She massaged his feet, he seemed OK about that.

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Lauren is an interesting housemate and i have enjoyed much about her over the series.

But she really went down in my estimations tonight.

I thought it was a very low blow for her to suggest Ron was transphobic, it's an unfair and quite serious accusation to make of him and only after he suggested nominating her - she had never said it before then.

Worst of all - she made the accusation but with nothing at all to back it up !

I mean - quite the opposite appears true. He seems like he makes a lot of effort with her. He even had her massaging his feet the other night. Hardly the behaviour of someone who felt prejudice towards her!

Fair enough, she didn't like the fact he suggested nominating her. Like Danielle, she is obviously someone who takes nominations far too personally.

Interesting that she got the most noms tonight and judging by the other HMs reasons for nominating her, it seems she is quite self centred and inconsiderate of others which i hadn't realised. I mean, for Charlotte to complain about Lauren's dirty habits - it must be bad!

It's one thing to be messy and inconsiderate of others. Another to take it badly if HMs nominate you. But if and when they do - there's no need to resort to accusations of bigotry and prejudice for it, to Ron or any other housemate.

I thought that she was above resorting to that level of unfounded accusation, especially over noms, which are simply part of the game. She knew Ron had a label of prejudice hanging over him him when he entered the house and it felt like she played to that unfairly and it was a cheap thing to do.

Ron's bigoted and xenophobic.

Wouldn't surprise me if he was transphobic too.

I got the impression that had been pushed for by BB too.

I think Jack makes some good points about the effect of past bullying on expectations of certain attitudes in others. Given that Ron seems to epitomise a certain kind of culture and generation, and one which is unlikely to have been particularly accepting of someone like Lauren, there may be an assumption of transphobia.

I don't get the impression he's being transphobic, though. Having seen how little awareness he seems to have about his comments around race I'm pretty sure he'd have said something Godawful by now, if that was his problem with her.

Of course, we can't see everything in the BB house. There maybe subtle cues that she is seeing and we aren't. But...I just don't get that impression of Ron from the way he interacts with her. I get more of a sense of that (just a sense, nothing specific that's been said) from Bruce.

It's possible he doesn't quite know what to think of her. It's possible he doesn't quite get the transgender thing. Not getting something, not really understanding what it truly means and even being mildly suspicious of that state of being, is not the same as being transphobic.

If anything he seems to have made an effort to get to know her.

But if she is essentially expecting him to be hostile on those grounds, then maybe she is misreading a wholly different unease.

not when it's slanderous she hasn't. and that was slanderous.

No it wasn't. She didn't say he is transphobic, she said he may be.

I don't think it's a nice thing to accuse someone of to the whole viewing audience though just because he suggested her for a nomination and she had nothing to back it up either

I agree. I'm just saying it wasn't slanderous.

Tut Tut Lauren....have some facts before you spout off about others being trans phobic...Ron may not be your best friend in there but be careful as to what you accuse others of being.

I agree.You can't go around calling people anything 'phobic' without good reason.It makes people wary about saying anything negative or getting into an argument with the person who is throwing that accusation out there.It is a dirty tactic,Just like what Gina did to Jemima.I thought the same when i saw it too.She had no reason to say that.

Great post, my first thought when Lauren said that was she was playing the transphobic card. Ron merely suggested putting her up, Vicky gave him the final say and he went for Louie, maybe he is homophobic as well, and if he nominated Carol he would be a misogynist etc etc. I didn't like her doing that at all, and the other thing I didn't like was Ron and Vicky just getting to choose one HM for eviction, they should have been allowed to pick a second one like all the others, the outcome may not have been any different but at least we would have seen a bit more of their thinking.

It's also virtually impossible to defend yourself from that accusation.

ah, ok..:thumbs:

As a Lauren fan, I didn't like this. It's not fair to play these cards without real reason. Gina pulling the race card angered me, so I can't be a hypocrite and say nothing when a housemate I support does something similar.

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The thing that's wrong with bigots is how they look down on other people and then make these exaggerated, sweeping, negative judgments about them.

Funnily enough, that's just what you've done about Ron.

I'm just watching last nights BOTS on catchup, and in the diary room bit where the nominees answer questions, Ron's body language was interesting, particularly as they were leaving. The way he put his hand on her arm and so on, suggests he is interacting with her as he would with any woman.

Yes I noticed that as well, and he stood back to let her out the DR room door before him.

Yes and when sat in the DM chair he had his arm round the back when sat next to Lauren, very open & comfortable.

But on the same note I noticed two occasions last night where Lauren gave him a hug putting both arms around him and he put his right arm on her waist and left his left arm static by his side...I picked up on that, that's not a hug.

He may not be one of life's huggers :p

I don't think Ron is the huggy type, I think he did this with someone else as well, maybe Charlotte?

Yeah, I'd echo Dana and Cherie. Jack it almost sounds like you want Ron to be transphobic. He really hasn't done anything to suggest that he is and it was unfair of Lauren to say that about him

Why would I want anyone to be transphobic? That doesn't make sense :conf:

It wasn't out of order, it was completely understandable given her background...I've already explained this. If Mario had made the accusation then yes it would have been unfair, but from a transgender who will have experienced much rejection and discrimination for that very reason? Perfectly understandable for her to assume that anyone that dislikes her may do so because of who she is, almost as if it's a conditioned mentality for her. It's quite easy for us to sit here and go 'how rude and unfair!!!' but we're not the ones that have faced a decade of prejudice for being transgender.

lol

So you agree she may be paranoid, honestly most people have too much going on in their day to day lives to worry about Lauren and her sex change. Every single person in this world will encounter prejudice at some point in life whether that be because of their race, gender, job, accent, hair colour whatever, you just learn to live with it. The problem with Lauren is that she doesn't seem very happy in her own skin that is my view at any rate.