jordan - girl of our times?

After reading a magazine interview with Jordan, I was fascinated that she doesn't seem to stand a chance when the media want to rubbish her at the same time as pursuing every aspect of her life. In the past celebrities have been built up only to be knocked down again. This seems to be the fast food version of that as Jordan is built up and knocked down at the same time - even in the same article. This is my take on the subject.

I'm going to attempt a difficult task here. I'd like to talk about Jordan, known to her friends and fans as Katie Price, a glamour model regularly seen on the covers of UK men's magazines and tabloid newspapers. The problem is that I'm certain most male readers will simply agree with any positive comments about her, their eyes fixed firmly on her breasts. At the same time I suspect most women will dismiss any such comments, for much the same reasons. It's an uphill struggle, as Glamour (in the sense of the UK not-quite-naked lads mag. phenomenon) is what Jordan does and does very, very well - and I'm aware that those initial impressions are strong enough to override anything I might care to say on the matter. In fact I quite like Jordan.

My own first impressions of Jordan were not good. In fact they were dire. She rose to fame through page three modelling, and though she had been on the front of many papers and magazines, I hadn't paid much attention. Usually these curvy, empty headed models hang around for a while before loosing favour with the soft porn powers that be and vanishing from trace. When they do, there is often almost nothing to remember them by other than yet another set of pictures that are almost identical to every other girl in the business. However, last year, Jordan turned up as a guest on Graham Norton's show (a campy, fun and vaguely rude late night chat show). There were signs that perhaps there was a little more going on here - and perhaps Jordan had something to say. Well - I don't know if the editors were feeling cruel that night, but the combination of Graham's off the cuff, quick fire innuendo and Jordan's slower bluntness made her look foolish, and crude. It was a painful rail-crash of an interview happening in slow motion. I can't actually bring myself to repeat one comment she made to a member of the audience and was amazed it was broadcast. Since then however Jordan's only got bigger - in every way - as she's appeared in more magazines, in the tabloid gossip columns and has had breast enlargements that invite comparisons with Pamela Anderson. After the disastrous interview though, I really didn't want to know.

Two things conspired to make me reconsider this, and now I have to admit the verdict is possibly in favour of Katie Price - the real person behind Jordan the Personality. It's probably not a fashionable point of view, but let me explain how I got there, and why.

The first thing was that some of the unavoidable headlines on the tabloids' covers were quite kinky. It's cheap, I know, but I always look twice when there are signs that a celebrity falls outside of the (sometimes carefully manufactured) image of normal white-bread heterosexuality. As far as I'm concerned, the more famous people that are seen to have kinks, fetishes or desires that are not 'normal' the better. I grew up thinking 'gosh, am I the only one who..?' and I know that many, many other people went through similar experiences. Society has changed, and at least being lesbian or gay is no longer taboo, but at the same time most of the rest of sexuality remains a difficult subject. Even with the internet , I still regularly hear of people saying 'I thought I was the only one' of their kink or sexual preference. If more celebrities are seen to live a productive life whilst being open about their sexuality then perhaps we can stop being so uptight about ourselves. When Eddie Izzard stands in front of an audience of hundreds and has them accept that there's nothing wrong with a bloke in a dress, I am delighted. When Jordan reached the covers of newspapers wearing rubber with rumours of sexual experimentation, I read a little of the gossip and wondered if it was true.

The second thing is that I've been going through what can only politely be described as a bit of a bimbo phase. Blame my high powered job if you like (hey - working at McBurgers is stressful), but the last thing I want to do in my spare time is play the intellectual and argue the point with strangers. Dressing up is a wonderful form of escapism and lately I've been playing with a girlie image that feels sexy and undemanding and more than a little blonde. Whichever style or look I go for, I tend to look out for examples and ideas to try and get it right (you should see the album of pictures I accumulated whilst I was hunting for my wedding dress). Without consciously thinking about it, in this case I was actually heading towards the 'Glamour Girl' look that I'd normally say was so vacuous. At exactly the same time, Front magazine did an interview with Jordan, and splashed her image across the front cover. Feeling a little guilty, I bought the magazine (I was just interested in the makeup, ok?) and read the article.

The thing that perhaps sums up the whole article, and the way Jordan appears to the public comes right at the end. On the way there, Front asks about her career and relationships in a friendly way, whilst splashing the article with pictures of Jordan in leather, bondage gear and, more often, nothing at all. It's a weird contrast that is emphasised by the final exchange. In it, the interviewer asks about the shopping trip she made to Soho to buy hundreds of pounds of sex toys and videos - which had made tabloid headlines earlier in the year. Now, I think it is great to hear a woman say that this is what she enjoys. Not in a titillating way, but simply because there is so much shame associated with these things while at the same time women (and men) can get a great deal of pleasure from including them in their love lives. It's a good thing to hear someone say that 'yes, this works for me'. Yet, the article has a neat about-face that seems to reflect the way Jordan appears in all of the newspapers and magazines. The interviewer asks for more details of the shopping trip, a little more titillation and Jordan happily explains. Having got the intimate details they want the interviewer then acts shocked at such things and moves on to another question. How strange is it that we apparently want to see Jordan in sexual poses and hear her talk about things that turn her on and then shy away as though it's all too rude and disgusting? Aren't we more grown up than this?

I don't know the slightest thing about Katie Price, other than her public image as Jordan. She comes across as naive in the way that she sometimes puts herself in situations where she has little control over the way she is portrayed - and the media is happy to paint in an image of a sex-mad bimbo. At the same time, I can't fault her for being straightforward and honest. In fact the apparent complete lack of an internal censor is quite refreshing, once you get over that moment of 'She didn't really say that, did she?'. It makes it seem that we're getting glimpses of the real person in between the perfect pictures and made up gossip columns. She has certainly learnt to play some of the game right, as she claims to be drug free and enjoying the lifestyle that she wants (looking after her horses near Brighton in between modelling and starting a singing career). Heck - Katie Price sounds interesting and really quite fun.

At the same time it's frustrating that the media machine that made her is likely to keep her exactly in her place. Refreshing views about sexuality are only allowed when they're going to sell newspapers - after which they can be thrown away. This moronic double standard wants our celebrities to be sluts so that we can stare at their breasts and then complain that they're artificial. What hope is there that people can overcome their taboos, if someone like Jordan is encouraged to talk about sex and then treated like a sex toy herself? It'd be wonderful if there was some cross over between this lads' mag. mentality and the rest of the world - if perhaps Jordan was likely to be interviewed in a women's magazine for her successful career, or able to talk about her fetishes in a publication that isn't going to simply take the piss. I'd love it if Jordan was able to say something about the double standards and hypocrisy that she must deal with every day as a glamour model - but unfortunately, I suspect that's not going to happen.

So, I've come to the conclusion that Jordan is a product of our times - encouraged to be kinky but not allowed to be acceptable. Perhaps the mainstream acceptance of sexuality that we believe is happening is just a different form of sidelining. Are fetishists being treated like Jordan, only to be allowed out when they help sell newspapers or advertise the latest product? I hope not, for everyone's sake.

Please note that the picture illustrating this article is copyright Front Magazine.