Why is Caroline Flack so revered?
Posted by QuifftianBale@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 125 comments
As tragic as the circumstances around her death were, why is she still held in such high esteem? She attacked her then boyfriend in his sleep, smashing a lamp over his head because she thought he was cheating on her. She also dated Harry Styles when he was 17, and she was 31. Would the view on Caroline be different if she was male?
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swapacoinforafish@reddit
This is always what happens when someone dies. Jade Goody was pretty publicly laughed at and shat on while she was alive but because her death was after a pretty horrible battle with cervical cancer the media bit its tongue. Everyone is fair game to certain journalists until they remember they are human beings.
Wild_Cauliflower_970@reddit
What really, really pisses me off with the Jade Goody death is that she's regularly used (particularly by the NHS) as an example of why women need to attend their cervical screening appointments - almost blamed for her own death, as if attending sooner would've saved her.
The problem is, she was diagnosed at her first screening. They start at 25 and the NHS have refused to lower the age. She paid for a private smear at 21 and it was found she had abnormal cells. The NHS still refused to do screening. She had her first routine screening at 25 and was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Yet, somehow, the NHS use her name to berate other women - as if it's their fault when they end up with cancer.
Jade Goody attended every screening on offer, she even paid for private screenings. She was ignored and dismissed. She ended up with terminal cancer and then people try to flip the narrative to present her as being irresponsible and as though she could've prevented her death.
hadawayandshite@reddit
I think you’re projecting, I don’t think anyone is suggesting she was irresponsible.
Also from what I just read (admittedly I’m no expert) she had abnormal cells removed x4 over a 4 year period and then did ignore an abnormal cell report from a screening she did have
https://www.goodto.com/wellbeing/how-jade-goodys-cancer-developed-82368
Flippanties@reddit
I was quite young when the Jade Goody stuff was happening, wasn't she mostly being lambasted for being horribly racist, which people immediately forgot about when it became clear she was dying? I imagine the media bullying still went too far and obviously she didn't deserve cancer but there was more to it than people just dogpiling on someone who did nothing wrong.
A_Right_Eejit@reddit
Shouldn't it be kebab cancer?
NoLove_NoHope@reddit
Death often makes people more sympathetic with time. People don’t like to speak ill of the dead.
Also, society doesn’t take grooming as seriously as we should and often times men aren’t perceived as being victims of grooming and domestic violence even when they are. So she isn’t painted as a perpetrator.
Minimum_Airline3657@reddit
Amy Winehouse is a good example, nothing crazy special about her, tragically she died and now she’s considered a generational talent.
SinHarvestz@reddit
I'm sorry but this is absolute nonsense.
Amy Winehouse was always considered a generational talent. Back To Black was one of the most successful albums of the 00s.
MoneyAd5007@reddit
LOL. Dont be silly. She may not be your type of music or musician, but its pretty easy to see why she's revered. She performed some of the most tragic songs of our times.
Derries_bluestack@reddit
Wow! I think you can't be into music at all if you say there was nothing special about Amy Winehouse.
Ok_Physics_3370@reddit
Nothing special about Amy Winehouse?!
Bandoolou@reddit
Possibly one of the UKs best female singer songwriters of all time.
Went 11x platinum and filled every headline from literally a single album. Unprecedented.
mylifeisatrainwr3ck@reddit
Exactly what I was thinking lol
Ok_Physics_3370@reddit
Yeah, she's absolutely what I'd describe as a "generational talent" personally!
dy1anb@reddit
Yeah look at Jade Goody. What a vile woman she was. She dies of breast cancer and became some kind of saint
Ready_Perspective_95@reddit
I think it was more about the fact that the media did what it always does and vilified her, sensationalised the stories about her to make money and it ultimately contributed to her death. Then, the media did what they always do and sensationalised that as well.
cgknight1@reddit
PSA for posts like me who went "who?"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Flack
Doobalicious69@reddit
This is a wild take. Just because someone committed suicide it doesn't mean their past behaviour is suddenly absolved.
cgknight1@reddit
There is a gap between "they were Hitler" and "they were on some reality TV show and dated a boy band member".
