Leave Gemma Collins Alone! A Message To Our Tabloids!

I'm not really a fan of reality TV, steering well clear of Xfactor, Big Brother and the like. 

But for the last two years I've been an avid watcher of I'm A Celebrity... for the simple fact that everyone got along, built strong friendships, and gave us as watchers a heart-warming 'we're all in this together' vibe. Naww. Who could forget the bonds built between Kian, David, Lucy, Joey and Rebecca in Season 13. However this year has reawakened the hideous Julius Caesar thumbs-up-thumbs-down attitude of the reality TV viewer, and as a result our tabloids have dived head first into the cesspit of journalism. 

The moment Gemma Collins decided to leave, I knew instantly that she would be met by a wave of hate, abuse and anger. I find it odd that people get so irate and venomous towards their fellow human beings, just because they've chosen not to eat animal genitals for our entertainment. 

Before writing this,  I went on a research spree to see in what forms this anger and venom manifested, expecting to end up on Twitter reading drivel written by trolls.  Don't get me wrong, I don't doubt for a second tweets like that about Gemma Collins exist, and for her own sanity and well-being I hope she hasn't read them.  But I got distracted, as I didn't expect to find language of such a bullying nature on the pages of our nation's newspapers. I got through about five articles from the Mirror.co.uk and DailyMail.co.uk before I almost exploded in anger at what I was reading (you can read them here, here and here ). 

So I thought not only would I defend Gemma in this post, but show you guys that our tabloids are no better than the sick trolls on Twitter. 

Just recently, Gemma's dad spoke out (to the Mirror.co.uk) about a traumatic experience Gemma went through before her entry to the jungle, involving her then boyfriend Alex Moss who was 'arrested on suspicion of assault and bailed after Gemma called police from her home.' It's sad that her and her family feel they have to inform us of such a personal circumstance, but with what I'm about to show you from the newspapers, I'm sure they felt they had no choice. 

Just like the Zoella rant, bullet-points and gifs will ensue: 

• 'She's a useless, lazy, good for nothing, wholly unlikeable waste of space who injected nothing but abject misery into the camp, invested zero effort and made every single second all about her.' - Adam Postans, Mirror.co.uk

Wow. Just wow. Completely unnecessary for a start. When I read this, I had to double check that I was on a newspaper's website. Seems like professionalism, decorum and respect has completely gone out the window in this industry. This is the language of someone who is seriously hurt, upset and angry. All I'll say is that if a reality TV show gets Adam this riled up, he needs to get out more, cause that's just sad. Really sad. 

• 'It must have been disastrous for poor old Joan [Gemma's mother] watching her disastrous daughter commit career suicide so far from home.' - Kevin O'Sullivan, Mirror.co.uk

I'm pretty sure the only one who can say what Gemma's mother thinks of the situation is Gemma's mother herself. I find it quite appauling that Kevin O'Sullivan is willing to not only drag the mother into the situation, but put words into her mouth that are merely meant to provoke and insight venom in the readers, at Gemma's expense. 

 

• 'bloated blonde' - Kevin O'Sullivan, Mirror.co.uk 

Alliteration. Well done Kevin. At least you've remembered something from your journalism degree. Shame you can't put it towards something more productive, like commenting on something important, instead of ripping to shreds a minor celebrity. 

• 'Thanks to her pathetic lack of get-up-and-go spirit (she got up and left), Gemma defiled the nation's sacred entertainment. We wanted to be cruel to her ... and she deprived us of the opportunity.' - Kevin O' Sullivan, Mirror.co.uk

What? WHAT?! Are you *&$!@*$ SERIOUS! I couldn't believe when reading this that a journalist would be so explicit in admitting having such a messed up, sadistic view of reality TV, and in a way that condones it too. Lines are being crossed here that are making bullying in the media harder to sort out. Is the Mirror.co.uk actually employing Twitter trolls? I wouldn't be surprised to be honest. And don't say 'we' Kevin, I don't want to be dragged into your group of reality TV saddos hoping to get a few short kicks out of being 'cruel' to someone. What an absolute creep. 

