This morning, Cat Deeley was trending on Twitter. Why? Because according to some ITV viewers, she’s ‘too nice’. Yes, really. The award-winning TV presenter is filling in for Lorraine Kelly this week as host of Lorraine, while the much-loved presenter takes a week off.
Presenting interviews with Tom Odell and Stacey Solomon, Cat Deeley’s temporary hosting role appeared to go down a treat with some viewers who demanded she remain a permanent fixture. It comes after she also appeared on Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway for a special edition of CHUMS.
Her familiar ease in front of the camera, fun attitude and witty interview technique made for some great morning TV. But, according to some, it was that fun-loving sensibility she’s known for that made her unwatchable.
‘Cat Deeley is too fucking happy,’ one viewer tweeted to hundreds of likes. ‘I’m crabby in the morning, can’t be doing with wind-up toys like that.’ With countless others like it, many have since took to social media to express their disappointment with the commentary.
‘Check Twitter, see Cat Deeley is trending, being the nosey cow I am I have a look and witness a barrage of tweets complaining she is too happy and upbeat,’ one person tweeted. ‘What a complete load of morons Twitter has who have nothing better to do but moan about the most ridiculous things!’
‘Saw Cat Deeley trending so figured I’d open it,’ another added. ‘Toxic as hell. We don’t learn from our mistakes, do we?’
Even the tabloids noticed the hate-brigade, with news of Cat being ‘too happy and nice’ making headlines this morning. Now, as the presenter trends on Google with people searching for ‘Cat Deeley on Lorraine’, it seems everyone wants to watch for themselves and make their own judgements.
If we smile too much, we're too nice but if we don't smile enough, we're bitchy.
Watching all of this play out, one thing is painfully apparent: women really can’t win. If we smile too much, make one too many jokes or are too animated and expressive, we’re too nice and happy. Yet, if we’re not smiling enough, don’t make enough jokes and appear apathetic, we’re too mean and bitchy. Hell, if we even let our faces rest for more than one second we have ‘resting bitch face’.
You would think, given the dreariness of life right now, that seeing someone so happy on our screens would bring a shred of happiness to the public mood, not warrant complaints online. Because the thing is, while many tweeting might not think much of it, those tweets can easily be read by the person you’re tweeting about – and definitely will be by those around you.
It’s yet another reminder to practice some semblance of caution before posting online. It might be a throwaway thought, a minor comment that you barely think about again, but once it’s online it makes a much stronger statement than you think. The negativity is compounded, and when it’s aimed at women it’s almost always shrouded in internalised misogyny that we should be actively fighting against, not perpetuating.
So while it might only be natural to see Cat Deeley and think ‘Bloody hell, I wish I was that happy first thing in the morning’, it’s worth remembering that thinking it and tweeting it are two very different things. As so many shared this morning, the internet can be an extremely toxic place – especially for women – and we can choose to make it brighter and more supportive of women if we just think before we tweet.
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