"Common sense has to prevail here."
Love it or loathe it Big Brother is a broadcasting phenomenon. It portrays a splinter of our society, for better or worse. To what degree this splinter is representative of you is down to who the producers pick, but let's face it, they are representative of someone *cough* Club-Med Bali *cough*
Over here in the UK the local newspapers have spread over double pages news of calls for Big Brother Australia to be axed due to "alleged sexual assault".
Media fucking hype! A piss poor ploy from Network Ten to get more ratings and from every conservative political party... sorry, every political party in the country to rant about the how the show is pushing our nation down the slippery slope of moral decay. If you are out of the country (or have never been there) here is how the imaginatively named Channel Seven and Channel Ten (home of BB) reported it.
Shocking! Disgusting! Perverted! The show must be cancelled immediately! I can't believe they were able to get away with what they did!
Except this is the footage of what went on:
Yes, I agree they violated the terms of the Big Brother contract. It is entirely the right of Southern Star Endemol and Network Ten to "evict" them. I think it is the wrong decision. But to call for the axing of the show over an incident that happens every night of the week in Club-Meds across the world is absolutely ridiculous. To have politicians commenting on it on national television is downright surreal.
I agree that the producers of BBOz don't do the show a real service. Over here, BBUK is a hell of a lot cleaner, and a good deal more entertaining because of it. It is still trash, though, and always will be.
For this to be blown up like it has been smacks of Channel Ten getting burnt in the fire they have been throwing petrol on. I just wish they would remember that there are real lives involved here.
If there is something I am missing because I am outside it all, please let me know. Honestly it looks to me to be a big pile of bollocks.
Tags: Big Brother Australia, sexual assault, video
posted by walypala @ 5:43 am
8 Comments:
Not every political party has used it as an opportunity for moralistic grandstanding, Mike. The leader of the Democrats Andrew Bartlett has accused the other parties of exploiting the issue.
"Until I see politicians or other public figures take on the alcohol industry in a similarly strong and unequivocal way for advertising which encourages sexually predatory behaviour, and against the music and TV industry for screening - in prime children’s viewing time on a Saturday morning - innumerable music video clips which objectify, commodify and sexualise women in a one-dimensional way, then I can only assume those who are currently jumping on the ‘axe Big Brother’ bandwagon are just a pack of hypocrites trying to pick on an easy target to build up their ‘moral’ credentials."
More details at: http://www.andrewbartlett.com/blog/
I wonder if I am truly out of touch with the zeitgeist, when the entire Big Brother bollocks just strikes me as nothing but vacuous, self-perpetuating tedium wrapped in product-placements.
Don't get me wrong: no-one should try and prevent the public from enjoying their circuses, but the fact that it is now embraced - let alone acknowledged - by politicians (of any stripe) as an "issue" seems nothing more than a deliberate distraction or a desperate attempt to seem relevant.
It's all so utterly depressing I want to vomit.
Donald, you are not missing anything, Big Brother is a big pile of steaming manure. That is not to say that fishing through it to find the golden corn is not fun!
That is why I find it so ridiculous that all these "politicians" are piping up about it. Richard, Andrew Bartlett has hit the nail square on the head with that one. Thanks for restoring my faith in Australia, even if it is just a little.
Australia's current stand on censorship is wearing increasingly thin with me. First films, then the Internet, now Big Brother. When will they learn that the choice should be watch or not watch, not show or not show.
I'm tempted to call Camilla the slapper!
Especially since she was wearing that mini skirt!
I don't think it even warrants the assigning of deservedness to either party. It was a stupid party trick, which was bound to happen when you put "that sort" of population in tight confines and ply them with alcohol.
Camilla knew what was going on before she came over, it is not like she was disgusted.
Of course, I haven't watched the show in its entirety, apparently there was "bullying" going on between them before that, which does put a different slant on it.
For this reason I am now shutting my mouth on the subject.
Zzzzippp!
Oh, thanks for the shout out, Michael.
Uh, why shouldn't those fools been evicted? The assaulted a woman while she was asleep! You might think this is all fun and games but for that woman it wasn't. Do you know if that woman might have suffered previous sexual abuse? How might this experience traumatized her or induced permanent fear or distrust into her?
I think it's really appalling that you could be so uncaring of this woman's feelings. Your boys will be boys attitude speaks loudly to a serious problem you have.
How do you think your mother, sister, aunt or other female loved one feel if two men held her down and one rubbed his genitals on her face?
Damn, you really are an ignorant person.
unZzzippp!
Noah, I am more than willing to engage in discussion on this point but I'd like to clear some issues up before we begin.
Firstly, I made it perfectly clear that I am living in the United Kingdom at the moment and have not been privy to the full story of this saga or the backgrounds of the participants beyond what I have seen broadcast on the Internet. I openly admitted in my post that I am not in the best position to make a call on this.
Secondly, you write of a woman being held down and assaulted in her sleep. I assume you think Camilla was sleepwalking when she walked giggling over to the bed. If we are going to discuss this issue, would you kindly read my whole post carefully AND actually watch the video. I cannot recommend this strongly enough, given that the purpose of the post was to discuss the observed disparity between the footage and the furore that you seem to have bought into blindly.
Okay then, ready?
Noah, I am not uncaring of Camilla's feelings in this matter. In fact, the reason I can be so cavalier in my post is that Camilla herself stated that the boys were just mucking around and that the so-called assault was simply a joke they took too far. She did not believe that they should have been evicted.
Now, I mentioned that I didn't have the whole story and there has apparently been some bullying going on in the house involving the three. In that light the issue is more complex.
As for my boys will be boys attitude, believe me, it extends to girls will be girls. I am under no illusion that girls, especially drunk Australian girls are backwards in coming forwards. Believe me, I have seem enough girls on the bus, making the trek between The Walkabout and The Redback to see the class that Australian men and women have to offer.
If this incident had involved Camilla objecting and telling the boys to get away I would support the fallout wholeheartedly. As it was it involved her walking over, laughing and sticking around trying to get her own back.
I reiterate here that this is a view I have formed purely from this out-of-context clip and my experiences with Big Brother Australia in the past. Perhaps you can shed some light on why the scene should be reinterpreted.
As for your comments on previous sexual abuse, I find your point rather specious. Were the world to be hung up on such things it would very quickly lose any sense of humour. If this "assault" was intended in any way to be mean-spirited then it can stand very well as a transgression in its own right irrespective of previous abuse issues.
Anyway, I hope I have made myself a little clearer. I invite you to explore the rest of the blog so that you can perhaps re-examine your accusations of ignorance. Flippant maybe, infantile, yes but I wouldn't myself bound straight to ignorant. Of course, that is your call.
Just make sure you've bothered to actually read before you rant.
I like that... "read before you rant"
I think I should have used it on my former boss a few times...
It could be a new world motto.
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