He's watching you...

Channel 4 briefly earned some brownie points yesterday as Jez disclaimed any interest in pornographic magazines saying they are degrading to women – who says Hollyoaks doesn’t support the feminist cause!

However the channel soon let itself down with the latest influx of Big Brother contestants, and in particular Mikey who introduced himself as hating feminists. He doesn’t understand why they demand equal pay and furthermore dislikes ugly people. All in all a bit of a prat, but the most worrying extract from his interviews was the suggestion that if he found a girlfriend he wanted to settle down with he would manipulate her into becoming a housewife without her even realising it. Sorry if I’ve misquoted slightly I only had half an eye on the telly, but what is all that about? Lots of people claim anti-feminist politics and generally quite effectively undermine their arguments through their own stupidity, but the impression that I get here is that he is advocating emotional and verbal domestic abuse. Slightly less insidious but still worrying was the ‘sexual terrorist’ Richard who suggested that he would be pouncing on the other men in the house as they desperately fled his advances. Oh and, bless him, he also has a phobia of pregnant women.

I have to admit I do watch Big Brother. I gave up half way through the last series because it became just too sinister to bear, but in general the aspects of this programme that disgust me are, in equal measure, the things that attract my interest as a viewer*. However over the years the contestants have become increasingly extreme to the point where this year domestic abuse and implied rape are accepted as normal things. Perhaps not normal in society, but normal in the microcosm that is Big Brother. I’m going to keep watching for the moment, if for no other reason than relief from the boredom of revision, but first impressions are less favourable than any previous year.

Check out gendergeek for some initial comments.

* when I find the courage I think an analysis of my dubious television choices will appear as a post, but somehow I don’t think I will come out of it very well.