Katy Hopkins first burst into the public eye as a contender on the third series of ‘The Apprentice’. There she captured the attention of viewers with her bold opinions and upfront approach with competitors. As a corporate businesswoman you would think that Katie would be a little more prone to political correctness like her friends in the business world. Instead, she is more recognised for her relentless, brash and quite frankly ignorant views. Her televised tirades include fat shaming, name bashing, and being a self-proclaimed advocate of a classist society.
Detestable, pig-ignorant, and arrogant are some of the nicer terms that have been used to describe Katy, and wherever she goes she is sure to provoke public response. With this in mind, Katy Hopkins appears to give new meaning to the phrase “Any publicity is good publicity”; after all she is the talk-show bandit that we love to hate but ultimately won’t stop watching. If you missed her trashing of “working-class” names chances are you were one of the 12 million people to have YouTubed it later on. She sends ratings soaring and upsets the presenters of day-time television shows yet somehow finds her way back onto their couch in another debate.
Admit it! We love scandal. However shameful or disgusting it might be in the digital age it gives us something to talk about , thumbs up, share, or report as spam. On a more disturbing note, if you read the YouTube comments from one of Katie’s recent rants like her This Morning appearance; she lets loose on Chanel 4’s ‘Benefits Street’, and the shocking thing is that more people than you would imagine agree with her.
But are shows such as This Morning actually doing a good thing? Is it right for them to let Katie Hopkins onto our screens purely for the fact that they know she will bring in the ratings? Of course what Katie is saying is controversial and evokes many responses, but surely the show is just using her? Katie faces daily abuse, and I am in know way favouring her opinions, but the show sets her up to fall. Hopkins puts on an arrogant face, but surely all the name calling (which she dishes out herself) is bound to affect anyone.
Lola Mosanya
