Cute and ditsy + the hottest man ever= female vote

By being the best dancer the show has ever seen. ****

Kara is far from ditsy , Have you seen her programme on dyslexia at all ? A very intelligent and kind genuine and empathetic girl ,who has overcome major hurdles with severe dyslexia .

I agree about the hot male though!!!

But to win SCD by being the best dancer ever to appear is the way to go .

I thought she was a very likeable person - came over as very genuine and not up herself. I had thought from her Eastenders days she might have a diva attitude but I'm happy to admit that I was very wrong.

I'm glad she and artem won, a very likeable couple who were also the best dancers for me.

So you think a humble/genuine/cute personality = ditsy? I think you need to research the definition of the word then.

I thought Rachel was this ^^^^ at the time but she didn't win.

Personality definitely has a role to play. Luckily Kara had both.

I thought she came over as a really nice person, and was a great dancer, she deserved her win!! ( from a Pam & James supporter)

Nooooo!! I love ditsy, I mean what's wrong with ditsy??? She's adorable and I voted for her every week after watching her dyslexia programme. I have 2 dyslexic sons and I know how hard it is for dyslexics to keep things in their short term memory and the battles she must have had to overcome. well done to Artem who adjusted his teaching to embrace her learning style.
ALL I MEANT was that it girls don't normally get female vote, but as she was a non threatening affable girl and teamed with MR Hotty she succeeded and it is wonderful because she is the most deserving winner!

Ditsy she ain't. Grounded and self-deprecating I'd say. I think that's why she was embarrassed to win. She knew she was injured and knew she mucked up. I think she really expected matt to win. She still doesn't realise she is as good as she is! She hasn't been scored 40, quite rightly, for minor errors but I'm dances which were off the scale in emotional connection and difficulty than the others. That's what makes a winning girl.

I wish people would stop banging on about how difficult it is to win as a girl. Are we not at 50/50 in gender split on winners now?

Same, Rachel is one of my favourite contestants ever.

but I think Kara slightly edges it.

For me:

1. Kara
2. Rachel
3. Jill/Alesha

You kind of have a point. First of all, it's not to detract from Kara's ability, she is one of the best dancers Strictly has ever had. But, had she been anything but apologetic, humble, demure and un-threatening, I doubt she would have been so popular; Kara only came into her own during the last month or so of Strictly where she truly excelled herself (before that she was rather wooden) - if she had been consistently that good, I doubt she would have been as popular, and would have been deemed a 'judges favourite', which would pretty much assure that they wouldn't win.

For unfathomable reasons to me, the mass British public especially, do not like people who 'own' their talent, and the more talented they are, the more humble they need to be about it to be accepted – otherwise you'll find a large section of society who feel the need to 'bring them down a peg or two', like it's some sort of sport. If you happen to be a talented woman, this seems to be even more so. The funny thing is, this kind of attitude towards women, seems to come from other women more so than men, or at least, they are more vocal about it.

The fact that she was edited as 'ditzy' certainly helped her. Either way though, she was an excellent dancer.

A very moving program (which is on BBC3 or BBC4 this week...watch it) about Kara's dyslexia shows that with a bit of hard work can do for somebody...her being very pleasing on the eye helps as well but she won by being the best ever celeb dancer on SCD

I have to agree.

I find it hard to imagine that any of the voters are men, though.

my OH texted me the following 'yay Kara won - threw a few votes her way'

he's a 6ft 2, 17 stone West Ham fan by the way

ha ha

I wouldn't have said she was ditsy. She seems very grounded and down to earth.

I (female) voted for her cos she was a brilliant dancer who deserved to win (although the other two would have been worthy winners too - in fact I'd been voting for Pamela most weeks).

I'd go as far as to say she's the best celeb dancer they've had on SCD.

Tonight, 8pm

Thank you StrictlyRed. I have seen about half of it on I Player a few weeks ago, but I got cut off and didn't get to see the rest, so this is great that it is being repeated!

Rachel is always a mystery to me, she is a gorgeous dancer, but she misses something the other three have, but I couldn't tell you what it is.

I actually think this year proved the public use pretty much the same criteria for men and women. Scott was the overmarked teacher's pet who the public didn't like, yet people have said for years that it was only women who suffered from that.

Every winner shares one thing for one reason or another the public love to watch them dance.

You cannot place her, she does not remind you of anyone you know or would like to know. Evidently you live a sheltered life and never visit a robot factory.

Kara became the total package as a dancer towards the end, which became evident in the semi-final. She had a very pleasant personality, was slightly vulnerable, but not too much, and she had Artem as choreographer/partner. A lot of factors combined to make her very vote-able for.

So sincerely unassuming that she can't be accused of falseness, faux humility, simpering, trying too hard, being smug, ambitious, manipulative, calculating etc etc etc

Yep. Great analysis Linda.

I maintain that it's harder for female celebrities to win viewers over, but if they come across as warm, genuine, have a sense of humour and don't gush (I think Kara & Alesha both had these qualities) then they stand a chance!

Viewers are more flexible with the blokes - they can get away with being quite shy, or being a bit more arrogant, or being overtly quite sexy, or throwing wobblies.

I don't think Artem quite counts as "the hottest man ever".