Finally, it's Thursday and tonight can't come fast enough. It's been super awkward in the house and terrifyingly vicious in the fan communities. Janelle is going to be evicted tonight unless a crazy set of events happen today to change the votes. This is a welcome event in the house, but outside the house, it has sparked up a fury like no other this season.
First of all, I'd like to say the the BB "rules" suck. This inconsistency is blatantly used to suit the story line production is working on. AGP has repeatedly stated that they don't favor any players, yet everything that the players say, before Flipper drowns us with fish, and the blatant manipulations we see on the show and on the feeds belies this. So let's just give up this notion that it's a fair fight. What I don't get is this suddenly new rule that the HGs are not allowed to tell the intended target that they will be voted out. Yet, it's okay to lie to them about their vote. This manufactured blindside has nothing to do with game and everything to do with good TV.
There is no point in blindsiding Janelle this week. She has little support in the house and less of a chance to rally at the last minute. She has been labelled a liar, so any case she might make about staying will have no credibility. This is largely due to her inconsistencies between what she has said and what she has done in the game. Personally, I don't think Janelle was ready for BB this year. The fact that she's not seeing the blatant signs that she is the target, says a lot. On the other hand, I find the "outrage" at her lies comical as there is not one person who has not lied in the house. This is a necessary tool of survival in "games" like this.
After three evictions of female cast members, suddenly the notion that women should stick together has become the banner statement for saving Janelle, inside and outside the house. The fact is that 5 women have won BB after 13 seasons, with only a handful of them in women alliances: Allison and Jun made an alliance in final 6, during BB4, which brought both of them to F2, crowning Jun the winner; The Friendship Alliance (Nerd Herd) which was predominantly made up of women, brought 3 women out of it's original members to f4, in BB6, with Ivette and Maggie making F2, crowning Maggie the winner; the other 3 BB winners, Lisa, Jordan and Rachel were in alliances that included men but all 3 took women to the end.
The discussion has been raging that the reason for this is that women play an emotional game and get "catty" towards other women. Let's just ignore the sexism of those statements that are taken as "fact", and move on to the facts. The problem is the casting process in BB. They cast for personality types rather than types of personalities that can win the game. Sometimes, the cast members surprise production and fall out of the type they were cast in which causes AGP to edit these people for the show. A prime example of this was Jerry, who horrified a lot of feedsters with his words and behavior but was shown to be a kind father figure on the show.
The bottom line is, they don't cast women who have the potential to win. They cast them to play preconceived notions of female stereotypes: Southern belles, pushy bitches, off-the-wall characters, gaudy show girls, mother figures, etc. To be fair, the men are also cast to play roles: jocks, hunks, quirky dudes (not to be mistaken with Quirkydude), obnoxious talkers, nerds,villains, etc. By necessity, the roles that men are cast in, however, have the personality profiles that enable them to win the game.
Actually calling it a "game" is deceptive. This is a manipulated reality TV show that happens to have challenges that require physical, athletic or mental prowess. These real people are very much cast to play roles that fit into societal stereotypes, propelling this scripted show with its preconceived agenda. Which is all well and good, if you don't offer the "feeds" to watchers. The feeds tell the partial story of what is really going on in the house, making it exceptionally difficult to navigate the reality of who these people are with who we are lead to expect them to be. Adding to this confusion, the feedsters themselves carry with them preconceived notions of what these people should be.
But really all they are is people, with faults, weaknesses, talents, skills, and breaking points, trying to exist within an artificial frame while their every move, word and interaction is being watched closely and judged, in some cases judged harshly, inhumanely and unfairly, sometimes in mob frenzies. What those who judge fail to understand is that all these people, whether we like them or like to hate them, exhibit behavior that we ALL exhibit in real life.
Who of us has never lied, or not told someone to their face what we really feel, or bitched about someone behind their back to relieve this frustration? In fact, I will go even further to say, there is nothing that I have ever heard being said on the feeds, that I have not heard being said by the "fan" community, in harsher, meaner and more constant ways. At this rate, I will even venture to say that the fan community has given way to the hater community. Maybe that's what we need to focus on, not the behavior in the house, but the behavior outside of the house and what it says about us as people.
Who each of us gravitates towards, or is repulsed by, who we cheer for or denigrate very much depends on our prejudices, expectations and experiences. Maybe it's time we stop trying to play their game. We aren't in the house. We are sitting comfortably on our computers, tablets or phones with the ability to switch off the feeds and walk away. Maybe we should start rooting for those we love rather than attacking those we don't. Maybe we should take the option of turning off the feeds and walking away to clear our heads, rather than sit watching for hours on end, getting more and more irate and irrational. Maybe that way, BB will bring us the enjoyment it's supposed to.
UPDATE: The DR outed the Silent 6 at 10:08 AM this morning which caused a stir in the house, fueling Joe's outrage. By 1:24 PM, Frank and Mike are planning Brit's and Dan's demise. So much for that "alliance"!
Stay tuned! :)
