooklands pointed out, isn't it hypocritical of the Mail to be taking the 'who does she think she is?' angle, when they think she's important enough to be written about in eight articles in one day?

Moreover, her trip to get some money from a cash machine was so important that the Mail appears to have bought photos from four different agencies to illustrate their non-story.

These articles repeatedly call Lloyd 'thin' or 'stick-thin'. Yet a few days ago, Katy Perry was the subject of ridiculous claims from 'Daily Mail Reporter' (which were eventually removed) that she had a 'protruding belly'.

What message does Parsons think this sends to young girls?

The Mail has also keeps saying that Lloyd appears 'frail' and 'vulnerable'. She can't take the strain. She's struggling to cope.

If the Mail is concerned and thinks those things are true, how does it think it is helping by writing about her so much, by buying photos from photographers who follow her every time she goes outside and by continually commenting on her weight and the way she looks?

What was it Parsons said, again?:

Exploiting this girl is irresponsible and cynical...

9 comments:

  1. Good article, although I thought being wrapped up in a pashmina was a bit over the top to hide a PIN and balance!

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  2. it's possibly over the top, but consider the pap have cameras that can catch important document details when bits of A4 paper are held under the arms of government ministers, I'd be inclined to do that too.

    and tell them all to fuck off of course. Well spotted on the number of photo agencies the DM is funding btw

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  3. I do feel sorry for some of the female journalist working at the Daily Mail, because getting ready for work in the morning must be hell. Before for going into the office they need to make sure they don't look too fat or too thin, if they don't have enough make up on colleagues might think they are ill, too much wil make them look like tarts. Clothes can't look too casual or too tarty, any packed lunch must be the correct size, too small could suggest anorexia too big bulimea.
    No wonder so many of them decide to work at home!

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  4. The article was a diatribe demoaning the death of family friendly TV viewing of a Saturday night.
    According to Ms Parson a few jokes by a stand-up comic about sex aids is "pornographic".
    Odd.

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  5. That's funny. I sent her an e-mail today about this column, although I was focusing on a different part:
    "Isn’t it about time the gay lobby grew up?"

    Since racism is out of bounds, at least the Mail can always fall back on homophobia. If Paul Daneils had made misogynist comments, I'm sure the Mail would be all over that.

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  6. She's one of those people that thinks if she doesn't like a television show, then no one should be able to enjoy it.
    Just another case of the Mail saying "X is terrible" while circling it like vultures in regards to Cher.

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  7. Just read that article and found this fantastic line referring to Cheryl Cole and Cher LLoyd:

    "As one paper put it this week, the only thing that separates them is a syllable."

    Am I missing something here? That has to be one of the vaguest comparisons I've ever read. The only thing that seperates 'bread' and 'donkey' is a syllable surely?

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  8. I thought the Boshoff piece was particularly nasty because it made some truly bizarre accusations, such as Cher was clearly a liar because another singer had done a similar rendition of Turn My Swag On and some people called it original. Right. But Cher didn't say that herself and it would seem to me to be a legitimate homage, so who needs to what now?

    I feel sorry for this girl. When the Mail has you in their sights you won't get a moments peace and everything you do will be wrong.

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  9. "pap have cameras that can catch important document details when bits of A4 paper are held under the arms of government ministers"

    Yeah, accidentally on purpose, generally!

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