I am a fan of The Apprentice, I am interested in business and marketing and also like watching people doing ridiculous tasks running around London. I adore Nick Hewer’s unimpressed face and can’t help but get drawn into the drama of it all! The contestants tend to be pretty much the most egotistical folk ever and the quota of all the dickish management speak you can imagine is high. It is all good, entertaining, finger pointing, you’re fired, TV fun.
Yet it spawned the most hated woman in the UK, Katie Hopkins.
For a few years, I have tried to ignore the woman, her pantomime baddy character seemed needy and pathetic. I thought her brand of bitchy, sour faced meanness would quickly fizzle out, yet she is just getting bigger and more offensive as time goes on.
I strongly believe in kindness. I think kindness is the key to a happy life and I don’t think we need to be hard faced bitches who slag others off to be successful, it pains me to write this post, as try as I might, I can’t help but resort to name calling as this woman is just so vile.
I think you should ignore the trolls, and that is what Katie Hopkins is, a troll. She is making a living out of saying the most controversial and hurtful things she can manage, she is a bitch for hire and it seems she will abuse anyone to get her name in the media. She makes money from upsetting people, which must be a bloody awful job, and this comes from a woman who literally talks shit for a living!
I have ignored her as much as possible, through her fat shaming, woman bashing and racist comments. I have turned the other cheek when she has bullied, berated and hurt so many. I switched off Celebrity Big Brother when I found out she was appearing on it and I ignore her twitter rants when they appear in my feed.
This week I have had to pay the deposit for my daughter’s school trip, our dryer broke and the scouts fees were due, it’s a tough month money wise and all I can think is that it must be the same in the Hopkins household. The bank balance must be low and so Katie dips into her pot of insults, closes her eyes and then randomly points at a celebrity news story and comes up with some tweet to offend the maximum audience.
Where I grew up if you spoke so badly about those around you, you’d get a pasting! Has Hopkins never heard the saying ‘if you’ve got nothing nice to say, say nothing’? She seems to relish in picking apart the flaws of the rest of society whilst skipping along, ignorant of all of her own.
Her comments on overweight people are so simplistic, her ego filled rants of eat less, move more are just another slap in the face to anyone who struggles with weight due to medication, illness or disability.
Not only did she throw out some mightily offensive racially abusive stereotypes, she then turned her malice on Angelina Jolie. Now I am sure Jolie isn’t sat in her multi million pound home, with her beautiful children and most handsome man in the world as her husband weeping about the words of a two bit troll, but Hopkins’ words really upset me.
Angelina bravely spoke out about her decision to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed earlier this week, revealing that the mutation of her BRCA1 gene meant that she had a 50% chance of developing ovarian cancer. As someone who talks about personal health issues, this struck a chord with me. I thought she was courageous to use her position to speak out about ovarian cancer and her words about her children were really touching. ‘I know my children will never have to say, “Mom died of ovarian cancer.”’ she said in the NY Times piece.
Talking openly about illness and treatment helps so many people. When you have an illness, one of the worst things is feeling isolated and alone and to be able to read about other’s experiences really does help. I know this because it helped me, and it is the reason why I keep blogging, keep writing and keep talking about IBD and invisible disabilities. I do it knowing that I open myself up to nasty comments, to judgement and laughter, but I will keep doing it because I know I am doing good in the world. No one should try to shame you into staying quiet, don’t be ashamed of your story, it will inspire others.
I suppose we could all make a lot of money from mocking others, I don’t think there is much skill in being a total bitch, just a huge lack of morals. But at the end of the day, I know I do a good job, I help people deal with a really shitty time in their lives and I make a difference. I am proud of what I do for a living, I wonder if Katie Hopkins can say the same thing?
It must be very sad and lonely to live your life making others miserable, I always tell my kids that those who bully and shout the loudest are usually those who are hurting the most and so I can’t imagine what pain Hopkins must be in to make a living out of vitriol and hate. I feel sorry for the woman and hope one day she will realise that success isn’t about money, it is about happiness, love and respect.
Perhaps rather than regarding the woman with the hatred that she seems to thrive on, we should feel sorry for her.
After all, it must be difficult to wake up every day and be Katie Hopkins.
Sam x
