Hello Tattlers, sorry for interrupting and huge apologies for veering off topic- I came to the party late after Freaky Friday, but since watching the compelling narcissistic rage video have been lurking ever since. I just wanted to say hello, and thank you for all your insightful and entertaining posts since then and all the fantastic beauty tips and suggs.
I’ve been mulling over what has happened as a result of this thread and upon the currency of trust. SH capitalised on the Guardian brand to secure the trust and following of her many fans. She was adamant that she alone could be trusted in the industry as a uniquely ‘honest’ voice in beauty. Most of those who post here were readers of her column and many of us shelled out for products she recommended. Now as an influencer she sells that trust to the highest bidder for ££. Her undeclared many free haircuts and treatments, botox and filler use and duplicitous soft selling of favoured brands is so glaringly obvious now, but was hidden in plain sight for years. Commenting on this doesn’t make you a ‘tragic duck’. People like this deliberately cultivate an intimacy with their readers and profit from it, but when they betray the trust that has been bestowed upon them they can’t understand why people are annoyed - ‘disgruntled’ even - and perhaps want to discuss and query it somewhere.
I wonder if ‘situational narcissism’ might possibly be relevant here? Being deluged with so many freebies for so many years, and being perpetually courted by PRs and luxury brand publicists no doubt enhances any latent narcissistic leanings. Twitter hasn’t helped matters either. This absurd fetish for blue ticker friends and acquaintances was weirdly manifested at her wedding - which seemed to function as some kind of real life Twitter coronation. By the way, I am not at all saying she has any kind of PD here at all - just that the behaviour we're looking at seems to be pretty narcissistic, as does the behaviour of so many other online 'gurus' and influencers.. Why we give our trust away so freely to these people I do not know..
Now the Guardian below-the-line has been closed, this thread provides such a lovely necessary adjunct to the beauty column and I've learnt so much from you all - even bought otc tretinoin from the continent and about to invest in a nu-face mini. Paradoxically, I have also massively reined in my general spending on beauty products after spending time on this thread - a very pleasing and unexpected consequence indeed - thank you all so much!