Matt Wilkinson's Blog

Boycott BB Alex... we have to stop this!

 
This blog started yesterday. I’d written half of it this morning and then I had to delete it when the news broke that Alex was kicked out of Big Brother.

This is good news… partly.

I had written a damning article on how a bully was effectively given celebrity status. A vile woman who was not just offensive but made worse from the fact that she had no idea she was doing it. Alex lashed out at other housemates using the kind of language that only she understood and to prove a point that only she knew. Everyone else, victims and bystanders, were left shocked and hollow - not knowing how to respond and feeling intimidated.

I’ll admit to not having watched much of BB this year, in the past I used to love the show and found it intriguing, amusing and at times gripping. However the one episode that I did watch last week happened to be the episode at the centre of the latest out cry ‘Chipgate’ (Someone burnt the oven chips, Alex ate one without checking and then gave the well meaning cook both barrels). Watching it was uncomfortable. I felt offended myself by Alex’s outburst.

I can’t help thinking that Channel 4 should have acted straight away and turfed her out the next day (or perhaps not put her in the house in the first place!) instead it wasn’t until last night that she was privately evicted.

I said partly good news earlier because what happens next is what concerns me most. Last year Charley was the hate figure for her bullying antics and was widely condemned however it didn’t stop her making a name for herself. She is often pictured now in the tabloids and only last month, I read, she was a co-host on a radio show. I worry that Alex will follow in her footsteps (perhaps it was Charley the year before who inspired her to enter?) and before you know it she will become a role model for all the wrong reasons. I am sure she has a story that she wants to sell - no doubt about how she was bullied when she was younger, she had a tough life, no one was ever there for her etc etc. None of this excuses her from her actions last week.

She will only be able to cash in on her ‘Sensational’ story if we buy it. Therefore all I ask - is that if you see a paper/magazine with her face on it with the headline ‘My Side Of The Story’ that you resist buying it and hopefully Alex’s nasty bullying persona will be one that we never have to see again.

See you tonight at 7pm.

M x

Posted by Matt Wilkinson on June 19, 2008 at 17:46PM

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