Big Brother 8 to get disabled housemates?
- 30 May 07, 12:32 PM
As any long-time Ouch reader will know, each year about this time we start getting unreasonably excited at the possibility that the latest series of will feature a disabled housemate. Last year's seventh series was, of course, infamously won by , who has Tourette's Syndrome. But what does series no. 8, which starts tonight at 9.00pm on Channel 4, have in store?
Well, here's the gossip that the Crippled Monkey has gleaned from around the web. Twenty "wacky pals", as describes them, have been lined up as potential housemates ... and of particular interest to us here at Ouch are someone who self-harms (or, um, to put it in The Sun's terms, "a butch lesbian who allegedly self-harms and boozes" and "the show's first deaf girl". (There's also, according to , "a child prodigy who could read by the age of two" - though Monkey can't confirm or deny, because frankly Monkey has no idea, whether this is one of those ever so popular geniuses with autism that the media are so keen on these days.)
A deaf contestant and someone with mental health problems could certainly be part of an interesting mix of housemates for BB8, at a time when reality TV - and this show in particular - are under particular scrutiny. Channel 4 are due to screen an unprecedented three apologies during this series for their handling of the Celebrity Big Brother that led to more than 54,000 complaints from the general piublic back in January. Endemol, the company who make Big Brother, have just hit the headlines because of the huge outcry surrounding The Big Donor Show, a reality programme on Dutch TV in which a , selects one of three patients to receive her kidneys. And as if all that weren't enough, the of Big Brother made the news last week following a scandal in which the show's producer chose not to inform one contestant that her father had died of cancer.
So does any of this bode well for BB and its housemates dealing with someone who self-harms? Will that simply become - in the worst sense of the term - a "freak show", or will they manage to shed some light on this difficult aspect of mental health and offer some real understanding of it? And what about a deaf contestant? If she is primarily a sign language user, will that lead to her feeling isolated amongst a group of people who will all rely on speaking? Do you think BB would even go as far as to include a housemate whose primary means of communicating is non-verbal? And, whatever your impairment, would you go on the show, given the chance?
Tell us your thoughts by hitting the comment on this entry link below. Plus, if there's any gossip of interest to Ouch-reading fans of Big Brother that you've picked up on the grapevine, let us know! I'll be updating this entry throughout the day if I hear more. This is Crippled Monkey, tracking down the BB gossip for everybody's favourite disability website ...
Update, 02:50 PM: Well, I've been to my top secret sources at the , just to find out whether anyone from Endemol might have contacted them for some all-important Deaf awareness training in preparation for having a deaf contestant and ... nope. Not a thing. Damn, damn and damn again.
Comments
would be great to think that having a self-harmer and a deaf person on BB would make some difference, wake some people up. but BB is all about shock value. it's not about learning anything or teaching people - even though all those years ago when the programme was launched C4 made a big deal about it being a 'social experiment'. its not that any more. not in any way. this will be all about laughing and pointing and looking at the weird, odd, shocking people.
I think that today's Big Brother is not a social experiment, if it ever was, it IS more of a freakshow - but disabled people should at least have equal opportunity to que up for all the exploitation and ridicule as much as everybody else. Keeping disabled people out of it because they're disabled is a bad idea, and picking disabled people to go on it because they're disabled is a bad idea. I think we should credit any disabled housemates with the sense to know that being gawped at, stressed out and judged by the general public is part of the package.
However, if the programme makers are selecting someone with a condition that might worsen for whatever reason for being on the show, or using someone's disability as a starting point to isolate them from other contestants then I think we have to decide if that's acceptable or not, even if that person has agreed to be part of the show.
im deaf and it would be totally cool to have a deaf person on big brother!!! a foxy deaf chick!!! and i want it to be a bsl user as well! imagine all that signing in the diary room. how would big brother himself talk to a deaf housemate??
The fact that nobody at Endemol has had any Deaf awareness training doesn't mean that they won't still consider putting a Deaf contestant on the show, it just means they don't give a monkey's tail about any of their little freakshow exhibits.
It would be good if they put someone who used a wheelchair in the house.
They won't though, because most of it would be inaccessible.
A deaf girl on BB? how could that possibly work. If she is a sign language user then you might just as well put a natural japanese speaker in the house because it's just as different a language. It'll make for some extended and possibly rather dull moments in the diary room as we get translations. Meetings with deaf people in can be long winded and often bad in the communication department no matter how good the interpretor sometimes. Very interesting. Lets face it, it ain't gonna happen folks.
It would be interesting to see whether - if a Deaf/Disabled person goes into the House, and is then subjected to Disablism - the public reacts as they did to the obvious racism in Celebrity Big Brother. My guess is that they won't see the naunces involved.
Well,
Did anyone else notice that the BB house has:
- a level access alternative entrance to the foyer area
- ramps all over the place
- a wheelchair access loo "look at this enormous toilet", said Davina
- a level access wetroom/ shower
.... what could it all be for ...?