Channel 4's obseesion with Gay folk

[merv]

You know! there is no easy way to ask this for fear of offending folk.
Not intended I assure.
But, Channel 4 for do appear to over represent the Gay Community in my opinion.
No matter what the program we are deluged with them.
Come dine with me for example.
Just been down and seen Razor Ruddick in Celebrity wife swap, who have they paired him off with, Pete Burns for god sake.
Far to many to be truly representive of the Gay Population, but just my opinion.
I reckon if we were to add em up, around 10 percent of all housemate past and present have been either Gay or Bi.
That doesn't seem right to me.
Lets have a fairer mix of folk.

[Jords]

About a third of this years BB were Gay/Lez/Bi alone, so more than 10% id say.

[GoldHeart]

Originally posted by merv
You know! there is no easy way to ask this for fear of offending folk.
Not intended I assure.
But, Channel 4 for do appear to over represent the Gay Community in my opinion.
No matter what the program we are deluged with them.
Come dine with me for example.
Just been down and seen Razor Ruddick in Celebrity wife swap, who have they paired him off with, Pete Burns for god sake.
Far to many to be truly representive of the Gay Population, but just my opinion.
I reckon if we were to add em up, around 10 percent of all housemate past and present have been either Gay or Bi.
That doesn't seem right to me.
Lets have a fairer mix of folk. more than 10 % !!!!!!!!! :rolleyes::laugh2:

[BBmassive]

Some of the very best hm8s over the years have been gay ,none better than my hero Brian Dowling ,and anti -gay posts are as bad as racist posts

[Tom]

You have no idea about Channel 4 then. It was set up in 1982 to represent minority views/people and controversial issues.

[Snowball1986]

Channel 4 has always been quite cosmopolitan, which is good, just some of the gay BB HMs they pick are idiots, Charlie and Craig from BB6 being the worst IMO!

[merv]

"and anti -gay posts are as bad as racist posts "

This is not Anti Gay though, I just say it over represents them.
There are many minority Groups who could do with a chance.

[Marc]

I don't think its channel 4 showing more gay people.. I think its just society getting less strict on gay people and coming to terms that gay people aren't the worst thing ever...

[flemin]

Channel 4 always have represented minority groups.

[merv]

"Channel 4 always have represented minority groups. "

Very little others on BB there biggest show, only the Gay community on mass.

"I think its just society getting less strict on gay people and coming to terms that gay people aren't the worst thing ever... "

If that is correct, then do we no longer consider them to be in the minority bracket?

[ElProximo]

Originally posted by merv
You know! there is no easy way to ask this for fear of offending folk.
Not intended I assure.
But, Channel 4 for do appear to over represent the Gay Community in my opinion.
No matter what the program we are deluged with them.
Come dine with me for example.
Just been down and seen Razor Ruddick in Celebrity wife swap, who have they paired him off with, Pete Burns for god sake.
Far to many to be truly representive of the Gay Population, but just my opinion.
I reckon if we were to add em up, around 10 percent of all housemate past and present have been either Gay or Bi.
That doesn't seem right to me.
Lets have a fairer mix of folk.

This has come up before and it is a valid point and my main complaint is what over-representation does NOT do:
It does not give us a somewhat realistic microcosm of the UK.
This would seem to me a core premise with Big Brother or at least a concept to be aimed for.
The biggest most outstanding disparity is the over-representation of youth on BB. By far.
In a representative cast we would see x-many from each kingdom and corner (they are not too bad for this),
and,
out of 20 maybe 17 would be 'natives' but 3 would be immigrants (or next generation) and maybe 1 Indian, 1 African, 1 southeast asian,
and,
2 or 3 HMs would be BNP supporters, 5 Tories, 5 grits and in varying degrees of involvment,
About 10 of the HMs would be Christians and again ranging in degrees of enthusiasm with maybe 1 or 2 quite 'devote' to that cause.
5 would have labour jobs, 10 services, 1 wealthy, 4 unemployed sort of thing.
(BB is not too bad with that although few real working class labour job people and way too many models).

Gays?
Well in some sort of representation of society there might be 1 homosexual in 20 HMs.
Maybe even 1 gay and 1 lesbian and you might even have another who has had a 'gay experience' or experimented back in university although don't anymore or since.
A more realistic representation of UK life.

Other arguments/criticisms:
Homosexuals who would also like to see a realistic representation of their social situation.
In real life they might be just 1 person out of 20 in their building who is in that lifestyle.
In society in general they might be just 1 in 100 in many a crowd.
This puts them in a unique position with unique problems/advantages etc.
When they watch BB they see 'their reps' experiencing something completely different and maybe even (they worry) giving the public a very false idea of what their lives are like and actually what FEW problems they ever experience (if going by BBs representation).
In the BB house gays have plenty of other gays and those who are not gay are 100% delighted and approve without a doubt or question.
In reality a gay might literally be the 'only gay in the village' and a most think they are 'weird' and many think they are disturbing and perverted.
A Gay might even make an argument that BB is, ultimately, hurting their cause and safety by misleading the general public into believing there is no more need for concern, support or protections.

But for me its not specifically 'gays' that I'm complaining about but ANY disproportionate representation.
and,
I'm not an accountant about it either. I actually do understand we can't get some sort of 'per capita' match. I do understand they can only work with who applies and agrees to do it,
but,
I'd like to see 'some effort' towards building some sort of representation of society in general and even that might be averaged out over the series.

From the abandoned youtube application hoax BB tricked everyone into earlier I could have gone through and picked out a somewhat more realistic proportion,
and,
not many but a number of interesting older people as well who I might mention got plenty of cheers and 'thumbs up' from a lot of the younger ones.

[IheartBB]

about 10% of the british populatuion are gay, so if 10% of all BB housemates are gay too, that is a pretty fair representation.

