tarn_seiche
Give Us Live Action BB
Sarah seems like a nice girl. Nice people do tend to be a bit boring, and she also seems to have done a bit of 'work' on her mental state - keeping an optimistic outlook, looking out for and meeting other peoples needs ... the sort of motivational literature that gets foisted on you if you sell things for a living, especially if you are living on commission.
The nurturing thing I think is a stress reliever (when you are in a very stressful situation, you tend to cope better and have lower levels of anxiety and physiological stress if you are preoccupied with the welfare of another person.) It comes across as fake, because Brad, Josh etc don't need Sarah to look out for them, they know and we know they don't, and Sarah is no better able to look after them than they her, or she herself - Big Brother is in control and everyone knows that.
From the very start, or at least, by the time the girls joined the boys in the house, it seems the other housemates have been pushing Sarah out. If there was a good reason to nominate her, they would be discussing it. As it is, they are saying things to each other like 'but you can't hold that against her' (although they would clearly like to) and in the end agreeing that she is a nice person (although Charne and Ben seem to be the only people who don't dislike her).
I would not be surprised if Bradley nominated 'momma-bear' on Monday for being fake, rather than being overbearing and patronizing to him in order to feel useful and in control within herself. After all, if he nominated her for mothering him, the first question would be why he didn't ask her to stop, and the real answer would be 'because if I told her to stop doing it, she would and then I wouldn't be able to nominate her for it.' The only real problem the housemates have with Sarah is that she is so reasonable, that if they raise an objection with her, she is sure to find some annoyingly unobjectionable compromise.
I think being a good person is more important to Sarah than to any other housemate. Estelle and Ben are the only other housemate that has mentioned integrity as something that matters to them, but they are less clear than Sarah about what their values actually are and the extent they will sacrifice personal convenience to adhere to them is another matter again. Michael and Ray don't talk about personal integrity, but they act as if they have very definite ideas of what it is, and it matters to them, and consider it in every choice they make. Layla and Zoe seem to mindlessly assume that they are good people, and I have not seen them treat others in a way that would suggest that they are not. Bradley, Josh, George, Ryan and Stella seem able to be quite malleable for the purpose of fitting in, getting on, or 'being strategic' (Poor Ryan. The strategists never talk about being strategic.) Angie seems to be extremely pragmatic.
Only Sarah seems to think that she has to prove she is a good person, and that every word she says, every plate she picks up for Brad, every favour she gives Zoe, is a proof of how good she is, but every time she fails to act or even to notice an opportunity to help someone, is a negation of that proof. It's like the rock of sisyphus, every minute that she is not doing good, negates all the goodness she has done. She is also the one that talks about 'not needing other people to be validated'. I am guessing she had or has had someone hyper-critical in her life, who tore her down in order to make themselves feel powerful (and to do what they could to make her feel unable to live without them, as any sane person would.) Her 'fake' behaviour could be a way of vindicating herself against accusations of being the kind of person nobody else would put up with ("See, I am a good person, I am, I am.") I think this other person was/is a guy, because it is guys (Josh, Bradley especially) who are being most irritated by it. Zoe is the only girl who seems to resent and suspect Sarah's 'niceness', Ryan seems to be the only guy oblivious to it.
I would love to see more of Sarah with Ray: Sarah could be as close as he will ever get to 'a woman that doesn't talk' - as Wynter said, just a compilation and reflection of his scintillating life. They could be the perfect Stepford couple!
The nurturing thing I think is a stress reliever (when you are in a very stressful situation, you tend to cope better and have lower levels of anxiety and physiological stress if you are preoccupied with the welfare of another person.) It comes across as fake, because Brad, Josh etc don't need Sarah to look out for them, they know and we know they don't, and Sarah is no better able to look after them than they her, or she herself - Big Brother is in control and everyone knows that.
From the very start, or at least, by the time the girls joined the boys in the house, it seems the other housemates have been pushing Sarah out. If there was a good reason to nominate her, they would be discussing it. As it is, they are saying things to each other like 'but you can't hold that against her' (although they would clearly like to) and in the end agreeing that she is a nice person (although Charne and Ben seem to be the only people who don't dislike her).
I would not be surprised if Bradley nominated 'momma-bear' on Monday for being fake, rather than being overbearing and patronizing to him in order to feel useful and in control within herself. After all, if he nominated her for mothering him, the first question would be why he didn't ask her to stop, and the real answer would be 'because if I told her to stop doing it, she would and then I wouldn't be able to nominate her for it.' The only real problem the housemates have with Sarah is that she is so reasonable, that if they raise an objection with her, she is sure to find some annoyingly unobjectionable compromise.
I think being a good person is more important to Sarah than to any other housemate. Estelle and Ben are the only other housemate that has mentioned integrity as something that matters to them, but they are less clear than Sarah about what their values actually are and the extent they will sacrifice personal convenience to adhere to them is another matter again. Michael and Ray don't talk about personal integrity, but they act as if they have very definite ideas of what it is, and it matters to them, and consider it in every choice they make. Layla and Zoe seem to mindlessly assume that they are good people, and I have not seen them treat others in a way that would suggest that they are not. Bradley, Josh, George, Ryan and Stella seem able to be quite malleable for the purpose of fitting in, getting on, or 'being strategic' (Poor Ryan. The strategists never talk about being strategic.) Angie seems to be extremely pragmatic.
Only Sarah seems to think that she has to prove she is a good person, and that every word she says, every plate she picks up for Brad, every favour she gives Zoe, is a proof of how good she is, but every time she fails to act or even to notice an opportunity to help someone, is a negation of that proof. It's like the rock of sisyphus, every minute that she is not doing good, negates all the goodness she has done. She is also the one that talks about 'not needing other people to be validated'. I am guessing she had or has had someone hyper-critical in her life, who tore her down in order to make themselves feel powerful (and to do what they could to make her feel unable to live without them, as any sane person would.) Her 'fake' behaviour could be a way of vindicating herself against accusations of being the kind of person nobody else would put up with ("See, I am a good person, I am, I am.") I think this other person was/is a guy, because it is guys (Josh, Bradley especially) who are being most irritated by it. Zoe is the only girl who seems to resent and suspect Sarah's 'niceness', Ryan seems to be the only guy oblivious to it.
I would love to see more of Sarah with Ray: Sarah could be as close as he will ever get to 'a woman that doesn't talk' - as Wynter said, just a compilation and reflection of his scintillating life. They could be the perfect Stepford couple!
