Thursday 7 June 2007

Big Brother 8: Jade's legacy

*My computer was meant to be being picked up today for a repair, but last night I was struck down by tonsillitus for the third time this year, so I couldn't get to work (where it was being picked up). Last night I felt too ill to blog BB although I did watch it (I enjoyed Tracey's mini-rave). Haven't watched The Apprentice yet though, and trying to avoid news about that on TV today is tricky!
So after tomorrow I may not be blogging because my computer is going away for 'seven to ten days'! It's a bit of a bummer as I wanted to blog the whole of BB. Oh well. I'll do a bit at work if something amazing happens.

So anyway. Last nights BB seems redundant as I just discovered Emily has been booted out of Big Brother for saying 'nigger'. So the producers finally woke up.
During Celeb BB I sat at this very computer and watched a clip from the live streaming of E4 of the most offensive language I had ever heard. I saw a deranged woman, face contorted with hate for a woman who had done nothing to her in return. I saw two similar dim-witted people back her up, and some other people who should have known better stand there listening like lemons (which was just as bad). This is Jade's legacy. And the producers did nothing. I was shocked. I genuinely believed they would punish them. Instead the helped Jade. Protected the thick bitch. The bond of trust with BB was gone from that point.
Apparently Emily said something like 'push it out nigger' when Charley was dancing. Word on the net is these are the words to a song. I don't know, I don't listen to puerile music like that. Either way, Emily is paying for Jade's sins. Of course she is. But it is more complicated than that.
Emily claimed to be an intelligent housemate. She has shown snobbery in the house, crass vanity, but no semblance of intelligence. She picked a fight with Ziggy the night before he nominated. Now this. Did she not SEE Celebrity Big Brother? Does she not understand the implications of using this word? On TV, for God's sake? Intelligent she is NOT. Does she think she is just above the rules us commoners adhere to? It's mind-boggling.
There is a wider discussion around this, of course, about the sort of language that is used in rap music, and I noticed Jay-Z was promoting something recently to kick the 'n' word out of rap, as well as the many derogatory words about women. Because it's true, it does make them more acceptable, when it should NEVER be acceptable. It's not like reclaiming the word 'cunt' in my eyes. 'Nigger' is a powerful evil.
The trouble is, when people like Emily say words like this, you get this image of them sitting round Mummy and Daddy's house, saying worse. It's like a poison that infects people and you wonder what is at the core of them. Emily has fucked up big time, far worse than if Chanelle sleeps with Ziggy. In fact, Chanelle will probably be considered a hero if she does. Emily meanwhile, will be known as a racist until the end of time. And we thought we hated Grace. Bloody hell. So well done Emily, for not kissing any boys. Your parents will be so proud.
Yet I still feel had, because Emily was a good housemate. I liked her scheming and shit-stirring. She brought out Ziggy's angry side and we needed to see that. That charming thing is just not convincing. I liked it when she pushed him. But she proved she couldn't play by the rules by tricking his nomination out of him.
More than ever we are seeing in Big Brother what goes on behind closed doors, and if people can't even behave themselves on TV, I realy do dread to think what people say in the privacy of their own homes. It's really disappointing. But not suprising in the slightest. This one is going to run and run...

4 comments:

Red said...

What utter nonsense.

I had developed a dislike of Emily anyway, because unlike the twins and Chanelle, she thinks she is really something in the intelligence stakes, but really she's just as vacuous as those other blondes in the house. And that's the most dangerous and insidious type of dumb.

But I don't give a shit if she said "nigger", chanted it or sang it. It seems to me she said it in jest, like when *A and I go "That's my niggah", Training Day-stylee. Hey, if black people don't want us to use the bloody word, they should lead by example, not put it in every song, film, poem as a term of endearment for their homies and then come shrieking "Racist! Racist"! because a white person used it in the same way.

But you're right, of course: Emily pays the price C4 didn't have the balls to inflict on Ugly Jade, who was far more vitriolic in her attack on Shilpa.

Anyhoo: good riddance. I still wish it had been Shazam or whatever her name is out of the house.

lightupvirginmary said...

So do I. Emily was an interesting character because of her failings. It's interesting the way the house has closed ranks now. Ziggy's place is very secure. I don't like that at all. Charley is also going to benefit from the situation, if she's smart. But she isn't so she'll probably still blow it.
I think saying 'nigger' jokingly with friends is one thing; friends have longs-standing relationships and know their limits. I think black people have tried to reclaim 'nigger' to an extent, but it hasn't worked because some of the people using it (i.e gangsta rappers) are too stupid to realise how damaging the word is in the hands of the white extremists of South America, for example. It's an extrememly tricky subject and definitely not black and white (this pun was brought to you by lynsey's poorly tonsils).
Saying 'nigger' on Big Brother when the week before they were apologising for an enormous race row just seems idiotic, and they had to throw the book at her. They had no choice.
But I still don't forgive them for the whole Jade business.
Time to bring in some sexy men to piss Zigar off and get on with it, I say!

* (asterisk) said...

I have mixed feelings on this. We in the UK probably overall have a different relationship with the word nigger than those in the US. But as a person who owns and listens to some hip hop (almost exclusively 2Pac, who was even played as our wedding-exit song), I do think there is a degree of reclamation intended -- or rather that there once was. Perhaps the day has passed, though.

For me, apart from the fact that Emily's sin was not as bad as Jade's, is the issue that clearly Charley was upset about it, despite her protestations. I'm not standing up for Charley; I don't like her at all. But if the person to whom the word has been used is offended, then the word is offensive. And if that word is racial, then look out!

Clearly, Emily uses this word readily. She admitted as much. But she misjudged the situation, using it towards someone with whom she had yet to build up the right kind of relationship. And if my ears were right (it was so quick, I can't be sure), she actually said "you're pushing it out, you nigger", which is very different to "you're pushing it out, nigga!" The use of "you" in there seems a very different implication, to me at least. It's more direct, rather than the chummy brother/man/sista/girlfriend vibe of the word when it is not preceded with "you".

Phew! I'll shut up now.

lightupvirginmary said...

I agree with you entirely. Charley was offended. Emily had to go.