Voyeurism

Tonight I've just watched Jade:The Next Chapter, An auto-pathology from Jade Goody (Off of big bruvver!). I've had the pleasure (and sometimes misfortune) of reading a number of illness narratives in the academic world, but this TV show is one of the most challenging, its a harrowing insight into the horrors of dealing with cancer juxtaposed with someone constantly and unashamedly self-promoting. While it is easy to hate Jade, especially when you consider her personality, which is truly horrible, but there is something weird about watching this. She is a mother preparing to leave her kids for ever, trying to provide for them, and those candid moments of weakness and pain are harrowing and heartbreaking. The problem i have is the clearly scripted interviews, which are like a desperate estate agent trying to seem really nice so you'll buy his last house before a volcano destroys the bloody village, such is the try hard attitude of Goody to force people to see her, notice her and on a tertiary level, like her.
Jade, it seems, will die as she's lived, invading the public's mind to her financial benifit and psychological detriment. I understand why she's doing this show. Money. Give her kids a nest egg when she's gone, which is tragic, but shame on the producers for pushing her into this, and shame on us for watching it, because the poor girl is dying and we're just gawping, when she really deserves some dignity.