Naomi Campbell and Shropshire’s Faye Turney. At first glance these two women may seem to have little in common.
Faye’s a happily married mother-of-one who works as a sailor while Naomi is a single but lavishly-paid supermodel who travels the globe gracing the most famous catwalks.
Worlds apart surely. But this month both have been in hot water for cashing in for the wrong reasons.
Naomi sparked widespread criticism when she turned her community service in New York into her latest fashion shoot.
Arriving each day at work in a different designer outfit worth thousands of pounds she managed to secure a six-figure deal for the shoot to appear in the W glossy magazine.
The designers also celebrated their own share of publicity with the shots appearing in newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Faye is also believed to have clinched a lucrative deal to tell all about her ordeal in Iran.
The 26-year-old was captured by Iranian troops and held for 13 days before a surprise announcement saw her released from captivity.
But the widespread relief soon turned to widespread condemnation when the lucrative deal was agreed with the Sun newspaper and Tonight with Trevor Macdonald.
Current and former troops together with politicians and political commentators said it was unacceptable for any of the crew held in Iran to sell their stories and Faye came in for particularly harsh criticism .
So both women found themselves surrounded in controversy for a pretty similar reason.
But if we’ve looking for a target for protest than look no further than Naomi. Her circumstances put the whole furore over Faye into perspective.
Naomi was convicted of a crime - and one which injured another person and made them fear for their safety.
Her sentence was community service in a bid to make her do her bit to pay back society for a wrong-doing.
But she turned it into a money-making and ridiculous parade of injustice - one day arriving in a sparkling sequin dress.
It was for all to see - a massive joke. And one which laughed in the face of those who have been a victim of crime.
Faye on the other hand had something worth selling because she was doing her duty - serving her country.
Let’s not forget she was putting her life in danger for the rest of us.
And then when it came to selling her story it was with the permission of those she has come to trust will guide her in her career.
She didn’t try and break any rules or regulations.She didn’t ignore policy or any order just because she had her eyes on the big money. She was merely doing what she was told she could do and for the good of her family.
During her 13-day ordeal Faye was separated from her colleagues, measured for a coffin and told she would never see her daughter again.
She feared each day could be her last. When she was told she could go home all she wanted was to see and cuddle her daughter Molly again and be with her family.
Naomi escaped any time in prison because she was handed out the community service order.
She is unlikely to have done a really hard day’s work in her life.
And profit she made from such an experience should be seized by the authorities and passed to a fund for compensation for victims of crime.
Any sane person would begrudge Miss Campbell this cash.
But equally how can we begrudge Miss Turney any monies that may have been paid to her or her family.
If it makes life a little easier for her or her daughter Molly than that can only be a good thing.
There are far ore undeserving cases that merit our protests and those protests should be heard loud and clear.
By Women’s Editor Tracey O’Sullivan
One Comment
The thing that Naomi and Faye have in common is that they are both being picked on by the press for reasons that are absolutely trivial and unimportant.
Naomi Campbell was assigned to do work for her community service and she had to get dressed to go to the job; she is a model so everything she has is pretty stylish plus she takes pride in herself so she should dress to look presentable. It doesn’t make since for people to give her flack for simply getting dressed to do a job and face it, she’s beautiful so no matter where she goes she’s going to get attention in New York; even if she is going shopping for groceries she’s going to make it look like a fashion she. She can’t help the way she walks or looks.
In the case of Faye she is a sailor who was captured by Iran and released. She is telling her story, and why not, what is the big deal. Listen, I am a veteran of a war myself. In the case of a war when someone is captured it is a horrible thing obviously and if you are fortunate to break out or be freed you don’t really tell the story because it is a case of honour, you were doing a job for the nation not for fame. Sometimes veterans who were captured will talk about their story after the war is over and make money from it once they are out of the military because that is an honourable thing because when you are out of the military you are released from the oath of nation service. The thing with Faye is this even though she is serving the nation and has honour to uphold in her service to the crown she was not captured in battle or even by a nation that the UK is at war with, Iran is technically neutral, so even while she was doing her duty her capture was not a situation of honour as much as it was a diplomatic inconvenience.
Both Naomi and Faye are to women who are being judged by bais lenses.