BB: Big deal or no big deal?
It isn't racism, at least what I have seen of it, which is very little and read of it, which is edited down still further. It is much more a clash of class than of race. If Shilpa had been white, English and equally posh the others would have reacted to her in the same way (the resentful, spiteful way that last year's non-slebs reacted to the silly rich woman who gained entry by her gold ticket). Jade Goody is thick, of course. Not so thick she can't tell when she is being snubbed and looked down upon, but alas far too thick to react to being patronised with anything but venom and hysteria. The show that is now creaming in advertising revenue on the back of this over-hyped 'controversy' is the vehicle that made her a 'winner' before and encouraged her to have an entirely spurious sense of her own worth and significance.
Now Goody is being hoist by her won petard. She won BB precisley because she was the thick, lairy chav ridiculed for her ignorance and lack of artifice or dignity. There was no public outcry about the national shame of the classism in the house then, but the national prediliction for supporting the underdog ensured that she won. The same may well happen to Shilpa Shetty. She does not deserve sympathy. She is paid to be there, she could leave if she chose and she is clearly smart enough to know that any serious antagonism in the house that she is involved in will ratchet up the ratings and enhance her public profile and earning power when she leaves. The unpleasantness she is encountering because she is posh and Indian is no worse than than that encountered by Vanessa Feltz for being fat and Jewish, but is much easier for the simpletons among the viewing public and commenting media to comprehend and pontificate about.
The protests in India remind me of the Brazilian reaction to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menedes. The spectacle of Indians protesting about British racism is almost as excruciatingly absurd as Brazilians complaining about British police brutality. You can't really get more institutionally racist than having a caste system. Shetty would not be a Bollywood star if her skin was a couple of shades darker or her family a little further down the food chain. This does not excuse the obnoxious behaviour of the BB bimbos, but the public condemnation of their behaviour - from all sectors and communities - surely mitigates against any national sense of shame about this over-hyped codswallop, even though it drives up the ratings. The most effective form of protest is simply not to watch.
Now Goody is being hoist by her won petard. She won BB precisley because she was the thick, lairy chav ridiculed for her ignorance and lack of artifice or dignity. There was no public outcry about the national shame of the classism in the house then, but the national prediliction for supporting the underdog ensured that she won. The same may well happen to Shilpa Shetty. She does not deserve sympathy. She is paid to be there, she could leave if she chose and she is clearly smart enough to know that any serious antagonism in the house that she is involved in will ratchet up the ratings and enhance her public profile and earning power when she leaves. The unpleasantness she is encountering because she is posh and Indian is no worse than than that encountered by Vanessa Feltz for being fat and Jewish, but is much easier for the simpletons among the viewing public and commenting media to comprehend and pontificate about.
The protests in India remind me of the Brazilian reaction to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menedes. The spectacle of Indians protesting about British racism is almost as excruciatingly absurd as Brazilians complaining about British police brutality. You can't really get more institutionally racist than having a caste system. Shetty would not be a Bollywood star if her skin was a couple of shades darker or her family a little further down the food chain. This does not excuse the obnoxious behaviour of the BB bimbos, but the public condemnation of their behaviour - from all sectors and communities - surely mitigates against any national sense of shame about this over-hyped codswallop, even though it drives up the ratings. The most effective form of protest is simply not to watch.