Jade Goody

Jade, Class, Health and the Media Today the opinion and leader columns are full of the news of Jade Goody’s death. So, what more can sociology say about this, stranger than fiction episode?

Jade Goody’s death is a strange and sad thing. I believe that sociology really can add something valuable to the mountains of commentary pouring forth from the media. I’m sure in due course the academics will oblige, but for now, here is my own little contribution.

Firstly, without wishing to diminish Jade’s death in any way, it is important to remember that many more women will die this year from cervical cancer. Jade is just one of many who will die this year from cervical cancer. They too will leave behind family members and children, and their death’s are also significant. To Jade’s great credit, she was determined to try and use what media profile she had to try to do something about this.

So, one sociological point which I would make is this; the quaint notion that ‘all are equal in death’, is, in sociological terms, simply not true. Some deaths are more socially significant than others, as is evident from the obituaries of the great and the good, plus the occassional reality TV star, which litter our national press. Death, just like life, is stratified.

A related sociological point is that Jade, for all her recently acquired wealth, came from a poor background, and by any form of sociological categorization would be considered working class. There are lots of arguments about how a person’s social class is determined, so you may be able to discuss these in class.

Jade’s class is relevant here since class differences in health are well established. Cancer Research reports that women living in the most deprived areas of the UK have cervical cancer rates more than three times as high as those in the least deprived areas. NB Those who look up the website will see that Cancer Research also says:” In addition a link has been demonstrated between social class and cervical cancer. Data from a longitudinal study, representing 1% of the England and Wales population, indicates that cervical cancer incidence is considerably higher among women of working age in manual than in non-manual classes.

Now, that takes us into a very complex set of issues; it is not clear precisely what causes those rather complex patterns. Usually sociology teachers, I think, would give AS and A2 students the simplified picture that in general, the higher your social class, the better your health. So take the broad finding here; those in deprived areas have a 3x greater rate than those in the least deprived area. Leave the more complicated pattern for your PhD in Medical Statistics and Epidemiology.

Finally, the media. Jade Goody was, above all, a media creation. She filled a role on Big Brother and the programme producers found her a useful element to add to the show. They knew some would like her and others would hate her; but they also knew that the very qualities which made people react in that way, would drive up audience figures. Jade was lucky - perhaps - it could have been any one of thousands of unqualified young women from the lower rungs of our society who could have been chosen, but she was the one who slipped in.

Jade perhaps thought she could control the beast - she couldn’t -although it is true that she managed to use her fame to acquire wealth beyond the wildest dreams of most of the population, let alone someone from her own social background.

And the moral of the story? Well, if there is one, or a sociological one, try this. You can’t buck social structures. You can try - Jade certainly did that. You can wriggle, and get a bit of agency - Jade did that, by scraping out a career -of sorts- in reality TV. But her class background, her lifechances in regard to health, the constraints and the power of the media; all these were things beyond her control. They are beyond anyone’s control. They are structures.