Comments on: …In which I loudly condemn narratives of personal redemption on Big Brother

By: zoot

zoot — Fri, 15 May 2009 10:07:12 +0000

Are you the Barbara of Seville?

By: Nabakov

Nabakov — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:04:53 +0000

Glad we could set you straight Barb.

By: Barbara Flemming

Barbara Flemming — Fri, 15 May 2009 01:29:06 +0000

I’ve been looking for a decent honest review of the best hair straightener for ages, thanks for your help.

By: Paul Burns

Paul Burns — Tue, 20 May 2008 00:25:38 +0000

It seems asa soon as he got out of BB Corey had a party with his mates in a hotel room,apparently riotous, in which some furniture was damaged, or somnething or other was broken.The cops were called. Cory was apparently not responsible for the damaged.According to BB Loud Mouth or whatever its called.Anyway, I still like him.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:31:41 +0000

No probs, Podblack.

By: Podblack

Podblack — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:30:11 +0000

Thanks Mark, I’ll do that from now on. Sorry.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:08:08 +0000

I don’t think that it was all that realistic to expect Corey to play along with the script of “grovelling apology” written for him by the tabloid tv shows the morning after, and I’m not sure why people seemingly would feel better if he had! But his “redemption” on BB has nothing to do with the ostensible narrative – “look! Corey’s not that bad!” and everything to do with using him for commercial gain – Channel Ten’s in that he adds a twist or two to what had already become another *dull* BB and no doubt improves ratings, and thus the vast money making machine that is all the product placement, phone voting and online spinoffs of BB, his management’s and perhaps his.

Whatever psychological state “the real Corey” is in by now has everything to do with his mediatisation and probably nothing to do with expectations of an “ordinary teenager’s behaviour”.

By: Pavlov's Cat

Pavlov's Cat — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:48:49 +0000

I dunno, Klaus K, I saw a TV interview with his mother and stepfather the morning after the party, recorded at the warm northern place where they’d gone on hols and left a 16 year old kid alone in the house. His (very carefully coiffed) mother just kept saying ‘We’re a good family!’ — not ‘Oh God, [insert names of neighbours here], I’m so sorry about the mess and the disturbance and of course we’ll pay for the damaged car’, or ‘Corey, you little arse, you’re grounded till 2020′, both of which would have been excellent television and were therefore probably not said and then edited out. And now they’ve let him be on Big Brother, presumably as a reward for his behaviour. I’ve got a bit of an idea where some of Corey’s psychology is coming from.

By: margo

margo — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:45:12 +0000

Big Brother is interesting to me re Dave ex BB being on. So far he has said nothing about his life in the cult. He seems quite normal though the way he was talking yesterday with other housemnate, including Travis, about where they had “done it”. Doube if some have though! Bravado talk! Saxon came across as intelligent and it would have been interesting to hear what he had to say on UFOs. We hear nothing of Rima now, wonder why. Corey – did he fix up with his mates, the damage to neighbors’ cars and property? If he hasn’t apologized, why is he on the show.

By: Klaus K

Klaus K — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:22:55 +0000

Fair enough Helen, although the ‘unrepentant Corey’ is as constructed as the ‘ordinary kid Corey’: in both cases we don’t have the benefit of unmediated testimony (as if we ever could), so it is difficult to assume anything about the psychological ‘truth’ of Corey.

By: Pavlov's Cat

Pavlov's Cat — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:21:02 +0000

A late reply to the Delaney/Worthington thing: his mother has remarried and one or other of those is his stepfather’s name. There was some confusion in the meeja at the time as to which name he went by. I’m not sure Corey himself knows what his name is.

By: Helen

Helen — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:01:00 +0000

At the risk of being labelled a purse-lipped prude, one of the important points to remember with Corey was that he was completely unrepentant and felt no guilt at the fact that his neighbours had had their cars damaged and so on. That, to me, was the point. I would be pretty unhappy if my kids mucked up and threw a party which got out of control but if in the cold clear light of the next day (or week) they demonstrated a lack of empathy and an inability to feel remorse for people who they’d injured and/or inconvenienced, I’d hear some psychological alarm bells ringing.

By: Kim

Kim — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:59:43 +0000

Spammers are canny!

I just deleted a comment which included the phrase “as seen on tv hair straightener”. How did they know of Corey’s obsession?

By: Kim

Kim — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:58:00 +0000

I want to see Tim Brunero watch!

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:45:55 +0000

podblack, that comment might fit better on our open thread:

http://larvatusprodeo.net/2008/05/10/saturday-salon-139/

By: podblack

podblack — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:33:47 +0000

Hello – sorry if this seems a little spammy… but I’m hoping for some support and think that this post in particular would be a great addition to our new Australian blogcircle. I mean, you actually got me wanting to WATCH Big Brother to see what you’re saying on the screen! I wouldn’t have bothered otherwise.

Hello!

I’m writing because we’re doing the final round-up of blog entries for the first Skeptics of Carlos site – http://www.skepticsofcarlos.wordpress.com – and was wondering if you’d like to submit any entry so far this year that you think could be profiled?

The site is hoping to promote Australian blog authors, who are interested in writing about science, issues in science, skepticism and current issues. We have a few entries already but were hoping for some more.

If this sounds at all appealing, please send over a url of the relevant post to this email address (skepticsofcarlos at gmail.com) and it’ll be featured tomorrow.

Thanks for your support, hoping to hear from you – and any other readers who are willing to contribute. Thanks!

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:21:56 +0000

Very good point, Klaus.

By: Klaus K

Klaus K — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:02:41 +0000

“When I hear people criticising Corey, I think: let he who was not an utter knob at 17 cast the first stone. That disqualifies me, anyway.”

I think pretty much the same thing when Bianca is criticised, although I’m happy to hold her to slightly higher standards because she does seem to be almost demanding that. Her conduct reminds me of what a happy-go-lucky middle-aged psychologist suggested to me once: that worrying about maturity is the preoccupation of the immature. I suppose it depends on how you define maturity. Bianca doesn’t seem to have learned yet that ‘maturity’ does not have to mean adherence to certain conservative strictures, or to the accoutrements of ‘adulthood’. Or that the desire to be taken seriously can proceed through other paths than constant seriousness.

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:33:01 +0000

When I hear people criticising Corey, I think: let he who was not an utter knob at 17 cast the first stone. That disqualifies me, anyway.

By: Paul Burns

Paul Burns — Mon, 12 May 2008 05:44:18 +0000

Yeah. I’ve always liked the kid. He put it up the MSM 7pm fiction shows, and all the wowser/hypocrites who’d all forgotten they were probably just as irresponsible at his age. (I know I was.)And while I haven’t watched much of BB I gather he’s well and truly holding his own. They shoulda let him keep the sunglasses on though.