• 'She just couldn't cope! "Everything was hellish" she said of her experience on the ITV reality show, adding that it wasn't 'about the food'. Despite this, the usually effervescent cast member of The Only Way is Essex stressed that it wasn't 'about the food.' - Jan Moir, DailyMail.co.uk

Is it just me, or does this not make sense? It seems that Jan Moir has abandoned good grammar in her desperate attempt to let us know that she's making a point about Gemma's size and the lack of food in the camp. Original. Pretty sure those jokes were made before she even entered the jungle. But Jan's not done there. Her article is literally food joke, after food joke, after food joke. She might as well have just written 'Who ate all the pies?' and have been done with it, cause her jokes carry just as little imagination, and will probably only resonate with those of a schoolyard mentality.

• 'Nevertheless, she did complain that murderers got more to eat than she did, frequently moaned that she was "starving to death" and emotionally fell apart after only 72 hours without recourse to her snacky-time favourites of chocolate and cold milk.' - Jan Moir, DailyMail.co.uk

Every single person in that camp moaned about lack of food, and food stuffs that they missed. Who wouldn't? I skip lunch and I end up doing the exact same thing. Ok Gemma moaned a lot more than most, and yes it got a bit annoying, but I find Kendra's 'Oh my gohhhhhd' toe-curlingly more irritating than anything Gemma did. But as far as the tabloids are concerned, Gemma's fat, she cried, then she left, so screw what anyone else does, she's their easy target. 

• 'Gemma was either talking about herself, deluding herself, or describing her various productions. And sadly, I don't mean West End musicals [...] Earlier, she'd informed millions of viewers that another of her dunny productions was the digestive equivalent of the stripes of an ambulance, being "yellow" and "fluorescent".  - Jan Moir, DailyMail.co.uk

Really? So we have to watch Kendra chew down on deer penis whilst exclaim that 'it tastes like penis', then hear that she 'likes cock, not cocktails' and watch her object to a trial cause she's on her period, embarrassing Ant and Dec, but poo is where you draw the line? How can you watch a show like I'm a Celebrity where the eating of animal genitals is common place, and moan about being disgusted. The mind boggles. 

• 'In rare moments of contemplation, trembling in her max-strength hammock dreaming of Dairy Milk, she looked like a jumbo frankfurter in a canvas hot dog bun' - Jan Moir, DailyMail.co.uk

Oh for goodness sake.  This is just bad taste and downright offensive. 

• 'Sly, ritual humiliation is, after all, an inbuilt part of this invidious showbiz process.' - Jan Moir, DailyMail.co.uk

Are Jan Moir and Kevin O'Sullivan in cahoots? Reality TV has always had a freak show element to it, but I always felt that was the element we all disliked, not the element the viewers revel in.  So these journalists, and the readers that agree with them, genuinely feel put out and let down by the fact that they didn't get to be cruel and humiliate Gemma Collins, or that she didn't expect this, because it's apparently an inbuilt part of showbiz? That's an attitude that we should want to stop, not one that should cause people to throw a tantrum when they don't get to make someone cry. Teenage girls, victims of cyber bullying, have taken their lives for less, but just because these people are in the public eye, it's ok for trolls and journalists alike to bombard them with this kind of abuse?  

• 'In many ways, she is an icon of our age, a talent-free nobody who has nothing to sell except her own folly.' - Jan Moir, DailyMail.co.uk

And to finish it off, of course a dig at today's generation. The popular go-to for the Daily Mail. The amount of times I've listened to the elderly's opinions on the younger generation, and it's like a Daily Mail newspaper has possessed them. Our newspapers have a lot of influence over people's thoughts and opinions, and there's nothing sadder than when they side with the cruelest and most ignorant of internet dwellers, fuelling the fire. There seems to be a horrific cycle developing in which Twitter trolls and tabloids take inspiration from each other, and aim their venom at the easiest target. In this case it was Gemma Collins, but once this has all died down, they'll soon find another victim. 

And just to show  the true colours of the people who write this stuff, here's a little Twitter interaction I had with the delectable Kevin O'Sullivan himself: