<$BlogRSDUrl$>

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Greer as Michael Jackson - Big Brother Again 


Germaine Greer: the Michael Jackson of Feminism


This headline called my attention because of the stark insult of calling Greer a freak child molester and I just went "uough!" What is this all about?

And do what I find out, but an article on Big Brother TV! A particularly interesting study of why this TV type program is so popular, specially among girls!


In our three-year research project, Big Brother emerged as one of the most popular shows with girls in the group 12 to 18. And why did they love it? Because they face a lot of the same dilemmas as the housemates. They're constantly under surveillance by parents, teachers and experts. They spend a lot of time trying to work out how to be individuals while fitting into a group. And they wonder a lot about how far you should go in telling other people what you think of them.


Interesting. Still, what venomous cheap shot to call Greer a child molester, I mean, there are other "freak" icons to choose from.

[Going off into the funny zone: is this how morons often feel too? Is that why reality TV is so popular among morons?]


UPDATE: jan-23-05

I came across a very nice article from Greer talking about her experience on Big Brother (excerpts below). Notice how the article above completely mis-shapes Greer´s experience with the program (you need to read the original article). There is no doubt that the above professor has a sour grudge against Greer.

As reality television series multiply across the networks they will become increasingly sadistic and prurient. The only way forward for ordeal by television is down, which in Newspeak is of course up, towards maximum exploitation of vulnerable people.
[...]
We’ve watched the rise of bullying at school and the attempts made to combat it. Big Brother is bullying in all its forms writ large. It is the politics of the playground projected back to people as entertainment, and it gives children in particular and people in general absolutely the wrong idea about what is acceptable behaviour.

It would be pompous to suggest that the proliferation of ordeal television is actively promoting a bullying culture in Britain without a lot more work being done on the extent and nature of bullying in schools and workplaces. But it is now up to the British public to decide what should become of cruelty television, and to turn their thumbs down.

I went into the Big Brother house to raise money for my charity and to finance my regeneration work in my Australian rainforest. If someone else were to offer me a similar amount of money for burying myself in muck and derision for a few days, I would probably do it again. What I wouldn’t do is be drawn into complicity with the degradation and humiliation of others who I consider, rightly or wrongly, to be weaker than myself.

Comments: Post a Comment

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?