Back in February, The New York Times released its much-anticipated documentary, Framing Britney Spears, detailing the conservatorship the popstar has endured since 2008 and which has permitted her father, Jamie Spears, control over most aspects of her life. Through accounts from friends, lawyers and fans, the documentary retraces the events that led to the enforcement of the conservatorship, whilst also considering many of the issues surrounding this highly controversial piece of legislation. Although the details of the restricted freedom Spears has suffered for over a decade were the focal point for the documentary, what was also striking – and disturbing – was the footage of her being hounded by the paparazzi, actions which undoubtedly contributed to the mental health crisis she suffered in 2007.

Casting my mind back to being a young teenager, I can remember seeing the images of Spears taking an umbrella to the window of paparazzo’s car splashed across newspapers and magazines. In a similar vein, I can remember pictures of Lily Allen, Lindsay Lohan and dozens of other female celebrities being snapped falling out of cabs after a night out. I can even remember having a subscription to Heat, the UK ‘entertainment’ magazine, which is shameful not just because of its local calibre journalism, but because of the articles it ran, ridiculing female celebrities for their looks or their misfortunes. Each week, Heat would run features including ‘Best and Worst Celebrity Bikini Bodies’ and ‘Who wore it best?’, designed to pit women against each other and create a state of unhealthy competition between people who should have been living in solidarity through their shared experience of being famous.

Following the airing of the Spears documentary, conversations have turned to the treatment of celebrities during the late 2000s. Whilst there have been landmark moments that should have changed the tide of the media such as The Leveson Enquiry, it is difficult to argue that much has changed  in terms of the tabloid press’s attitudes towards female celebrities. In 2020 alone, Meghan Markle and Caroline Flack were subjected to an assault by the media, not to mention lesser-known celebrities such as reality TV stars. Over a decade on from the media storm surrounding Britney Spears’ mental health crisis, has the tabloid media become less or more sympathetic to female celebrities?

The rise of paparazzi culture

Paparazzi culture can be dated back to the 1950s with a landmark photograph taken by photographer Tazio Secchiaroli, a man known for chasing celebrities around on his Vespa in an attempt to catch candid snaps. The image featured the then King Farouk of Egypt sitting in a café in Rome with two women, neither of whom were his wife. Tazio and the King got into a struggle when the King tried to break his camera. The image was captured by another photographer, Umberto Guidotti.

The paparazzi in the form we recognise today is often attributed to the Princess Diana years. Known as the most photographed woman in the world, photographers would follow her everywhere she went, snapping iconic moments such as her visit to London Middlesex Hospital where she shook the hand of an AIDS patient, dispelling the myth that the illness could be transmitted through handshakes. In addition to capturing joyous occasions, the media also photographed Diana in more vulnerable moments with a famous image of her in obvious distress during her and Charles’ tour of Australia in 1983.

In addition, the paparazzi have also been implicated in her death in 1997 when the car she was in crashed in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris as her driver attempted to get away from the media. Notably, the pictures of the crash were offered around the world for $1 million US dollars, demonstrating what the tabloid press felt a human life was worth, particularly when capturing the bleakest moments. Daniel Ramos, the paparazzo who snapped the infamous image of Spears hitting a car with an umbrella after she had shaved her head, comments in the documentary that the paparazzi is ‘hard to get out of once you start making the kind of money these guys were making’.

Trial by media

A study by Ofcom in 2020 revealed that only 35% of adults use printed media to stay up to date on the latest news whilst 65% use the internet, a platform which, by contrast, can be updated multiple times a day giving users a blow-by-blow account of current events. For many celebrities, the new age of digital news is akin to a nightmare, particularly as we have seen in the case of Caroline Flack.

At the end of 2019, Flack was accused of assaulting her boyfriend, Lewis Burton. In the weeks after the alleged assault, Flack was vilified by the tabloid media and trolled on various social media platforms with The Sun notably running many provocative stories, particularly across their website. Designed to stir up hatred and defame her character, articles including ‘SMILES BETTER: Defiant Caroline Flack beams on Christmas shopping trip the day after tearful court appearance’ implying Flack had not taken the proceeding seriously and ‘‘NEIGHBOUR FROM HELL’ Caroline Flack’s neighbour slams ex-Love Island host over ‘extremely selfish’ 5am parties and noisy arguments’, an article which blurred the line between news and idle gossip.

In addition, to the online assault Flack experienced, she also lost her dream job as Love Island presenter and was banned from having contact with her boyfriend following a decision made by Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court who listed this as a condition of granting bail.

