Commentary: TV reality sex assault scandal
July 4th, 2006 § 13 Comments
Australia’s Big Brother in its fifth season. It’s been rocked by scandals in the past, but the newest was initially described as a sexual assault and the police were involved to review the footage and see if charges were to be brought against the perpetrators.
Over the past day information has slowly leaked. It seems that two male housemates Turkey slapped a female housemate. For those of us who don’t know what this delicate term describes (I was ignorant until this morning) a Turkey slap is when a person is slapped by a penis across the face.
The housemates involved, including the female housemate who was Turkey slapped, laughed the incident off. Big Brother has kicked out the two male housemates for breaking Big Brother rules. In the latest news bulletin the sexual assault claim has now been downgraded to a sexual harassment incident.
The debate has centered around two issues:
1. Should Big Brother be axed?
2. Is this a publicity grab for ratings by the producers?
I disagree with the first question on the basis of free speech. While tasteless and of no value we should not be introducing censorship. Australia is a pretty open country and a lot of content that would not ever make it in America ,for example, is par for the course on Aussie tv.
I tend to agree that this is a publicity grab. The first indication is the way that this incident was presented. The shock value of using the words sexual assault and that the police were called to review the footage. Instead of presenting the correct information straight away Big Brother let the speculation build as to what really occurred.
While the Turkey slap is sexual assault as the definition is “physical contact of a sexual nature without consent,” this does not represent the true depiction of the incident. The two male housemates called the female housemate into their bed. She lay between them. One loosely held her from behind while the other urged her to close her eyes. When it happened she laughed and screamed out to the other contestants “I’ve just been Turkey slapped.”
While I don’t wish to downplay the seriousness of what the two male housemates did, I do wish to discuss the environment which contributed to this incident. At Big Brother auditions potential housemates have to have simulated sex with other people in order to prove they have what it takes to be in the house. A dance pole is provided for the housemates to dance suggestively to each other.
One of the Big Brother tasks set for the female housemate who was involved in this incident was to kiss all the housemates on the face on the lips within an hour in order to get points knocked off her nomination. She kissed housemates without their consent and therefore assaulted them.
The housemates share beds, sleep in a dorm-like facility shared with males and females, and shower together. Much of the interest generated in the show is about potential relationships between housemates and this is used by the producers to hook viewers. There is Big Brother uncut with all the naughty bits, including a current housemate couple who had oral sex.
In shows like Survivor the contestants are treated like players in a chessboard that are moved around at will. While their personalities are what ultimately interests the viewers the game and challenges are the basis of the show. Whereas in Big Brother it is the housemates’ personality that is exploited as is the sexual content and tension that comes from putting good-looking young girls and boys in a house together.
I feel that the housemates are getting mixed messages. Nowhere in the real world would some of their actions be acceptable yet in Big Brother it is encouraged. While the housemates did do the wrong thing do the producers also have to accept their share of the blame?
Given the other activities the show has encouraged, I’m surprised they kicked the two guys out over this.
Not that it isn’t shocking – it is. I didn’t know the term either, and the thing is, given how some people react under extreme circumstances to stress, the female candidate could well turn around and sue the producers of the show for trauma from sexual assault and talk about being under pressure to ‘perform’ in the house in a certain way…
I suspect this isn’t the end of this case. And the guys involved will be on talk shows, no doubt.
Love the new digs!
I haven’t seen Big Brother on our stations for a few years now…guess we’re more prudish up here. Still, it could go either way depending on how the show wants to run with it.
Sandra-usually they flog the housemates up and down all the radio and tv stations. Don’t know what will happen with these two guys.
Thanks Stacy. We’ve had it every year since it started. I only watched one season when they had a more mature crop with a few married people in the house and have avoided it since.
I listened tot he Nova podcast this morning and they’re behind the guys. Well, they said what they did was stupid but not assault, especially since the girl involved willingly stayed there. Don’t know what the rest of the broadcasters are saying, but I’d love to know what they’re saying about the production team. Channel 10 goes all out to make it raunchy, then lets the housemates take the fall. Be interestingt osee if this goes another season.
