Put Big Brother Into Room 101
This is the second post from our new contributor, CJ on the latest goings on in Celebrity Big Brother. Admit it, you’re all talking about it!
I have never watched an episode of Big Brother beyond the first airing on British TV, the idea of watching someone being filmed 24/7 holds no appeal to me, it strikes me as being as so far away from reality as to make the term “Reality TV” an oxi-moron of moronic proportions. But apparently now a reality show for has-beens, non-celebrities, and niche market actresses, has the power to cause an international incident.
“Big Brother Racism” is now the cry from numbskull viewers, MP’s, Indian government spokesmen and Hindu nationalists. In my humble opinion to accuse Big Brother contestants and viewers of having the brainpower to decipher plain ignorance from racist bigotry, is beyond their synaptic capacity. What really happened as far as I can make out is that Jade Goodies mother, who I don’t believe is a contestant on the show? Asked whether Bollywood diva Shilpa Shetty lived in a “house or a shack” - now forgive me if I forgive Jade’s mother for her complete and utter ignorance - Jade Goodie is half Black and some racist idiot could make a connection between Kenyan Massai huts in Africa and ask her a similarly moronic question, which could be seen as racist if it weren’t for it being such a dumb attempt at causing upset.
Now as for racism inside the Big Brother house, as far as I can make out there, one of the other contestants accused Ms Shetty of wanting to be “White”. Well I can’t see the racism there unless we consider that “White” is something one can become by acting in a certain way, much the same as accusing someone of acting “Black” because they conform to certain shallow stereotypes. I would perhaps see the racism in the statement if it didn’t have some truth in it.
India has millions of people, many of diverse ethnic, geographical, religious and racial backgrounds, most of them being fairly dark-brown to almost black - yet Ms Shetty and many of the most famous Bollywood starlets are light skinned and light eyed - there are literally thousands of young Indian girls all across the sub-continent using God-knows-what to lighten their often beautiful skin, simply to appear or in an attempt to become “White”. Hundreds of people then seek to blame the unrealistic “European standard of beauty” for the culture of “colourism” in India, which I would also believe, if it weren’t for the thousands of years old Caste-system. Not so long ago Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called it “a form of apartheid”, where the lower caste ‘Dalits’ (Untouchables) suffer horrific and barbaric treatment, most of them in positions that could have been found in deep south Alabama in 1945. So for the Indian government and people to cry racism for a rather pathetic non-incident which took place on a third rate (non) reality TV show, is the most pathetic case of the pot calling the kettle black that there has ever been. Indeed even Shilpa Shetty’s fellow Bollywood stars aren’t immune from the racist legacy of India’s caste-system, Aishwarya Rai the star of ‘Bride & Prejudice’, stated in an interview: “Rohit Shetty is amazing as a director. He can make even a black African look pretty”.
But of more concern to me, beyond supposed racism in Big Brother, is the power of such an “ugly” show to cause such an incident. Call me hysterical but the concept of Big Brother to me, which was undeniably lifted from George Orwell’s “1984”, is an attempt at normalizing the concept of watching peoples every move 24/7. I see “Big Brother” as real-life manifestation of the propaganda posters in Orwell’s book “Big Brother is Watching You”, the main character Winston walked by them as a normal part of his everyday routine, so used to the idea of people being watched he could afford not to notice such a threatening statement. Yup, I know I sound like a conspiracy nut-job but its not such a leap of the imagination to see a future were governments would seek to spy on their citizens every action - look at the “Patriot Act” in the United States - what better way of implementing a system of 24 hour surveillance of the population than to have a population already normalized to the idea of spying on other peoples every move. IMHO
we’ve had too much “Big Brother”, it’s old and stale, and if I had my choice it’d have to go into room 101.
“WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” 1984, George Orwell.
