Housemates "bring joy" to Australia but humiliation to "bitches"

When you see the word "scandal" linked to "Big Brother", it's basically the key to switch off and ignore whatever follows. So feel free to switch off and ignore what follows, but I do feel compelled to comment on the sexual assault/harrassment perpetrated by Ash (Michael Cox) and John (Michael Bric) in the house over the weekend.

First, if you didn't already hear what happened, see:

• the ABC article
• BehindBigBrother.com's transcript of the event
• a silent video of the incident
• Melbourne-based Ms Fits' blog post appropriately titled Turkeyslapgate

Key part of the story:

...Camilla climbs onto the bed and again asks whats going on. They are all laughing and Ashley again says nothing. John tells Camilla to "Lie down and shut your eyes." Ashley repeats the sentence. Camilla says "Why? You're not going to turkey slap me are you?" Ashley says "No". Camilla says "You are you liars. Let me in". She climbs into the bed. Camilla says "I'll hurt you if you do." As soon as she is fully down in the bed, John puts his arms around her to keep her down. He tells Ashley to "Go. Turkey slap her." Ashley gets on his knees, pulls down his pants, grabs his penis and slaps Camilla's head with it. Ashley and John laugh. Camilla says "Hey, you little shit". Camilla half sits up in the bed and informs the rest of the bedroom "I just got turkey slapped." Camilla lies back down in the bed saying "You guys are mean to me." Ashley says "It was funny though." Camilla repeats "It was mean..."

Gretel Killeen last night said "Ashley and John were fantastic housemates, bringing joy, not only to their fellow house mates, but to Australia as a whole." That's fine but they are also stupid. And so is Gretel for using her position following up on the revelation to perpetuate the idea that boys will be boys so girls, it's your own fault if you get harrassed. You just don't do things like that – especially, need I mention – if you know you're being filmed 24 hours a day! First and foremost you just don't do it because it's extremely disrespectful.

I have no doubt it was Ash's idea – characteristic of his lack of personality, lack of emotional depth and sheer uninterestingness, thinly veiled by his pull-my-finger style antics. And John – feel the tiniest bit sorry for him – is just too much of a pushover to have objected to being a party to the "joke". What I just don't get is why is it so funny to "turkey slap" a woman? Well, it's not. The fact is it's just ordinary sexual harrassment/assault designed to humiliate but disguised as a joke. And Camilla is just the kind of woman Ash wants to humiliate – and knew he'd get away with humiliating – to compensate for her (and others) exposing him for the total idiot he is.

Images of housemates sourced from BigBrother.com.au.
Categorised as: media, society
Technorati Tags: Camilla Halliwell, Michael Cox, Michael Bric, Big Brother Australia, sexual harrassment, Gretel Killeen