BB: Big deal or no big deal?

[rosamicula]

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

Comments

[ant_girl]

I fail to see how comments such as "go back to the slums", "fuck off home" and "you don't know where her hands have been" can be construed as anything but racist.

I still feel sorry for her. I know she is getting handsomely paid and could leave if she wanted to, but that is not a justification for the treatment she is recieving.

[rosamicula]

I don't think any of them is doing it for purely altruistic reasons. And unless they are total innocents (and all of them employ managers and PR people to ensure that they are not) they must know that BB is little more than the modern equivalent of a Roman circus so the more shit and blood that fly the better the outcome for them and their careers.

[rosamicula]

I still feel sorry for her. I know she is getting handsomely paid and could leave if she wanted to, but that is not a justification for the treatment she is recieving.

I agree that the way she is being treated is horrible, but then there has been enough publicity about the UK BBs, actual and sleb, for her PR and management to know that it could be really unpleasant, and that the more unpleasant it was, the better the ratings would be and the better the outcomes would be for ther career and profile. I don't she is doing it for any reason other than self-promotion. She will make far more money from exclusives and interviews because of this controversy, and the longer she sits it out and teh ratings rise, teh more money she will make.

It is bullying, but she is not a schoolgirl in the playground or a junior employee being intimated by her bosses and colleagues with no choice in the matter and no menas of resistance.

[ant_girl]

Those are all fair comments. But you originally said "she deserves no sympathy", and I don't think that that's a fair comment. Anybody being treated in such an appalling manner deserves sympathy. She *could* walk, but she shouldn't be being put in a position where she feels she has to.

Of course, she may only be staying because she's cynical enough to know that the more she puts up with, the better it will be for her career in the long run. But she may be staying because she's proud, or she may be staying because she doesn't want to be seen as a quitter, or she may be staying because she doesn't want the bullies to win. It's impossible to second guess, really...

[rosamicula]

I am afraid I still don't think she deserves sympathy, any more than boxers deserve sympathy for the brain damage they suffer. She opted to be locked up in a house full of cravenly attention-seeking idiots and failures. She risked either damaging or promoting her career, depending on teh public and media reaction to her. As it currently stands, she's doing brilliantly. We will never know her exact motivation for staying, but I'm cynical enough to think she is staying to maximise the opportunities for self-promotion and financial gain. We never will know the truth, because even when she comes out there will teams of PR people to spin the story for her to their maximum mutual advantage.