In the normal course of a year, the phenomenon known as Big Brother is a tedium to be avoided, much like watching paint dry and only engaged with when my daughter visits and insists on switching it on. The season just ended last night, of Celebrity BB got me, not exactly hooked but ensnared my attention because of the dynamics in that group.
At first, they looked like the most boring bunch, but that soon changed as the fault lines of class, gender, disability, age, race, and level of fame/obscurity played out.
None of these people came across as likeable and even with the awareness that the programme is edited and because I only saw the occasional few minutes at first, I started to judge what was going on. And my limited analysis appeared to indicate an appalling amount of sexism which the programme makers allowed to flourish whereas any hint of racism is immediately squelched.
The male/female groupings were apparent from early on and Tina, who was most spectacularly genuinely herself, at least in comparison to the self-preservatory antics of others, was quickly eliminated, but managed, thankfully, to give Coolio a well deserved dressing down. This affected him not one whit, and then she was gone and he carried on with laddish behaviour and encouraged the other ‘bro’s’ to side with him, which they did. Such is peer pressure.
The furore over his misogyny did not materialise and I was obviously naïve to expect it to. I’m not the only person to come to this conclusion about the programme. The Fword has a reasonable explanation and varied comments on it all. But thank goodness the only woman left in it won, so there is a little justice in TV land.
http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2009/01/sexism_in_the_h#comment16907
My other comments are on Barack and his efforts to live up to his Ms Magazine billing as a ‘feminist’. He has undone the Global Gag Rule which his predecessor signed into effect on his first day in the White House 8 years ago, thus demonstrating his vile disregard for women globally. Anyway, Barack has removed that and this means that agencies in many countries can provide comprehensive advice to women on all aspects of fertility management without risking their USA funding. Nothing can undo the devastation to women’s lives that the Global Gag Rule caused and no one can ever tally how many women died or were pushed further into poverty because of it.
http://www.populationaction.org/globalgagrule/Summary.shtml
Following Barack’s example, can we now expect Westminster to extent the same rights to choice to the women in Northern Ireland? In terms of devolution, one of the few things I do not complain about is that abortion is a reserved issue, otherwise the frock-wearing incense burners and their ilk would have seized every opportunity to reverse Scottish women’s rights to control their own bodies.
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