The former I can understand, the latter not so much as on the scale of things, it's nothing.
Doobalicious69@reddit
Yeah, to you perhaps. I'm not into reality TV either, but going off a lot of the comments she wasn't a good person, and a lot of people actually were interested. I don't see the problem in people being interested in different things.
You're into Marvel comics, so am I, but I'm not expecting Marvel to have a big impact in everyone else's life.
cgknight1@reddit
How would we actually know this - in the round? Her coverage (from googling) is pretty much in pink tops and the daily mail. The coverage in quality media does not suggest that "she was a bad person" - she was just a person with some good and bad qualities - like most people.
I guess if I ever post here about how John romita Jr. shot my dog and what do people think it would be a good point?
Doobalicious69@reddit
We don't, but people can still have opinions about someone.
That's my point, the scale of that is huge to you. You can't just dismiss someone's opinion as "oh that doesn't matter," when it might to them.
bahumat42@reddit
Nobody is saying that, just that piling on a victim of that is poor optics.
Doobalicious69@reddit
So we just never mention their bad behaviour again? I don't see the problem in having a frank and honest discussion about somebody being acting like a twat 🤷♂️
lorl3ss@reddit
Didn't Hitler commit suicide
TheDawiWhisperer@reddit
loveable rogue
Relevant_Natural3471@reddit
He was a good lad who fell into the wrong crowd
letmeexistt@reddit
Yeah his final boss move to stop the detractors
ooh_bit_of_bush@reddit
He was a troubled soul
thatscotbird@reddit
Unsurprisingly the OP isn’t the only person that watches reality TV. If a post isn’t relevant for you, just scroll on. You’re not better than anybody because you don’t watch brainless tv at 9pm on a Wednesday.
Fit-Breakfast-3116@reddit
I was about to say I don’t know a single person irl who reveres her, in fact I know plenty who thought she was a creep, they just also think it’s sad that she killed herself which isn’t the same as reverence
harambe_go_brrr@reddit
I'm not sure commuting suicide frees you from criticism
Intrepid_Bearz@reddit
We do a weird thing of revering people once they’re dead. Same with Jade Goody, she was so nasty and racist towards Shilpa Shetty on Big Brother, yes she apologised but people have got cancelled for far less but she died and that’s all okay and she’s St. Jade. I don’t understand it myself.
RedWestern@reddit
Her death from cervical cancer prompted many young women to start screening for it and getting tested regularly. I have no doubt that many lives were saved because of it
On one hand, you could argue that the only reason she managed to raise so much awareness of it was because she lived a life of being tabloid fodder. But on the other hand, you could also argue that dying of cancer was probably her most positive contribution to humanity. Neither of those things are nice to say. But it’s the truth. And it’s the world we live in.
Henegunt@reddit
Dying of cancer is obviously more important than a few Indian jokes.
dy1anb@reddit
She was a vile woman
IansGotNothingLeft@reddit
I have seen nothing but bad comments about her. Isn't that part of the reason she ended her life? She was being dragged across the internet.
robster9090@reddit
Yes but Reddit justified that due to a few bad actions she did .
1s8w2MILtway@reddit
Smashing a lamp over her sleeping boyfriends head constitutes “a few bad actions”?
bishibashi@reddit
I quite fancied her when she did the gladiators reboot. If she’d have been male I would have been less likely to fancy her. That is the end of my opinion about the apparently revered Caroline Flack. Couldn’t care less if she banged someone from a boy band when they were 17, get it queen.
Moggy-Man@reddit
>Couldn’t care less if she banged someone from a boy band when they were 17, get it queen.
"get it queen"? What the actual fuck is wrong with you?
bishibashi@reddit
I’m bored and wanted to see if anyone reacted, what the actual fuck is wrong with you?
