By Stephen Glover
PUBLISHED: 19:21 EST, 4 December 2013 | UPDATED: 19:21 EST, 4 December 2013
Am I alone in feeling uneasy about the way in which the 19-year-old Olympic diver Tom Daley has publicised his homosexual relationship, as well as about the near unanimous acclaim of the media?
For those who have been asleep these past few days, Daley has won enormous publicity by posting a five-and-a-half-minute 'selfie' on YouTube in which he tells his fans he has fallen in love with a man.
The BBC has played the video ad nauseam, and the Press has been full of approving articles, by no means all of them written by homosexuals. Even The Sun, which over the years hasn't necessarily been the favourite newspaper of most gays, hailed Tom Daley for his bravery.
Now, it is perfectly true that those of us who do not care one way or another whether he is straight or gay can ignore the story. I do not dispute that many people are interested in it.
And I also accept that Daley's confession may make it easier for other sportsmen, and perhaps less exalted young people, to 'come out'. In this sense he has probably done a service.
My Mail colleague Andrew Pierce, who is gay, wrote movingly in this paper yesterday about the prejudice and incomprehension which he encountered as a young gay man. Understandably, he welcomes Daley's candour and hopes it will inspire others. So do I.
But I wonder whether the young sportsman could not have had as positive an effect by making a much shorter statement, or by delivering it in brief, printed form. We are in some way victims of manipulation in which much of the media has connived. And I belive that, in the end, Tom Daley will find he is a victim, too.
Perhaps the most illuminating critique of the video appeared in yesterday's Media Guardian, written by a well-known PR guru called Mark Borkowski. The piece was entirely supportive of Daley. What was interesting was that it examined the 'selfie' entirely in PR terms.
According to Borkowski, the video was 'an impressive example of strategic control'. Daley is 'a celebrity brand' who has 'taken the step to shape the narrative in advance of a high-profile TV format, ITV entertainment show, Splash! [which stars Daley], returning to our screens'.
Being a PR man who is paid to think up PR 'strategies', Borkowski applauded Daley's performance. As a journalist, I flatter myself that I can usually spot a celebrity attempting to use the media.
It is, of course, possible that Daley was not being manipulative or, at any rate, that manipulation was not his first motive. There have been rumours about his sexuality in cyberspace and he may have wanted to head off potentially distressing adverse Press attention by posting a video.
Maybe, but was it necessary to maunder on for five-and-a-half minutes to make the point? Perhaps I am over-suspicious, but I can't help feeling that we were, to paraphrase Borkowski, being 'controlled' by Daley - or, much more to the point, by his PR-savvy advisers.
He first mentions his father (and trainer) who died of cancer in May 2011, before expressing his anger over an interview which allegedly misquoted him, and stressing his honesty. Only about halfway through does he reveal he has fallen in love with a 'guy', before expressing certainty that his father would approve and saying his mother has been supportive.
Just in case his female admirers should despair, he is able to reassure them. 'Of course I still fancy girls,' he says. In other words, things could change. I can almost hear his advisers counselling him to remember to make this point.
Does it matter? Only if, like some in the Press, we put Tom Daley on a pedestal and clamp a halo on his head. In a way, I don't blame him for the video. It's those who treat him as though he is just down from Mount Sinai I most object to - and the people around him who are pulling his strings.
The fact is that, as Mark Borkowski has noted, Daley does have a reality show on ITV in the New Year, and it is a certain bet that more people will now watch it than would otherwise have been the case.
Daley is also appearing on the Jonathan Ross Show, due to be aired this Saturday, in the course of which Ross will make it clear that he had been booked to come on later in the series to talk about Splash!, but had 'wanted to move it early'. Excerpts from the interview, presumably released to encourage the public to watch the programme, reveal that Daley had a girlfriend just months before he took up with his boyfriend. It's hard not to conclude that the timing of the YouTube video was carefully managed. This 'selfie' may well embolden other gay sportsmen to come out, but it can't be denied that in this instance it is also a calculated piece of self-promotion.
Do we really want to know so much about Tom Daley's sex life? I expect some people do. We live in a world in which many want to share their secrets with strangers online. But I am sure that many others would prefer a short and dignified statement, which would have certainly been in his interests.
For he is fatally mistaken if he believes that in divulging these secrets he will retain control of what follows. On the contrary, now he has opened his private life to the media, he will find he has created an insatiable appetite for further disclosures.
Already it is being reported that his lover is an Oscar-winning prominent gay activist called Dustin Lance Black, who is more than twice his age. Daley's mother may be supportive, but I wonder what she would think if she had a 19-year-old daughter who was being dated by a 39-year-old man?
I'm afraid that everywhere Tom Daley goes he will find himself pursued by questions about his sexuality - the more so since he has publicly confessed that he is still attracted to girls.
Daniel Radcliffe, the star of the Harry Potter films, rightly observed last week that celebrities who 'go on Twitter and tell everyone what [they are doing] at the moment' cannot reasonably lay claim to a private life. What applies to Twitter applies ten times more to lengthy and introspective videos on YouTube.
Perhaps Tom Daley won't mind. Perhaps he craves a continual obsession with his private life. I rather doubt it, though. I think he is an admirable young man coming to terms with his sexuality who has been hung out to dry by unscrupulous advisers.
He may be old for his years, but he is still only 19 and has not long ago lost a much-loved father. No doubt he wants fame, but he is being recklessly advised to purchase it at too high a price.
That is why I profoundly disagree with the likes of Mark Borkowski, with his silly praise of Daley's 'strategic control' and his 'celebrity brand', and how he is supposedly shaping his own 'narrative'.
Those old-fashioned British values of reserve, discretion and modesty would have served Tom Daley far, far better.
0 comments Blogger 0 Facebook
Post a Comment