I'm Going To Gae Land!

I admit that until last night, I didn't think too much of the amusingly-named Gaelan. He was purportedly the 'clear leader' of the House, according to the Housemates themselves. The 'alpha male'. The leader. The one most likely to win.

But what would they know?

They were basing most of their thoughts on their collective assumptions of what the public's perception of him was likely to be, but this is a fruitless exercise for them to even discuss, let alone come to a conclusion on. How could they possibly know?




So it came as no surprise to me that the public opinion was to evict him. In fact, I don't doubt that this happened largely because every evicted Housemate has said that inside the House, Gaelan is considered the one who will probably win. I reckon the public wanted to send a message that "he's not all that", and until this week, we haven't had the opportunity to do so.

The good things to come out of the eviction last night:

- Gaelan won't win
- Krystal is further unsettled by losing her 'boy'
- The Housemates might be a bit shocked that their 'alpha male' and 'sure-thing winner' is gone
- The House might be further 'rocked' that three males have left the House in the space of two days
- The girls now finally out-number the boys

The bad things to come out of the eviction last night:

- Krystal wasn't too fussed after all
- Gaelan actually seemed like a top bloke during his eviction interview (at least saying all the right things and even -- for the most part -- expressing himself clearly and honestly)
- Karen managed to get her face on my TV screen again

Of course, no account of last night's show would be complete without at least touching on the John/Ashley thing again. While I in no way condone their behaviour at all, I think it's clear that it was a case of three friends mucking around. Perhaps there was too much alcohol involved (not that that's an excuse; I just point it out to suggest that maybe Big Brother should be shouldering a share of the blame/responsibilty for the incident -- much like a pub would, for serving too much alcohol to an inebriated patron). It certainly went too far, and as many have said, it was a stupid thing to do under any circumstances.

The fact that their current circumstances happened to include being on a nationally-televised program that (a) kids watch; (b) contains strict behavioural rules; (c) moral groups attack regularly for low standards and its portrayal of base behaviour; and (d) is determined by popular public vote (mostly by teenage girls; let's not kid ourselves here), shows their even-stupider-than-normal thinking patterns at the time.

It was a stupid thing to do, whether they were mucking around or not. I'm not for a moment suggesting otherwise.

However, it was simply 'mucking around', and although this should never be excused or permitted to carry on (that's how sexual harassment and even workplace bullying are able to thrive; by people excusing it as 'a bit of harmless fun'), I think it's unfortunate for the boys in question that their profiles are so large at the moment that they will invariably be faced with the 'sexual pervert' stigma for a long time to come.

As Camilla, Claire and some of the others said (between sobs) in last night's Daily Show, they're good guys who don't deserve to be labelled in that way for all time. Unfortunately for everyone involved, they probably will be.

I hope you've read the above carefully and that I haven't painted myself as a 'typical male pig', because I still strongly deny that I am accepting their behaviour as okay. It wasn't. It was wrong, disgusting, offensive, pig-headed, bullying, stupid and creepy. They definitely should have been removed from the House. That was 100% the right decision.

But I don't plan to label the guys as 'sexual deviants' for life. They both seemed like great guys until this one mistake, and the anger I suspect they're going to face from the general public is probably going to outweigh anything else they contributed to the series. Is that fair? Maybe, maybe not. It's obviously a matter of opinion as to whether or not people choose to despise them on principle, or just despise their one act of stupidity. I think their public humiliation, embarrassment and shame (in addition to -- presumably -- receiving no prizes after all their time in the House) is possibly a stong enough lesson. I don't think they need to receive an angry tongue-lashing from every quarter as well.

(Naturally, if Camilla's stance on the whole thing was different ... or if she were to change it at any point and say that her initial reaction wasn't a reflection of her true feelings of the incident ... then my view would be very different indeed. But as long as she's maintaining that she was not in fear of her safety/virtue, and that it was all fun and games at the time -- and that the boys stopped when she said 'no' -- then I think the repercussions they and their families will be experiencing are going to drive the point home for them.)

They weren't being malicious. They probably weren't even trying to be sexist. But of course it was a ridiculously dumb thing to do, and I'd say they're going to be paying for it for a long time to come. I'm not going to jump on the "kill them, kill them all" bandwagon, and I hope my views and opinions on this won't simply be disregarded on the basis of my gender.

Camilla is absolutely my new favourite. Until now, I was undecided between her and David, but (through no fault of David's and largely through a very unfortunate incident for Camilla), she is now destined to win Big Brother.

She won my support even before we'd reached the Ashley/John thing on yesterday's Daily Show. When she tried to communicate with Perry about her feelings and Perry continued to talk over her, get angry and bitchy with her, speak so rudely to her and then not allow Camilla to respond to her unfair accusations and belittlings, Wifey and I announced our intense dislike for Perry and our support for Camilla (there's a difference between 'stirring the pot' and simply being a bitch and starting trouble because you're too rude to respect anyone else's rights -- and while Camilla gets a gold medal for being completely upfront, gracious, fair and honest with everyone, even her biggest 'enemy', Perry is an abysmal failure at extending to anyone else the same courtesies she demands of those around her).

Then the Ashley/John incident went down, and Camilla's response all throughout that situation was (to our minds) exemplary. Not once did she wave the flag of women's rights in an unfair and biased way to gain any kind of advantage or level of public support. Not once did she turn on her friends and try to have them punished (nor certainly removed from the game). And after the full story was revealed to the Housemates, not once did she attack their integrity or paint it out to be anything worse than it was, even though they weren't there to defend themselves and she could have conceivably benefitted from playing the 'victim' card for sympathy.

And I'm oh-so-glad that Big Brother made it clear to all the assembled Housemates that not only did Camilla have nothing to apologise for or feel bad about (which of course is true, and a great lesson to any other victims out there), but that she did not request, and in fact specifically asked BB not to punish the guys for the incident.

If taking fifteen hours to contemplate the event before acting ensured that the right stuff was said to Camilla and the group, then I'm glad the time was taken. I'm sure Kris Noble would have stuffed it up in a major way (even if only for Camilla) if he'd knee-jerk responded to it straight away. He has a history of doing that if his script isn't carefully considered beforehand. For once, I was happy with how things were handled.

In fact, with the exception of John and Ashley themselves, I'm quite impressed with how everyone involved has dealt with the situation. Big Brother himself, Gretel's cue cards, Jamie (whose only problem afterwards was with David -- and that was just due to the two of them handling the shock differently; Jamie certainly said all the right things to Camilla even though he'd just lost his two closest remaining friends in the House), and especially Camilla herself. They all did very well with such a tough and intense unexpected development.

So Ashley and John are out of the House, and according to Gretel last night, we'll have the chance to hear from them at some point soon (details tonight). Hopefully by then any anger they'll feel towards the producers of the show for being removed will have evaporated, and they'll have seen enough of the public outcry to realise that they really need to do the right thing and accept their stupidity, apologise for their behaviour, and hopefully move on with their lives having learnt a big lesson about disgracefully unacceptable behaviour (if they haven't already realised all this).






Otherwise, we're all just a nation of stupid ignorant deviants.


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