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Big Brother Begins Again

When I first heard about Corey Worthington Delaney being invited to make an appearance on this years Australian Big Brother I was not impressed.  I mistakenly thought the producers would not be that stupid and there was no chance the rumour could be true but he is in the house.

My initial reaction was one of pure, unadulterated, disgust with the BB producers for rewarding the bad behaviour that got this boy his celebrity status.

I’m still disgusted that the media continues to reward Corey by keeping him in the limelight but I’m seeing some other things too.

On the unofficial fan site, Behind Big Brother Australia, they were angry about the decision to include him too.  One or two members of the forum hero-worshiped him but the majority were as disgusted about him appearing as I was.  They thought he was an idiot who should be forgotten as soon as possible.

When they hosts mentioned he was going in on one of their shows the audience booed so he was certainly not popular even in his own age group.

He has been in a while now, however, and people have got to know him a bit so that has changed.  Some of the audience still boo but he is gaining popularity.  Not because of the party he held but because people have got to know a bit about him as a person.

He has said his motive for going on the show was to let people get to know him in the hope they will see he is not a bad person so it seems his actions may have been financially rewarding but he has been suffering socially.

It is an interesting thing about people.  We are often much more tolerant than would be expected and we do tend to see the good in others when given a chance to get to know them.

I’m finding my own opinions of the younger generation are changing a little as I get to know them a bit too.

Someone went on the BBBA website to post a request in the forums for the members to complete a survey.  They got an extremely hostile response but a few people did answer the questions and something one of them said really struck home for me.

They compared reality shows with standard television shows and it made me stop and think.

Two of our prime-time television shows are Neighbours and Home And Away.  These are evening soap operas and I have seen enough of them to know what goes on.

Recently the Neighbours story line included a “love” affair between a teacher and his student.  The teacher was sent to jail for six months for the affair but it was presented in a light that made the law seem wrong.

Another part of the plot had a man being unfaithful to his partner while his daughter attempted to protect her by threatening and blackmailing the other woman and keeping quiet about what her father was doing.

Previous story lines have included a lot, and I do mean a LOT, of premarital sex, infidelity, dishonesty, law-breaking and other very negative things.

We accept a lot of extremely bad behaviour in our scripted shows and movies on the grounds that it is not “reality” but all that stuff affects “reality”.  It causes people to think about imaginary situations “as if” they were real.

The young girl in Neighbours met and slept with her teacher before the two of them found out he was her teacher.  They “fell in love” before they knew it was forbidden and this is being presented as a good reason to waive the law.

There is no mention of the fact that most teachers who have sex with their students are using them.  The students may believe it is “true love” but the older person is usually just using the younger.

These people would not hesitate to manipulate their student lover into lying for them.  If such an exception to the law became accepted the number of affairs that “began” before the teacher and student knew they were teacher and student would jump alarmingly!

The number of teachers who would give in to temptation would also jump alarmingly if they thought there was a loophole in the law that would allow them to get away with it!

Corey Worthington Delaney had a party that got out of hand and cost the community thousands of dollars to bring under control.

Would I prefer young people to watch him be booed by his peers or have them sit there thinking the law is wrong to try and stop a teacher from having sex with a student?

When I think about it from that perspective I am suddenly not as opposed to Corey being on the show as I used to be.

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