[Nemo123]

No problem with 10% or the token 1 or 2, but this year is ridiculous. They're alienating the audience.

[ElProximo]

Originally posted by IheartBB
about 10% of the british populatuion are gay, so if 10% of all BB housemates are gay too, that is a pretty fair representation.

No. Not even close.
Yes, it is not the easiest statistic to get a handle on but in recent decades there have been plenty of companies spending plenty of cash trying to find out. Especially since it is believed that gays are an excellent cash-spending demographic to find,
but,
the best (and most expensive) studies using the best possible anonymity schemes and using the best researchers come out with something like:
between 1% to 3% describe themselves as having participated in homosexuality at some time.
Here comes the 'interpretation' issue though - this is the responders opinion and definition. In other words, this could be someone who touched wieners with another boy back in Scouts but in his estimation, despite being married for 20 years and never having any other 'homosexual experience' he believes this qualifies him to answer:
Yes, I have had an ongoing homosexual relationship.
You and me might say that doesn't really count as a 'homosexual'.
Okay.
But some of the better surveys did try and narrow that down to a more specific:
Are you now and intend to be actively living a homosexual preference type of question.
These surveys can come up with around 1%
Around 1 in 100 people are what we might call 'decidedly gay'.

This does about square with what we came up with years and years ago when I was helping out in the marketing dept. We didn't have any scientific surveys.
Actually we had no idea and basically used a phone book. Our best available indicator.
We went through listings and newspapers trying to find the ratio of gay services and nightclubs.
Not an exact science of course - gays may ALSO go to a regular 'singles' nightclub and many straight women fill 'gay clubs',
but,
we did approximate around 300 nightclubs in the region and could narrow down 3 or 4 gay bars (as called).
For around 300 bookstores we found 3 or 4 'gay bookstores',
and,
out of about 300 festivals/events/parades each year we could find around 3 or 4 'gay theme' parallels.

So out of 20 HMs it would seem reflecting society in general if you maybe had 1 gay or lesbian.
Actually less but lets round it up to at least 1 per season.

Again.. you can quickly get into a very large 'grey area' if you are going to try and find that % who (like Roddy) may have once had a threesome and does that make them what... a bisexual?
A girl who experimented in university?
Maybe that is another HM per season then.

[keithafc]

No gay person in the BB house has ever represented the gay community, they represent themselves. Simple as. Channel should stop putting in steorytypes IMO.

[PEARHALVES]

channel 4 is owned by gays :wink:

[ElProximo]

Originally posted by keithafc
No gay person in the BB house has ever represented the gay community, they represent themselves. Simple as. Channel should stop putting in steorytypes IMO.

I dig what you are saying. The idea is not that each contestant is to be something other than themselves. I suppose I look at 'representation' more for the selection of the individuals we can start with.
A BNP member might join but he is not necessarily being asked or should behave as if 'the face of BNP' but is to be themselves as they are.

You brought up another criticism and that is selecting out 'stereotype' gays. Now plenty of people who are gay can argue this is a sort of misrepresentation that can give this idea that any homosexual must be flamboyant, campy or lesbians bull dykes dressing like men etc.
Once again going back to the best sort of 'study' we could make in our marketing dept (which was actually a large closet with a desk heh),
but,
for example we tried to get a 'picture' of a typical homosexual listener. How many were 'feminine campy nightclub dancers' but what about those who were NOT?
A local documentary was helpful. A typical active homosexual was just as likely (if not more) to fit this picture:
Works full-time in a rather typical job (driving, shop, office grind or contractor, painter, window fitter etc) is very plainly dressed and moderate living. Is separated from his wife. Is fairly responsible with a modest income. has busy shifts at job.
Does NOT frequent known 'gay clubs' at all.
Meets at known 'cruising parks' after hours, late at night and usually one the way home from work or other appointments. 'cruises' for less than 30 minutes average twice a week and has 'oral sex' twice a week.
Tells nobody at work. Has either no friendships with other gays or just one or two in his network.
This pattern will ebb and flow in maybe 3 month cycles of activity.
Has 'good enough' relationships with his family and a moderate social life with limited but decent friendships.
Will buy a better quality vehicle but in 'near new' condition.
Is fairly private about their home.
Spends conservatively on electronics with disposable income.
Will buy good shoes.. ..but for work.
Owns a pet and invests in its upkeep.
Spends on take-out.
Will buy a vacation package but only if on budget and with no frills or extras and once every 2 years on average.

Going from a fading memory but that was something close to most of what we could come up with as a 'picture' of that segment of potential customers.
The one thing I remember was that there was this sort of sudden massive attention and scramble to get to this 'hidden gold' demographic. Everyone was talking about it like a priority or a race and to almost 'mythical' status,
but,
maybe a year later just about any talk of it died off from the 'higher ups' and pretty much any interest died out.
In actual practice it didn't go anywhere and there was no 'magic gay jackpot' ever found.
At least not for anything in the big ole mass media market for any specific niche we could get to.

[Celeb_Rehab]

There are many gay people that are are intelligent, articulate, funny & have great personalities & must of applied to get on the this year's show...so what happened ?

Foe example...Beavis & Butthole are a complete joke!
Charlie & the Brazilian nut our nasty pieces of work!

I am a straight man ...but if i were gay, i would be well annoyed with BB for letting these losers represent the gay community.

[fitz2k2]

ill be shocked next yr they have no gay people in big brother show

[tremault]

I don't recall any homosexuals in last years big brother.

that's not to say there weren't any, i just don't remember any.

i'm not checking any sources right now but i'm pretty sure the ones i can remember were straight, darnell, mikey, mario, lisa, luke, rebecca, rachel, rex, sylvia, maysoon