Moggy-Man@reddit
Just calling out the pedo in the room it appears.
Agitated_Strain_6260@reddit
You're in here bored and baiting people, you should not be asking what's wrong with other people.
purple_spade@reddit
Lmao
AWhistlingWoman@reddit
Ummmm…. Gross…?
bishibashi@reddit
My phrasing was deliberately gross, you’re right. Probably more of a twitter comment 🤷♂️
bannanawaffle13@reddit
I call it the Jane Goody effect, effectively no matter how much of a twat you are in life (up to a certain line I think of it as a graph where the level of twatiness of action is on one axis and the level of fame and how tragic your method of death is on the other, there being a point where it crosses over from wrong un into loveable tyke) if you are famous enough and die in a tragic way, that the MSM and a certain but significant subset of society, will defend this person and rewrite the story. Of course people on reddit may hold a different view but we only make a small subset of the population.
miz_moon@reddit
17 and 31 eww
1s8w2MILtway@reddit
I’m 32 and the thought of dating even a 20 year old makes me ill
tiorzol@reddit
I read the as Roberta Flack and thought this is some really fucked up new information.
ArcTan_Pete@reddit
I had a bit of a moment where I confused Caroline Aherne and Caroline Flack. I had to google to find out who Flack was.
ClarkyCat97@reddit
Then the age gap with Harry Styles really would have been attrocious!
DefinitelyARealHorse@reddit
I have no idea who Caroline Flack is. My mind immediately went to Roberta Flack and I thought, she made some brilliant music, of course she’s so loved. Her version of Killing Me Softly is amazing.
kotare78@reddit
Then there’s the flak jacket or flak vest which is a form of body armor. A flak jacket is designed to provide protection from case fragments from high explosive weaponry, such as anti-aircraft artillery.
Ok_Aioli3897@reddit
Because women will never call out women while expecting men to call out men
continentaldreams@reddit
Ooof, let's not do this lad
Ok_Aioli3897@reddit
No let's do this. Show me where women called her out and I will show you the bekind movement.
continentaldreams@reddit
You want me to interview every woman, do you? You're being silly and reductive, and turning this into a us vs them situation which it isn't.
jeanclaudebrowncloud@reddit
Who is revering her? As far as I'm aware most people see her as a troubled woman with issues who died in a sad way.
tyokn@reddit
Would a man in a relationship with a woman, be described as "troubled" if he beat the shit out of a his sleeping female partner with a lamp?
Would he fuck.
DarkAngelAz@reddit
Because she died is the short answer
thatscotbird@reddit
Her death started the “be kind” movement, which excuses people from facing the consequences of their actions.
She assaulted her boyfriend and couldn’t take the heat from it.
TheDawiWhisperer@reddit
ironically the people i saw spouting the "be kind" crap on social media were the nastiest pieces of work i knew from school
Huditut@reddit
The only people I know who trot "be kind" out, are the ones who need to do that themselves.
Intrepid-Patient574@reddit
The general jist is that the assault thing was only portrayed by the media from one side and painted her as tits crazy, violent woman, which was at odds with a lot of people who knew her were saying about her.
She was also, in general, a target by the tabloid media, and it took her suicide for people to realise how horrible it all is until everyone seem to forget about it and carry on accepting it. We'll go through the same thing again the next time a celebrity kills themselves under similar circumstances.
Magneto88@reddit
She literally attacked her boyfriend as he slept, to the extent that she was covered in blood. I'm not sure you can blame the media for that.
The_Deadly_Tikka@reddit
For some reason death seems to wash away people's sins.
It's stupid and she was a terrible person.
RemarkableBaby1675@reddit
Is she? Not sure I've heard her discussed in years, one way or the other. If you're going to stir shit at least get some modern drama lol
exkingzog@reddit
Never heard of her
P2P-BSH@reddit
It's very easy to google someone if you don't know who they are. It's also very easy to not reply if you've got nothing to add.
exkingzog@reddit
The assumption implicit in the post is that this person, whoever she is, is somehow “revered” in the UK.
