Dignifying Jane Goody : Dr. D. Parthasarathy

The idea of 'Reality shows' is a strange amoebic creature. Morphing, continuously evolving, exponentially growing-like-bacteria - an output of the 'always on technology' times we live in.

Prof Parthsarathy's take on the 'Life and Death of Jane Goody' highlights a very significant take on how media constructs 'goodness' or should one say. 'badness' of Ms. Goody.

His article Dignifying Jane Goody is on kafila.org.

We in India, got carried away and created our 'bad girl' image of her, ages ago when we made it a national issue - of she versus 'apni' Shilpa Shetty. Without ever observing this person with empathy.

Dr. Parthasarathy's perspective highlights the other side of the picture that we never look at but live through in our day to day lives... nearly 50% of the planet...

And I quote :

That Jade Goody was a woman, that family backgrounds and upbringing such as hers affect women in a much more intense manner than men, that women have fewer livelihood and economic opportunities given similar amounts of low credential and cultural capital – all these issues are rarely raised or addressed.