BTW, I saw some of the English BB when I was in Spain, Lordy, are they tragic!!
Love the new look, hope everything’s going well with the moving plans.
xx,
G
Yeah, the housemates have copped it. The broadcasting association was deciding whether Big Brother should be penalised but because the incident wasn’t broadcast and only showed up on the internet they have no jurisidiction. I want to hear about the Spanish BB. What was tragic about it?
I think the positive side is that much discussion is now going on around Australia as to what is appropriate and inappropriate behaviour and what constitutes harrassment or sexual assualt. These areas of law are very grey areas in our society.
The Prime Minister is right when he said that Channel 10 needs to look at self censoring.
I really do think that producers encourage bad behaviour (as in typically socially unacceptable) in order to raise ratings. Rarely do we see people acting real in reality shows. I’m not sure if the producers say, “This will make good tv, so act an ass,” or they imply that ridiculousness will better a participant’s chances of winning the event overall.
At any rate, those who are the most obnoxious tend to stretch their 15 minutes of fame out a bit.
It was the English BB–on Sky TV in Spain. 4 of the women had fake breasts, the boys were truly boys. One got plastered and puked all over the house, the bad part being that one of the women decided that the bucket was a health hazard in the bedroom so she kept taking it out to clean it then the guy would have to puke and they’d be running all over the house, screaming for the bucket.
Overall, though, they were just boring. No fun at all. Just a load of berks, sitting around whining.
The whole reality TV phenomenon is predicated on presenting humiliation as entertainment. In the effort to continuously out-do what came before, greater depths are only inevitable. Is this the worst we’re likely to see or hear about? Only if this event triggers a strong enough backlash that the whole reality TV thing loses its luster.
Which it won’t. This event, I suspect, will only fan the flames. Uncut DVDs, “pirate” video on the internet. A TV show is no longer just about the broadcast, it’s about the entire package. Push back from community standards or notions of what’s going too far will, I suspect, result in shows which are even more outrageous and which rely on alternative media more.
And then there are the “performers” on these shows, the so-called real people who serve as contestants. Future contestants may very well take “the turkey slap incident” as a kind of challenge, and the rest of us out here in viewer land will fan ourselves in shock as the producers giggle with delight at the uproar.
I cannot stand Big Brother. The whole premise is boring and tedious, so they contrive the circumstances to make it more interesting viewing. And look what happens.
I agree with Gabrielle about Channel 10 letting the housemates take the fall. Not right at all.
I hope they take this rediculous show off air permanently, and put something of value on.
I deliberately avoid watching it, but they always run over time and into other programs so we’re forced to be exposed to it on some level or other. And I don’t like being manipulated (like the housemates) by any program.
Shock, horror, I actually support the prime minister on this one!!
Pearl-I agree that the discussion has been good. It’s been coasting by on bad taste for far too long.
Flood-They certainly structure the auditions so they get extroverts to make it interesting. Then they try to (unsucessfully) curtail their behaviour.
Gabrielle-that sounds gross. Got to admire her housecleaning skills, if not her common sense.
Bill-you’ve made a good point about this being a challenge perhaps for future housemates (please let there not be any more).
Renee-ha, ha. I know, I was scared also to find myself in agreement. I have been touched by evil and need a exorcism.
I get a bit tetchy about the whole reality TV thing, I hafta admit. I like outrageous at least as much as the next person, but I really have a hard time with the whole humiliation component to the phenomenon. My poor wife has something of a hankering for these shows, usually in small doses, but I always find myself fleeing the room in despair.
So anyway, if I seemed a bit huffy about the whole thing, well, it just gets my panties in a bunch.
Bill-you should see me on the subject of chain and scam emails. Tetchy doesn’t even describe it. I like some of the reality tv shows Survivor and Dancing with the Stars. But these have a point and the personalities are an aside.