Listening To: Shattered Grounds : Elegant Machinery

So this post originally started life yesterday as a humorous BB05-inspired ‘Open Letter’ to Gianna, in the style of Baz Hutchinson from Random Rant. I say ‘originally started’, but of course that’s not where it’s ended up – not by a long shot, groovers.

Now for starters, I must admit I’m pretty addicted to this years series of Big Brother. Part of that addiction lies in the fact that I auditioned again this time round, so of course I want to see what the people who beat me to the show get up to. That’s not the main attraction though of course – I sent in an audition tape last year too, but turned off after the debut show. I’m not a ‘die-hard’ BB fan either, so that’s not the reason I’m addicted this year. I never watched the first series at all (and Sarah Marie always shat me), and only got into the second series a little bit. The series that really got me hooked prior to the latest one however was BB03 – Marty, Jess, Jo, Ben, Reggie and the rest … that was the shit ! This year I’m somewhat addicted again, because of some of the personalities in the house, and because of the various ‘twists’ thrown into the show. True, most of these twists are ‘rip-offs’ from last years UK series (apparently) – but do I care ? Nope !

Why am I telling you all this ? It’s to give you some idea of my attitude to the series, and to establish my level of ‘fandom’. Essentially I’d rate myself as a ‘casual’ BB Fan, not a die-hard. As such, this is actually the first year I’ve bothered to ‘seriously’ visit some ‘non-official’ Big Brother fansites to catch up on some of the ‘rumours’ and gossip surrounding the series and housemates. What I’ve found has truly disturbed me, on a number of levels.

My favourite BB Housemate this year (in case you haven’t guessed yet) is … dur dur … ‘Gianna’. In this of course I’m probably disagreeing with most of Australia (and I’ll be surprised if Gianna lasts past this Sundays eviction show), but honestly that doesn’t bother me. Yes … the girl (and the BB editors who select which footage to show us in the first place, and what to post in the online diary on the official site) does a great job of coming across as somewhat self-absorbed at times – checking herself out in the mirrors on a regular basis, trying to make herself the subject of conversations etc.

However, what her legions of internet detractors (and fellow BB05 Housemates … let’s just say I don’t think Gianna and “I look like the bastard OTHER daughter of Bronwyn Bishop” – Angela – will be catching up for drinks after the series) forget is that self-absorbtion is a pre-req for virtually ANY reality show contestant. Just look at her fellow HM ‘Hotdogs’ for example … now THERE’S a man not shy to insert himself in any conversation. Hell … if I’d managed to get onto the show I’m sure I’d be doing the same. The other thing which annoys people about Gianna is that she’s had a tendency to ‘embellish’ some of her achievements while she’s been in the house, to quote her mum.

To those who dislike this ‘embellishment tendency’ I must again say “so fŨckin what ?”. In a house full of big personalities like Hotdogs, Michelle (the champion hurdler) and others, who WOULDN’T feel the urge to ‘talk up’ some of their past to make themselves seem a bit more ‘important’ – especially given the competitive nature of the show. What people seem to forget, is that Giannas only ‘sins’, as far as I can see, is to do what we would all do in her situation. According to her mum, and according to the girl herself, she was picked on pretty badly at school, and speaking from personal experience I can tell you this can lead to ‘overcompensating’ behaviour in later adult life where you desperately try to do anything you can to prove those highschool motherfŨckers were wrong about you. Including and not limited to ‘talking’ up the achievements you have made so far.

Now, as I said earlier – what I’ve found on some of the BB05 fansites, along with various news sites, has disturbed me for various reasons. One of the things which has disturbed is the level of general viciousness with which people who aren’t fans of Gianna have attacked her for a variety of ‘real’ and imagined ‘shortcomings’. These attacks range from the completely moronic (“she reckons she was a champion hurdler” – no you dick, that’s Michelle, or “she’s a slut” – sorry … haven’t seen any evidence of that, and one of the reasons she seems to be on the ‘outer’ with most of the guys in the house is precisely because she says she wants a ‘long term’ relationship) to the methodical-obsessive (“she played sport X at age Y and only achieved a grade of Z, then she moved from A to B, worked with a guy called Bob who says” etc) to the plain irrelevant (“I worked with her at Origin Energy and she was always sucking up to the boss”).

