"I have to spend my whole life defending them, and then I get two tossers sitting there, telling me how I feel."
Bianca

Only on Big Brother would a pivotal moment of conflict be a screaming match about.... well.... tits. If Big Brother is truly a window to this society, yada, yada, yawn, then what a tit-obsessed society this is! No matter what happens on the show, no matter where it goes, it always seems to come back to them. Brigette and Rebecca have fake tits, Dixie can't do the laundry because of her tits, Alice and Renee deal with having small tits, Rory only likes Dixie because of her big tits, and Bianca... well... Bianca is a girl caught in the cross-fire of this tit-obsession. On the one hand, she's an 18 year old girl who wants, as anyone else her age does, to embody and flower as a sexual entity, but must navigate sexuality and her society with very blurred lines - blurred by those very large breasts she must venture into this world with. You do have to understand, to some degree, what this girl does go through, and why she is such a paradox.

"If you're going to engage it, you might as well think about it."

The Eye 

Recently, I was interviewed by the wonderful Daz Chandler about this here website. This is actually for a programme that deals with ways of exploring and using Australian media and entertainment, so it's more about the process and purpose of blogging BB. Although this has already aired in Sydney, excerpts from this interview will be aired on various stations around the country (I'll let you know, anyway). However, since some stations may choose to edit it, I thought I'd give you the full deal. Simply click on this link and play the file!

"I think Terri and Nobbi are secretly in love with each other."

Tony Squires (last night)

So said the man who once had some of the country convinced he made intelligent journalistic choices (that's out the widow, now). This quote of Squires' came after the show ran with a segment featuring Nobbi having some "fun" with Terri, pretending to be a phone-sex caller looking for some "older" action. Terri, as best as she could, played along. But the show knew very well that this was now aired after another incident where the joke, it seemed, had gone too far.

God bless the detectives of cyberspace. First, they captured and zoomed in on Ben's "shower gel" to realise that it was actually shower cleanser - not soap (as the show tried to have us believe). Now, there's another incident of the Three Amigos' bullying that has been caught out by BB fans, on live feed (which is how anyone ever come to know about Turkeyslap, another incident that would have been swept under the rug, if it were not for outraged cyberfans). It's not on the same level of Turkeyslap, no; but this moment, where Nobbi becomes extremely aggressive, after Terri dislikes him discussing her mastubating and "lactating", became a hot topic on the late-night forum boards, and many women - quite understandably - found this quite unsettling, and are wondering why the show is covering up this kind of behaviour from one of the most popular housemates of the series (Centrebet currently has Nobbi to take out the crown). Again, whilst Nobbi has been given a strike for not sticking to his task, the apparently "serious" code concerning "the treatment of each other", etc, is nowhere to be seen - even when housemates are quite clearly victimised and uncomfortable with the treatment they are receiving, as is the case in this scene. In a letter on the Your Say page, I predicted that a) The show would choose to sweep this incident under the rug, and that b) It would only get a leg on, if someone managed to capture it and post it in cyberspace. Tick both those boxes! Below is the charming moment that led to Terri nominating Nobbi, but one that the show decided would be best if nobody watched. Fortunately, we get to watch it. Enjoy. If that's the word. Which it isn't.

"I think it's my time."

Dixie

Last night, I decided the hospitalisation of Travis was just too integral to our following of the show; but it just wouldn’t be right to let Dixie go, without saying goodbye. That was that, I guess – Big Brother’s first Aboriginal housemate. And how did she go? With a ferocious, white Queensland audience, booing and jeering, along with a production that was more than happy to deliver the Fat Lazy Aboriginal Girl™, amidst a continuing barrage of criticisms and crass jokes designed to play up her piggish love for bad food. I wouldn’t have expected anything less.

"Poor Ben!"

Jackie O

PLEASE NOTE: IT HAS NOW BEEN REVEALED THAT THE TRAVIS INCIDENT DID NOT ACTUALLY INVOLVE "SHOWER GEL", AS SUCH (AS THE SHOW INFERRED), BUT SHOWER MOULD REMOVER.

It’s hypocritical, Big Brother – and always has been – because, on the one hand, it likes to flaunt that it creates a controlled environment, where the authority of Big Brother is used to direct what goes on in those four walls. It does. But, then, it’s always been very clever at wiping its hands clean, when the moment – or the criticism, more to the point – suits it to, pointing the finger at (but, of course!) the uncontrollable nature of "reality". Three years ago, I first landed on the BB (and media) radar, because I put forward what was, at the end of the day, a rather logical proposition. If you control an environment, to that extent, you are effectively responsible for what goes on within it, as a result. What happens is a product of the ethos of that environment, and, in an environment that had actively promoted the sexual victimisation of women as entertainment, the Turkeyslap was a train we should have all seen coming. I actually did. But, in fairness, I always found it so hilarious that it was considered shocking that I did. Guess I had the last laugh (as unfortunate as that was for Camilla, and the thousands of women who watch Big Brother).

"i remember feeling like you've been asked to do something, but you wanna do it."

Alice

Last week, there was a scurry of press attention, surrounding Peter Powers' appearance in the Big Brother house. This was actually one of those times when the show probably would have been happy to have the coverage (I even wondered if they'd pushed this one, themselves), because this is one "furore" that was never going to lead anywhere. Stage hypnosis is still a part of popular culture - particularly within the working class, where stage hypnotists travel the "Workers' Club" circuit). Quite frankly, nobody cares if a shrink or two thinks it's exploitative; and, when you get down to the nitti-gritti of hypnosis, the lines are still blurred, and the conversation is certainly not one the everyday public can (or would bother to) understand. That said, I'm going to try to put it in context for you, here. Ultimately, even professional, academic and "scientific" ideas of hypnosis are by no means in a collective consensus on this one. So there's not a great deal that is, ultimately, "absolute". But what everyone does agree on, certainly takes on an interesting meaning, when applied to the mind of people who happily let us watch them in that house.