P2P-BSH@reddit
Does that stop you googling their name instead of writing "who?"
Professional-Day6965@reddit
How do you know they haven't?
Given the question, not having heard of them until today is a completely valid response
P2P-BSH@reddit
Because they wouldn't have to ask the question as the answer would've already been given to them.
Professional-Day6965@reddit
They didn't ask a question. They made a statement that they hadn't heard of her. It's completely relevant.
P2P-BSH@reddit
It's not relevant and it doesn't add anything to the conversation. It's just the usual smug Redditor comment from someone who wants to think they're above others.
Professional-Day6965@reddit
Give over. How is exposing ones ignorance of mainstream culture being smug?
Professional-Day6965@reddit
They didn't ask a question. They made a statement that they hadn't heard of her. It's completely relevant.
Fragrant_Durian8517@reddit
And if you want to find out the history underlying the post, you could Google it. Wikipedia even has a legacy section explaining everything you don’t know.
movienerd7042@reddit
She was a well known TV presenter and her death was a really big national story.
supergodmasterforce@reddit
It's the Jade Goody effect.
It's sad how she died yes, but everyone forgot about her racist comments and now she is held on a high pedestal.
Mammoth-Ad-562@reddit
Or perhaps you could look at it like ‘should some ignorant comments define someone’s whole life’?
Appropriate-Air-5100@reddit
You mean their actions? Yeah
FairBlueberry9319@reddit
Racism and bullying absolutely should define you.
alfa_omega@reddit
Yes agree unless someone does truly change their attitude for the better, it shouldn't define you for the rest of your life if so.
LevDavidovicLandau@reddit
I spent my entire childhood being subject to constant, sometimes violent, racism. Sorry, I’ve got a zero strikes policy towards it (and yes, I apply it to people of my own ethnicity too). If you’re racist just once, you’re a trash human being to me for life. Nothing can change that. My trauma runs too deep.
supergodmasterforce@reddit
No they shouldn't but equally, they should be held to account for them, alive or dead.
As I said, her death at such a young age was tragic, especially leaving a young family behind. But it's like everyone conveniently forgot how she was persona non grata until she died.
pip_goes_pop@reddit
The tabloids went from photoshopping her as a pig one minute to putting halos over her head the next.
Useless_Apparatus@reddit
Who's out here revering any celebrity? There's like, one person in the whole world I consider revered & that's David Attenborough, everyone else can sit down to daddy documentary & shut the fuck up. Who even is Caroline Flack?
Sin_nombre__@reddit
David Attenborough is good at narration. But there is quite a bit of criticism out around some of his views and work.
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/watching-a-life-on-our-planet-or-how-i-ruined-david-attenborough-for-myself/
Useless_Apparatus@reddit
Yeah mate not everyone gives a shit about every little bit of someone's personal life, views or opinions or dissecting every bit of everyone.
I'm a convicted criminal, I spent my teens doing drugs & beating the shit out of people for money. I ain't got no room to judge someone for holding "problematic" views you wetwipe.
Ok_Mushroom_6787@reddit
Was you planning on making those changes soon, or was you waiting for new years?
SeniorDisplay1820@reddit
That is a ridiculous article.
He is apparently being 'anti-Indigenous' by pointing out that humans used to be hunter-gatherers.
Come on.
Wino3416@reddit
There’s another article in which she criticises Attenborough for not espousing political views and at the same time calls him racist and classist for daring to say that overpopulation is an issue. I suspect if I asked her the time it would be because I’m a white colonial overlord, or some shit. 💩
AngryBadgerThrowaway@reddit
I don’t think “revered” is the correct term. It’s more like there’s a lot of sympathy/empathy for her. No-one’s advocating for her to be elevated to sainthood.
She was clearly a troubled soul who took her own life before she could get help.