The common thread which seems to tie all these attacks together is the kind of mob-mentality, “lets pick on the person who doesn’t fit in” / “Tall Poppy Syndrome” mindlessness with which anyone who wasn’t very popular at higschool and/or is a high-achiever is only all too familiar. It’s bullshit – it’s the unformed howl of a million fat, suburban plebs who have never done anything with their lives, and never will. It’s a bunch of nerdy, stalker-obsessive internet geeks dragging up personal details about someone (fleetingly) ‘famous’ in the hopes of bringing them down. That perhaps is the thing which REALLY disturbs me, more than anything else.

See, I don’t know about you – but I still think people are entitled to some level of ‘privacy’, even those of us who are (minor) celebrities. Some would argue if you go on a ‘reality show’ you forfeit your right to privacy, but I disagree. More cameras in the house – sure. Personal details of some ‘relevance’ to the show and establishing the ‘character’ of the contestant – I’m all for that. However, there’s a point beyond which I think privacy should still be respected. Tabloid news outlets have been digging, and brought out Gianna’s ex-fiancee, who to his credit, had only nice things to say about her. They made big news of the fact HE happens to be an ex-stripper though. Even that, I guess, is to be expected in our ‘dirt relishing’ society.

It doesn’t stop there however, fans. While it’s regrettable, as I said tabloid news is a pretty standard feature of contemporary society, and the nature of ‘celebrity’. However, the anti-Gianna brigade has taken things to a much more ‘personal’ level than that, and crossed the lines between ‘public’ and ‘private’, robbing Gianna of her basic ‘right to privacy’, at least in my opinion. Her ex-coworkers from Origin Energy have posted pictures of Gianna from their 2003 & 2004 work Christmas parties on the ‘net, and made various derogatory remarks. That’s getting a bit much. Others have posted the full text of her application for last years “Ambassador for Adelaide” competition. Again, I think that’s a bit of a privacy issue. However, it’s even worse than that and in this last shredding of Gianna’s privacy Big Brother himself has actually played a part – inadvertently or otherwise.

The other night in an ‘up late’ show, Gianna was apparently discussing a certain sport with one of the other HM’s. I say ‘apparently’ because I don’t watch the ‘up-late’ shows myself – I got this, surprise surprise, from one of the ‘stalky internet geek’ fansites. The producers bleeped out part of the conversation, but what they failed to bleep out was the name of the sporting outlet associated with the topic of conversation which happens to be on the street in which Gianna lives ! This is a pretty major fŨck-up on Big Brother’s part … I wonder if it was intentional ?

Why is this failure to bleep pretty serious ? Let’s play connect the dots. Using some of the resources mentioned above, it’s a piece of piss to find out which suburb of Adelaide Gianna and her dog Cheeky live in. Next, we hit the website of the sporting chain … the branch in that particular suburb is located on such and such a street. Finally, we jump over to whitepages.com.au, enter Giannas full real name, the street, and the suburb. Hey fŨcking presto – I now have Giannas home address and telephone number !!! So does any fŨcking dickwad with an IQ above 50, and access to the internet. Ditto all their friends they have just texted it to. THIS IS JUST SOOO F*CKING WRONG, ON SO MANY LEVELS !!!

It’s one thing to ‘dig up dirt’ to sell your tabloids, or promote your internet site. In the context of Big Brother and its producers, it’s even ‘fine’ to edit the masses of footage you’ve got coming from the house to build up a certain ‘picture’ and ‘story’ about the Housemates – no matter whether this portrayal is accurate or not. But it’s NOT OK, in my view, to make it possible for any Tom, Dick and Harry with half a brain to actually find out the home address of your contestants. Especially when, in the case of someone like poor Gianna – you are helping to feed the resentment of the aforementioned howling masses through your editing of the show and the online diary.

I’m a nice guy – so I’m not gonna ring Gianna’s number after the show is over, and if I do anything with her address at all, it’s gonna be simply sending a short letter of support. Unfortunately, the world is full of fucktards … not everyone is as nice as I am, and a lot of people are pretty pissed at Gianna for stupid reasons outlined above. By completely invading her privacy and making it possible to obtain her address, some irresponsible people (including the BB05 producers, who contributed to this with their sloppy editing) have potentially placed her at real risk.

That is disturbing, and the reason why this post has ended up a rant instead of a humorous ‘Open Letter’. Peace out, y’all ….