By David Broder
The recent media furore over the “revelation” that Kate Moss uses cocaine is a cynical bid to undermine the model’s career and a show of totally feigned “moral outrage” at her behaviour. The most alarming element of the media’s violent criticism of Moss is the casual sexism, bolstered by how at odds it is with their attitude towards her boyfriend, Pete Doherty, who has regularly used heroin.
Not even the most reactionary of the bourgeois papers will be genuinely shocked by one of the fashion/showbiz elite using class A drugs — such behaviour is only to be expected. But it was the Mirror which broke the “story” and displayed the most outrage.
When Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty takes heroin he is seen as a “bit of a lad” who happens to have a drugs problem. Kate Moss is portrayed as a disgrace, a stain on the nation’s morals. The Daily Mirror even referred in the same sentence to the heroin user Doherty as “the troubled rocker”, and, counterposed to that, “the coke-snorting Moss”! It is hard to believe that the paper sees a qualitative difference between the habits of Moss and Doherty — the explanation lies in a sexist outlook.
Kate Moss, unlike Doherty, isn’t allowed to take drugs because that doesn’t fit an image they want to peddle of what she’s meant to be. They put forward an ideal of an immaculately behaved woman who never says or does anything but stand there looking pretty. In contrast, Pete Doherty's drug taking and spells in rehab are all part of his image as a rebel who doesn’t give a toss what anyone thinks — “the law is a pain in the arse” he says, and we laugh.
In neither case is their drug taking admirable, or a legitimate protest against the establishment. The fact that Doherty relies on cultivating such an image to make up for his now total lack of musical talent is pathetic. But it’s none of the papers’ business to criticise their private life, and it certainly isn’t appropriate for them to pick and choose for which celebrities drug abuse is acceptable.
The editors of the Mirror or Sun (who also got in on the act) would argue that Kate Moss is a “role model”, duty bound to set an example to impressionable youth. But she hasn’t set herself up as a role model, and doesn’t claim to be perfect. It’s not like she’s the Pope who claims to have some sort of moral superiority over the rest of us. Her fame, and her job, are not based on her personal conduct, but on her beauty, and there’s no reason why she should be under pressure to take a “moral” path for people take an interest in her career. After almost all of the brands she endorses ended their contracts with her, the jewellers H Stern claimed that “we hired Moss for her beauty, not her habits”, and that “her personal life does not concern us”. There support quickly crumbled under the commercial-moral pressure of the tabloids. The company cancelled their deal with her.
Kate Moss is stupid to take crack cocaine because it is so dangerous — two of her past boyfriends died of drug overdoses — and because it brings into question how well she’s looking after her three-year-old daughter. However the fact that it’s illegal, and that it doesn’t fit her carefully cultivated media image are totally irrelevant. It’s pathetic that the papers can still get away with peddling “shock-horror” about a female celebrity taking drugs and even see it as worse than a man doing the same thing.
The real tragedy however is that most people who are unfortunate enough to be addicted to class A drugs are not celebrities — who are often above the law. They can expect to be locked up for what they do in their private life, not merely mocked by the tabloids.