FilmFanatic1066@reddit
Troubled soul is a weird way of spelling violent domestic abuser
mrblobbysknob@reddit
I found the whole "be kind" thing afterwards dead disturbing... She offed herself rather than face a trial for battering her sleeping boyfriend with a lamp. Apparently we have to be sympathetic over that...
Patient_Panic_5704@reddit
If she was a 31yo bloke banging a 17yo girl he’d be regarded as a disgusting creep.
Rohobok@reddit
Is she? What have you been reading to bring this up?
Fragrant_Durian8517@reddit
There’s a festival called Flackstock every year to celebrate her. Several celebrities are playing this year.
mrblobbysknob@reddit
Do they batter a sleeping man with a lamp in her honour?
20dogs@reddit
Mate I've heard of throwing shade but this is ridiculous
alfa_omega@reddit
I shouldn't have laughed but 💀
Fragrant_Durian8517@reddit
Too dark?
TableSignificant341@reddit
Is she revered though? Where do you get this impression?
DropDeadDigsy@reddit
Dan Wootton has blood on his hands in my opinion. His hate filled articles and non stop harassment caused her mental downfall.
GodGeorge@reddit
Dan Wootton didnt make her beat her BF
Annual_History_796@reddit
Because be kind or something
sakmentoloki@reddit
I have never heard of her.
Norman_debris@reddit
She's not.
But media hounding contributing to suicide is unpopular.
Why is George Floyd so revered? He was a drug addict who served 8 prison sentences, including for violent crimes.
The outrage is about how these people are treated by a country's systems and institutions.
robster9090@reddit
People just empathise with those that feel the need to kill themselves I suppose ? I don’t see it as a bad thing.
Same with Jota there are some saying terrible things about him now as there’s a report he was speeding , this now automatically in some of the Redditers eyes means he deserves what he tot
Sleepyllama23@reddit
She had a lot of celebrity friends who still talk fondly of her. The media doesn’t treat domestic violence the same when there’s a male victim and female perpetrator. When she took her own life and the whole Be Kind thing happened, it made people feel more sympathy for her. I do remember thinking at the time though that if she were a man she wouldn’t have got off as lightly.
DarthFlowers@reddit
If footage surfaces of Myra Hindley playing football she will be a national treasure. That’s the nauseating zeitgeist.
tacitusvanderlinde@reddit
(Some) people have found a way to use her death as a stick to beat the media with. I'm not saying the media doesn't deserve the flack (pun not intended, but I'll go with it) but there's definitely an element of weaponising her death and ignoring some of the facts around it
sourpatchnova@reddit
I can't say that I've seen that myself, but I imagine that it's because she's passed and in the way she did. I feel like there is a good amount of celebrities who were hated on when they were alive, but as soon as they passed, they were suddenly adored and missed greatly.
IWishIDidntHave2@reddit
Ahh, we all remember the break-neck u-turn the media did over Jade Goody. Thick racists to angelic saint in 30 seconds.
WoodyManic@reddit
She really was a foul little fuck-wit, wasn't she?
Ancient-Cow-1038@reddit
OP is right; she has all kinds of hearts and flowers talked about her in the press in the immediate aftermath of her death. The boyfriend she beat up, not so much.
She was a physically abusive sexual predator who gets no love from me. No loss.
I’ve never bought into the narrative that death pays all debts, or “nil nisi bonum”. If someone was a garbage person in life, dying doesn’t rewrite history.
Professional-Day6965@reddit
I'm not sure I really know who she is. Name rings a bell, but I don't know what she looks like or what she's known for
TheRimz@reddit
I don't believe she is. She had a terrible reputation that has stuck with the public imo
Going-undergroundjam@reddit
Revered by the Media only, not by the public for sure 👍
Prestigious-Baby2776@reddit
well because she offed herself. that tends to soften people’s image of you. there are plenty of people who still dislike and criticise her but to some she’s off limits because of how she died (and the fact it was linked to the online criticism)
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