‘Wiped Out’, ‘Fell Hard’, ‘Down She Goes!’ so ran a couple of headlines in the aftermath of Bella Hadid’s tumble yesterday on the catwalk of Michael Kors' NYFW show. Images of the 19-year-old on her hands and knees quickly circulated, as did shots of onlookers showing pained expressions, hand-to-mouth horror and... people reaching for their phones to document it.
That was probably the saddest sight of all.
People fall over all the time. The conventional human reaction is to help. A lady slipped on the pavement the other day and four of us went to her aid – two to help her up, the third to gather the contents of her bag, and a fourth to hover nearby trying to be useful. That didn’t make us saints, it made us human.
But when it’s Bella Hadid and it’s a fashion show, it’s somehow not ok to help. One might argue that’s to do with the nature of the show – a show is a performance, you can’t break that fourth wall – but when a teenager injures themselves at your feet, show or no show, you try to help – right?
Wrong, apparently. In fact just one man from that mighty wall of photographers seemed in any great rush to give her a hand...
The desire to watch Bella Hadid tumble superseded the human instinct to help her. Which means observers must have really wanted to see what they were seeing, to ignore such a natural reaction without realising.
Why do we like watching famous women fall?
There’s an obvious answer to this question: envy. We often think we are as good as celebrities; in some cases, better. It’s unfair that their career has led them to fame and fortune, whereas ours – at which we work just as hard – only reaps us 20 days holiday a year (if we’re lucky) and a bonus every 12 months (in our dreams).
We especially think this of celebrities with ‘easy’ jobs, like modelling. That just requires beauty (it’s all so subjective anyway...), the ability to maintain a certain weight, being able to walk (down runways) and look moodily into a camera. We could do that.
But we’re not, Bella Hadid is.
So when Bella Hadid falls, we watch because we’re subconsciously hoping for equilibrium – a balancing of the score sheets. She may be QG’s Model of the Year, but look, she fell over. We may be non-celebs watching the action through our iPads in bed, but a picture of us falling over will never go viral. It’s all fair and square in the end...
Another reason we might look at tumbles is because it’s funny (as long as no one is seriously injured, that is). Obviously this doesn’t just apply to famous women, watching anyone fall over can reduce us to giggles.
What makes us so amused? You may be surprised to learn that scientists aren’t sure. David Robson’s article Why Do We Laugh Inappropriately includes UCL neuroscientist Sophie Scott’s theory that laughter is ‘one of our most important [yet] misunderstood behaviours’.
He later explains Oxford University’s Robin Dunbar’s findings that ‘laughter correlates with increased pain threshold, perhaps by encouraging the release of endorphins – chemicals that should also improve social bonding.’
Maybe we laugh at falls as a way of socialising? That would definitely explain why the reaction to Bella’s trip was to reach for that camera-phone and share a snap on social media...
Then there’s the post-fall reaction. Might we like watching to see what happens next?
Bella looked unsurprisingly alarmed, but later Instagramed a snap captioning it ‘Seconds before’ accompanying it with a laughing face and a monkey emoji. When Naomi Campbell fell over at Vivienne Westwood’s show in 1993, she sat on the floor and laughed. When Agyness Deyn tripped not once, but twice, at the Fashion for Relief Haiti show in 2010 she took her shoes off, clapped and curtseyed. When Madonna fell backwards down a flight of stairs in last year’s Brit Awards, she kept on singing. Jennifer Lawrence has practically turned falling over into her standard red carpet entrance...
There’s nothing like seeing a celebrity rescue their own reputation by smoothly brushing off an embarrassment; it makes them even more star-worthy in our eyes. That might also be what we’re looking for when we watch them fall over; confirmation that they really are that great by ever so cooly getting up again.
But for all the psychological/scientific reasons we might cite that compel us to click on that headline ‘Down She Goes!’ the moment we do, we regret it. Because there’s something quite awful about a woman falling to the ground. We feel sad for her and bad for looking, because to watch it is to somehow be complicit; we’re contributing to her humiliation.
The next time we witness a fall, we should listen to our instincts and help – whether a perceived ‘show barrier' lies between us or otherwise. But if we’re not in such a position, we should turn and look away: the sight of a young girl sprawled on the floor is no laughing matter.
Follow Edwina Langley on Twitter @EdwinaLangley
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