On 15 February 2020, the devastating news was released that Flack had been found dead at her home from a suspected suicide. A wave of shock spread through the UK and for some media outlets, panic. Within hours, The Sun newspapers took down a story from its website highlighting a Valentine’s Day card which read ‘I’ll fucking lamp you’ and featured a picture of Flack. It has since posted a number of articles shining Flack in a much more sympathetic and positive light in comparison to the vitriol it had been posting in the weeks before her death.

The gender disparity

Later in 2020, film star Johnny Depp took The Sun newspaper to court in a high-profile libel case. The case was occupied with The Sun’s publication of a 2018 headline: “GONE POTTY: How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts Film?”. The term ‘wife beater’ was linked to claims that Depp had been violent towards his ex-wife, Amber Heard, between 2013 and 2016, something which he has vehemently denied. It should also be noted that various other accounts of violence perpetrated by Depp have been released including reports that he assaulted a security guard in a Vancouver Hotel in 1989.

Just hours after the verdict had been handed down ruling in favour of The Sun, Depp’s fans took to Twitter with the hashtag ‘JusticeForJohnnyDepp’ claiming that it was in fact him who had been subjected to abuse and violence during his marriage to Heard, a stark contrast to the treatment Flack had received. Newspaper coverage was also significantly less defamatory with many outlets simply reporting the news rather than providing a barrage of other stories which would support a negative perception of the film star. After the claims emerged, GQ magazine released an interview with Depp running with the strapline ‘An outlaw talks (and talks and talks…) The divorce. The violence. The excess. The vengeance.’ suggesting that rather than being a criminal, Depp was misunderstood, an outlier, someone who lives on the fringes of society.

But this is not new. The tabloid media have always shone male celebrities in a more favourable light, even when they have been accused of awful crimes. Despite years of allegations that he had sexually assaulted a number of young women, R Kelly still made chart-topping hits until he was finally incarcerated in 2020. Despite images being released of a bruised and beaten Rihanna, Chris Brown relaunched his career in 2011 with songs such as Yeah 3x, a single which peaked at number fifteen in the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. Despite claims by dozens of women of sexual misconduct, Donald Trump still served a term in the most powerful office in the world. The list goes on of men in powerful positions accused of assault but receiving nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Roman Polanski. James Franco. Brett Kavanagh. But Flack? Flack lost her career, her boyfriend and her life.

The dull of the ‘Markle Sparkle’

In 2017, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement sending a wave of what was termed ‘Markle Sparkle’ across the UK and a sense of nostalgia for the royal wedding in 2001. Women began buying outfits she had been photographed in, trying to replicate her style, and excitement buzzed around the details of the wedding.

However, shortly after the ceremony, and even to some degree before, newspapers, such as The Sun and The Daily Mail, turned on Meghan and began releasing articles designed to stir up feelings of hatred and resentment, something which Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cornwall, has not endured.

The media’s unfavourable coverage of Meghan can largely be attributed to two differences between her and Kate. Whilst Kate and Prince William have indulged the media and given them access to much of their lives, Meghan and Prince Harry have decided to maintain a level of privacy and tried to control the media narrative around them. Meghan’s position as the first bi-racial person to be part of the British Royal Family has also undoubtedly played a role in the hostility she has faced over the last few months.

On announcing their second pregnancy, The Sun released a snarky headline: ‘Publicity-shy woman tells 7.67 billion people: I’m pregnant’, failing to consider that Meghan would have been equally criticised had she not announced the pregnancy and left herself open to media speculation. By contrast, the appalling actions of Prince Andrew, a known associate of convicted sex offender Jeremy Epstein who has also been accused of sexual assault by Virginia Roberts, has largely been ignored by the media outlets that criticise Meghan, once again highlighting the disparity between how men and women are treated by the media.

Where do we go from here?

It is wrong to presume we have learned nothing from the experiences of Britney Spears, Meghan Markle and Caroline Flack. Although history has repeated itself many times over the past few years, lessons have been learned. The Sun removing an inflammatory article about Flack is an acknowledgement of wrongdoing. Heat magazine ditching the trashy articles pitting women against each other simply because of the way they look is an indication that the editors knew their actions were cruel and nefarious. But these actions are not in response to feelings of guilt or shame, they are in response to a fear of consequences. On the passing of Flack, conversations began around the role the media played in her death; as a result, The Sun panicked and removed content from its site. With Meghan and Harry taking legal proceedings against The Mail on Sunday, the paper will likely be more careful about the stories it posts on the couple, all the while finding new female celebrities to target.

Paparazzi and tabloid culture will only persist with its persecution of women until a time comes when actions are properly reprimanded. It will find more subtle and insidious ways to send messages of hatred and to hound women to the point of insanity. How many more women will have to suffer at the hands of the media before something changes? 

Words by Emma Chadwick