and aint i a woman: Big Sister?

Australia's Big Brother television show is unfortunately not
unique. In the last three years, 36 different versions of the show have
been aired around the world — but while 50% of the “contestants” are always
women, there have only been five winners who are women.

For those who've avoided Big Brother, this is how it works: 12
contestants are locked into a house and filmed 24 hours a day; Channel
10 presents a half hour “summary” of their doings every weeknight, and
another three hours of specials each week; viewers vote — at 55 cents a
pop — to evict a contestant every week; and the last contestant left pockets
$250,000.

According to the Big Brother web site, women are less likely
to win because many viewers are “girls” who vote for “young, good looking
boys”. But hundreds of thousands of people vote. In the second British
version of the series, more people voted in the final eviction than voted
in the general election. It would be impossible for the results to be determined
just by young women.

Another problem with the show's explanation is that viewers don't vote
for those they like — they vote for those they don't like. And the women
get booted out much faster than the men. This is a rather sickening example
of the sexist double standards that permeate capitalist society — and are
exploited by the show's producers.

In the latest Australian series, three contestants remain. Each has
a two-dimensional personality largely invented by Channel 10. We have “naive
and easygoing farm boy” Marty, “boy-with-a-tragic-past” Peter and “manipulative
bi-sexual” Sahra.

Despite repeated denials, Big Brother's producers manipulate
the image of each contestant, through the bits they select to screen and
with the “interpretive” commentary provided by host Gretel Killeen. This
commentary is supplemented by interviews with “sexperts”, psychics and
psychologists who discuss the housemates' motivations and morality.

In this intense discussion of sexual and personal morality and behaviour,
women tend to do badly. Some, such as Mirabai, Sahra and Jess, are condemned
for their sexual behaviour (Mirabai was branded “Mirabike” on the show's
web forums). Others, such as Shannon and Turkan, are criticised for being
“bossy” or “dominating”.

Women throughout society are still expected to take responsibility for
maintaining households — materially through domestic work and child care,
and emotionally as well. If women behave in a way that doesn't take responsibility
for this — having sexual relationships outside a monogamous relationship,
being rude or inconsiderate, or challenging male dominance — they are condemned
much more harshly than men.

The image of the caring wife, loyal girlfriend and all-comforting mother
permeate the mass media. It is used to justify the capitalists' employment
of women at lower pay, for less hours and at slower promotion.

“Reality” television reinforces such double standards through encouraging
the audience to make moral judgements about others' personal behaviour.
Even Temptation Island, widely condemned by religious types for
undermining the family, reinforces the idea that sexual fidelity is everything
in a relationship — and this standard is applied much more rigorously to
women on that show than it is to men.

On Big Brother, despite Killeen's occasional comments about viewer's
unfair double standards to the sexual antics of the contestants, the show
dwells obsessively on female sexual behaviour. News releases from Channel
10 have titles such as “Mirabai: repeat [sexual] offender?”, “Sahra's pash-fest”
and “Jess's ex claims 'She's not a man eater!'”.

In last year's show, the unexpected popularity of Sara Marie bucked
the trend. Sara Marie provided an anti-role model of a large, confident,
loud and lazy woman that thousands of women related to because it was at
odds with the stereotype of admirable womanhood. Even the support for Sara
Marie was not enough to override those who condemned her and allow her
to win.

In many of the forums, viewers have argued that the failure of women
to win Big Brother cannot be sexist because women — contestants
and viewers — tend to be more critical of other women than men are. But
women can, and do, reflect sexist attitudes. Competition and viciousness
between women is encouraged by a society that damages women's confidence
and teaches them that it is easier to compete against women than men.

Big Brother's producers did not create the sexist stereotypes
that the program exploits. But the show deepens and reinforces them.

BY ALISON DELLIT

[The author is a member of the Democratic Socialist Party.]

From Green Left Weekly, July 3, 2002.

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From GLW issue 498