[jessicadanielle]

Originally Posted by Speedster

I'm sorry I seemed to be just insulting women, but I've been watching BB on and off since it started 14/15 yrs ago and I've read so many comments over the years praising the men an hating the women that I just get the impression that women are really not that bothered about other women and that it's all about men for them because they -usually- don't have a good word to say about female hm's but come out with excuse after excuse why this (male) hm or that (male) hm did/said what he did.

Women get booed/judged negatively before they've even got in the house, men get cheered, also, remember CBB? Jim Davison won! he's famous for his right-wing,racist,sexist,homophobic jokes and his attitude towards women leaves a lot to be desired, but he won.

As for Ashleigh, I think it depends on which forum you look in terms of her chances of winning, and read on this very forum her being slagged of for swearing etc-they all suggest "good girls" don't act like that. And I wouldn't count your chickens before they hatch; pav could well surprise people, remember he beat both hm he came in with; both female throw out for silly reasons-1 for being silly with winston who didn't do much to stop her, and 1 because of a comment.

Emma said early on in the show women don't like strong women. Why is that? don't women feel strong themselves? surely they do, so why don't they like it in other women?.

Women are mostly the ones who vote, this year probably won't be any different, so if Ashleigh wins she'll not only have been really lucky to have won against a house full of men, people will say she "only won because of the calibre of men this year".

I agree that there are certainly some voters who do judge housemates based on their gender. Some posts on here drive me mad when they're riddled with double standards for male and female housemates.

I wouldn't say that just women don't like strong women, but some people of both genders don't like strong women. It's drummed into society as a whole that strong women are bossy and aggressive, and this was particularly a problem this year with the "power trip" theme, I think.

I do believe that female vs. male housemate selection every year plays some part in the male bias. Out of the 10 female housemates this year, four of them have worked in the sex industry, compared to zero of the men. I feel that this pitches the women as eye candy, and portrays an (unfair) perception of them to the public before the show has even begun.

Just to make clear, I acknowledge that there is often sexism against males too, this is just a female sexism based thread. For example, Pauline (older female) grinding on Steven was laughed at, and telling Winston to stay away from Kim in the shower was considering motherly (and also annoying, but never creepy), while Chris (older male) being friends with Ashleigh and talking to Pav about staring at her is creepy and perverted.