Katie Hopkins. We all have an opinion now, and mainly it’s solidly behind Holly Willoughby.
Katie Hopkins. We all have an opinion now, and mainly it’s solidly behind Holly Willoughby.
It’s consensus mandates that we say: ‘Katie is a terrible snob.’ (There’s even a group on Facebook that agrees with this. Because there’s nothing that says STOP in your awfulness like a collected group of outraged individuals calling for your blood.)
Calling for blood
Now maybe this is warranted, the pre-judging of a child is nothing if not deeply immature. Surely a grown woman (one who has three children) must have better things to do with her time? If not, then surely all outdated rules on motherhood must be true—it’s terribly easy. And this Katie has too much time on her hands simply raising three kids; get her a real job and quick.
Personally, the only real response should be laughter, right? And a few jokes about how when we have kids they are going to be called Blue Nun, White Stripe and Rosé (actually the last one is kind of cute). In fact the best suggestion I’ve heard so far was ‘Pint’ as a name for a child.
The anger of a nation
Is humour the right reaction? Should we dignify this with a proper response? After all perhaps dear Katie has tapped into something that is really a problem? If that is true, I don’t believe she knew what she was aiming for, or what, inadvertently she has hit on.
Katie it seems, when you watch the delightful YouTube clip, she really thinks that she is on to something special. In actual fact she is merely a mission to shock and anger us, and by going after children she has chosen a very soft option—no one puts babies in the corner.
After all, no one likes the idea of someone picking on a child. It reminds us of bullying that we may have endured, witnessed or worst taken part in, and that isn’t pleasant. And truthfully, it just really petty.
Now if Katie had gone on The One Show and said, what she said but about adults and their names would this have been dismissed as daft nonsense, or is there a little bit of truth there? Even if we are embarrassed to admit it…
Some truth for the right audience
I’ve thought it over and actually I don’t think there is. You see I went to a fancy/rah university (or at least some of it was, some of it was really run down and naff) and there were several people who had names from ancient Greek legends (Artemis, Achilles and Lysander spring to mind). Yes, these are silly names, and some of them were prats but I would only have discovered this, when I had talked to them.
They were prats or not, but that was THEM, and as for their names that was their parents’ decision ultimately, and not their children’s.
Us and them
What Katie inadvertently hit upon, is how we like to separate ourselves—unity is seen as a bad thing. Look at Scottish Independence or the 2017 vote on leaving the EU. Whatever you think about it, it marks a separation—us/them.
We in Britain delight in many forms of separation, be it North and South, men and women and finally and possibly the most difficult to deal with directly: snobbery. It’s a gift and a curse when it comes to our collective wry wit.
It’s a true curse when it comes to our positively privileged politicians. When it comes to our children, surely someone who shares the same first name as Katie Price shouldn’t judge. It is one of the few things, save for our nationality and gender that is relatively hard to change about ourselves.
Money- the option to not care
At the end of the day we are equally as likely to laugh at Binky from MIC as we are at someone who has called their child Chardonnay. The difference is money, which gives you the option not to care.
Katie Hopkins has the option not to care that she is a stuck up snob, she can afford to be.
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