Duty of Care Failure? Concerns Over BB Management of Housemate Conflict & Discrimination and Authority.

[matts bb]

Yeah I have to second the OP, it seems that the approach from BB is to let them run riot and if some one is hurt enough they're called to the diary room and love bombed to make it all better.

I've been watching the live feeds heavily over the past few days and there is downright nasty behaviour happening all the time. It's so blatant at times that it can't be excused as simply misinterpreting the feeds. Some examples:

• Today the underwear boys did another one of their cosplay podcasts (thankfully these haven't made it to the daily show). The podcast was focused on making fun of Mia. They "interviewed" Michael about his interactions with Mia and Colin spoke at length about how he found it funny when Michael makes fun of her.
  
  
• Bruce has previously said that Mia is a "shit person" to the other boys. In a related conversation Vinnie rallied the boys to not trust Mia and said "as saw as I saw her in that pink double breasted suit (on launch night) I knew I couldn't trust her".
  
  
• You can audibly hear the underwear boys snicker when Mia speaks to the group. I don't know if Mia realises it or not, if she does she is pretending it's not happening.
  
  
• Today when Allana explained she has Aboriginal heritage, Vinnie and Edward got angry at her for bringing it up. This is what led to Allana saying she doesn't feel safe that is mentioned by OP. They tried to tell her that racism against Aboriginal Australians is overblown and her bringing racism up made them feel attacked (seriously).

The bad behaviour is primarily coming from Colin, Bruce and Vinnie, but occasionally Edward is dragged in and Michael eggs them on from behind the scenes.

This is ultimately a failure in casting - too many blokey blokes were brought in and they're dominating the direction of the house. But also a failure of the producers to enforce a code of conduct. There's some comments above about this being just house "conflict". I reject this - I've seen enough of the feed already to see that the seeds of bullying are there - mostly of Mia right now, but another housemate will be targeted once she's gone. This looks like trivial conflict now, but after a few weeks it will become truly foul in there. Allana can see it coming.

A side note about HMs talking over Big Brother - to give you an indication of how it's going... tonight was a bunch of games that will be broadcast on Friday night. Big Brother was so bad at controlling the housemates he had to assign Conor as his "2IC" to herd the housemates and get them to shut up. Otherwise they were simply not listening to anything BB was saying.

Thank you for further expanding on this Tim. I think I’m tired and people do have their right to disagree with what I have to say, but some of your examples also highlight the setting of an example that I mention to society. Whacking people back down and making it personal or calling them emotional because it’s a point they don’t agree or refuse to understand or see other views.

Also shout out to @the Theorist I know we have spoken on some of this and also appreciate your insight and further commentary and points of examples.

Pulling out of the BB world, what I’m finding in the real world these days are people’s lack of compassion for others and I think the situation in the house from the members mentioned above highlights this. There are some extreme situations, view points and lack of compassion from those men in there and it’s interesting it’s targeted at the women…. I think shows like BB set an example for being able to have different views but being able to be respectful, listening and having decent discussion that is still caring even if you disagree and that’s not happening.

 

[matts bb]

Beg x

I feel like @the Theorist would beg for BB after the other day (again the daily show didn’t do it justice)

 

[Brekkie]

There is a balance to be struck between producers intervening when necessary and producers stepping in to resolve issues the housemates should be able to resolve amongst themselves.

Where behaviour needs challenging I'd rather see housemates calling out each others poor behaviour rather than producers micromanaging it but it is a fine line about where they should step in. I'd ultimately rather the HMs be left to show their authentic selves to HMs and viewers than be tipped off early and then present a PG version of themselves that goes on to win.


Also think we need to be careful about considering what doesn't make the daily show to be what producers are trying to hide. The live stream is part of the viewing experience and as critical in creating the narrative of the season and it should be considered a good thing we get to see stuff on the live stream that doesn't make the daily shows rather than a problem.

 

[the Theorist]

There is a balance to be struck between producers intervening when necessary and producers stepping in to resolve issues the housemates should be able to resolve amongst themselves.

I completely agree - this is what makes Big Brother so fascinating to watch. But what also makes it fascinating is that the viewers should get to see all facets and sides of the HMs, and (live streams aside, as it’s only a small portion of the viewers) currently we are not. I think that’s a main point being raised in this conversation.

The feelings and thoughts shared in this thread are valid, but I do think that the HMs in question aren’t being held accountable. If not entirely by the producers, then at least by the viewers. If the Daily Shows were at least balanced enough to show the contrasting sides of HMs such as Bruce, Michael and Vinnie (or at least have shown some of the previously aired conversations with less bias), then imo there would be slightly less concern and it’d be up to the audience to hold them accountable and decide what to do with them. Again, that’s a vital element and the whole point of Big Brother. That isn’t what’s happening here.

Currently, there is a very active decision being made to hide all the maliciousness that’s going on from the wider public. We aren’t making this up - the evidence is out there. Those that watch the streams will see the episodes and find the aforementioned HMs portrayed primarily as “funny larrikans”, edited empathetically and emotively, with light-hearted memes also being pumped out about them on social media.

There is a whole other layer of context to Colin that is missing entirely from the Daily Shows (and social media) to protect what feels like the show’s current “golden boy”. He has done and said some terrible things in the house, and behaved very erratically, and it’s being erased in favour of what some might call a “winner’s edit”.

Part of the original premise of the show is to showcase “the good, the bad and the ugly” of all HMs. They used to do a fine job of this back in the day… now, it seems entertainment is more important than humility.