She Who Shall Not Be Named

According to Wikipedia it has been just under two years since I first became aware of She who shall not be named (SWSNBN). She was a guest on This Morning with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby. She lamented the names that some children are given and how she may judge a person based purely on their first name. Even to the extent that she may forbid her own children from association with people she deems are probably lower class just because of their name.

It was a Youtube video that went viral and was shared across Twitter and Facebook to the point that I could no longer ignore it and chose to watch it. I shrugged it off. I thought that SWSNBN was just some random commentator on one of those cheap magazine style shows who would get her fifteen minutes of fame before disappearing into obscurity once again.

However I was wrong and this SWSNBN refused to go away. Turns out she was no stranger to the spotlight. This person has already been a contestant on The Apprentice and I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. On the former show, it seems SWSBNB had already attracted some degree of controversy for some remarks. After her appearance on This Morning, SWSNBN’s profile skyrocketed and of course This Morning‘s producers were more than happy to bring her back repeatedly for the ratings and the advertising money that would inevitably come along with it. This Morning isn’t the only media production to attach themselves to SWSNBN. The Sun newspaper have also given SWSNBN a page every week in which to express her opinions.

Those opinions have more than often skirted into the insulting of various groups of people such as Muslims, migrants, the Scottish, victims of dementia and most recently, one child who struggles with ADHD.

SWSNBN also has a Twitter account to spread her gospel 24/7 (@SWSNBN)

I thought it might be easy to avoid such an ignorant woman and dismiss her as just another desperate semi famous person using an online outlet to try and attract media attention to their opinions (See also: Russell Brand and his ‘Trews’). However it’s increasingly difficult when every ounce of breath that comes out of SWSNBN’s mouth is leaped upon by the media. Every opinion, no matter what, is given ample space in the newspapers, Youtube videos, twitter retweets and yes, blogs.

In situations like this, it’s easy to say something like “Well, she can’t control what the media chooses to report on. She has no say in that.” Except she does. SWSNBN knows that whatever she says in whatever forum, she will attract attention and as many people have already pointed out, she thrives upon it. It fuels her profile. And there’s nothing SWSNBN loves more than negative attention. I don’t know what sort of person wakes up in the morning and says “Oh, it’s been three days since I got a mention in the news. I guess I better insult a minority group to pick that number up.” I have a picture in my head of SWSNBN having a spinning wheel on her wall split into sixteen sections with labels like ‘Dyslexic people’, ‘The Polish’, ‘same sex couples’.

Much like a previous article, I propose a solution to this problem. Ignore her. Don’t share articles relating to her. Don’t even say her name! If attention is what she thrives upon, take that away from her. Starve her of it. Make her realise that nobody cares for her at all to the point where she becomes as relevant as the BNP. It’s a moonshot but perhaps media outlets will stand up and take notice. Perhaps they’ll realise that nobody cares about SWSNBN. Those fifteen minutes I thought she would have are slowly turning into fifteen years (ok, a bit of an exaggeration but you get my point) and to be honest, it’s rather depressing* that such a vile woman is given such exposure and is making money from it.

*Oh depression, there’s another one SWSNBN could comment on!