And in the Blue/Black/Brown/Yellow window...
I haven't been watching Celebrity Big Brother this week. That puts me into a minority already, I know. I only watched it once, when Leo Sayer demanded to view his contract. Instead, I've been watching the news reports about the show. What has fascinated me is that a single incident on television has captured the headlines and gripped people's attentions not just in Britain, but halfway around the world, and looks like only briefly being displaced from the top spot by the actual storms that have just hit us.
I wonder if anyone appreciates just how brilliant the Channel 4 team have been? They have got thier program elevated to the point where it has been mentioned in parliamentary debates and the prime minister forced to acknowledge that there are discussions on sofas outside of his own cosy room at number 10 that can have earth-shattering ramifications. They have got their program onto the must-discuss list in a country where the chancellor is now unable to walk down the street without being asked to give his opinion on what's been happening on it. They have managed to push the botched execution in Iraq firmly down the list, and even managed to overshadow the news that the senate in America is gearing up to challenge the Bush plan for death or glory in Iraq. They have nearly doubled the viewing audience in this country alone, and have obviously got it high on the list of possible exports to overseas markets.
And, as far as I can see, they've done it without it (the program) actually being racist. As they (the C4 spokespersons) have said, it was really a bit of cattiness between females, with a hint of class division thrown in. There was no actual name-calling, none of the taunts you heard during some of the football matches, just some hints at different customs and accents and spellings of names. Almost normal, in fact. After all, it is supposed to be reality TV.
Perhaps we've gone overboard on this notion of racial abuse. Is it wrong to taunt members of the Asian communities, but OK to poke fun at the difference between the North and South in this country, wrong to make jokes about how foreign foods are cooked but OK to lampoon the dining habits of the upper english classes with crooked fingers as they drink their teas? Some people would say that the challenges and arguments in the CBB house show that Shilpa Shetty has actually been accepted as an equal by the other members; someone else might have just been ignored. And for a celebrity, what could be worse than that?
Whatever the rights and wrongs of what went on in those few televised hours, it has proved to be more news-worthy than the two graffiti-artists killed as they ran away from security staff, and more important than the reasons that prompted six men to try and achieve martyrdom in the London tubes. Life inside an artificial environment is proving to be more important than the 'real' world. OK, I know, Reality-TV is real. I just hadn't realised it was important.
I wonder if anyone appreciates just how brilliant the Channel 4 team have been? They have got thier program elevated to the point where it has been mentioned in parliamentary debates and the prime minister forced to acknowledge that there are discussions on sofas outside of his own cosy room at number 10 that can have earth-shattering ramifications. They have got their program onto the must-discuss list in a country where the chancellor is now unable to walk down the street without being asked to give his opinion on what's been happening on it. They have managed to push the botched execution in Iraq firmly down the list, and even managed to overshadow the news that the senate in America is gearing up to challenge the Bush plan for death or glory in Iraq. They have nearly doubled the viewing audience in this country alone, and have obviously got it high on the list of possible exports to overseas markets.
And, as far as I can see, they've done it without it (the program) actually being racist. As they (the C4 spokespersons) have said, it was really a bit of cattiness between females, with a hint of class division thrown in. There was no actual name-calling, none of the taunts you heard during some of the football matches, just some hints at different customs and accents and spellings of names. Almost normal, in fact. After all, it is supposed to be reality TV.
Perhaps we've gone overboard on this notion of racial abuse. Is it wrong to taunt members of the Asian communities, but OK to poke fun at the difference between the North and South in this country, wrong to make jokes about how foreign foods are cooked but OK to lampoon the dining habits of the upper english classes with crooked fingers as they drink their teas? Some people would say that the challenges and arguments in the CBB house show that Shilpa Shetty has actually been accepted as an equal by the other members; someone else might have just been ignored. And for a celebrity, what could be worse than that?
Whatever the rights and wrongs of what went on in those few televised hours, it has proved to be more news-worthy than the two graffiti-artists killed as they ran away from security staff, and more important than the reasons that prompted six men to try and achieve martyrdom in the London tubes. Life inside an artificial environment is proving to be more important than the 'real' world. OK, I know, Reality-TV is real. I just hadn't realised it was important.
posted by Sopwith-Camel | 4:36 pm
3 Comments:
Good post.
I think the BB has got way out of hand, the girls are very bitchy towards Shilpa i'm unsure if they are meant as racist comments. I think some of the girls are just pretty thick; for example the WAG from Liverpool when she said "do they eat with their hands in India?" What a stupid thing to say.
It's not overtly racist, but of course it's covert. But my point was, and still is, why should one type of nastiness be worse because it's directed at someone from a different country? Is it OK for people from different sides of a city to despise each other because they're all from the same country? Or is it all a game, just human nature, and we're over-reacting to it because of politacl-correctness?
It's all about hating people equally. Humans don't mind being despised as long as the person despising them hates everyone. But to be despised by someone who loves other people is unbearable...
Post a Comment
<< Home