| TIT FOR TAT? |
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| Written by The Eye | |
| Wednesday, 04 June 2008 | |
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Firstly, we have to remember that Bianca is 18. Brunero reminded us of this on Big Mouth; but it's not about the context his shallowness disguised as intellect chose to place it in. It's not about noting her "maturity" (that's far too simple), but about remembering that this girl has just come through adolescence. She's still a teenager - and experiencing adolescence with an F-cup is probably something most of us wouldn't understand, personally, no - but surely, anyone who has ever been a teenager - that's all of us - can imagine what it's like to develop your sense of self, around peers who define you solely by your breasts (as teenagers would, of course). However smart Bianca is or isn't, she's smart enough to not want to play into any idea that she actually has something seen as an epitome for women by our patriarchal society. And that is the case, after all. Most women are raised to aspire to having large breasts, and this is no doubt something we could explore in Renee and Alice's emotional core, beneath their ferocity. Even in Carson's "perception revolution" - a show that pitches itself to be against the body image crisis that has erupted as a result of the male gaze defining our culture - enhancing breast size is seen as an acceptable way for women to feel better about themselves. Which is shocking. So, as Renee and Alice have small breasts (Alice admits she has thought about a breast enlargement), Bianca represents a social inadequacy, on their part. If Alice has considered a breast enlargement, she clearly has, at some stage, noted that she is missing something, in terms of an idea of what the "perfect" woman "is". Never underestimate the resentment this can foster. But what's so unfair about this, is that Bianca can hardly help having that F-cup! That's the irony - Brigette and Rebecca have never copped anything like this, for having fake breasts, but Bianca is subject to resentment for having natural breasts. Truth be told, this may be the reason why - because here is a girl who has what women want, and yet puts it forward that she doesn't want them. For those who aspire to this, that can feel almost like an insult or an arrogance. What the girls pick up on, then, is that she does also seem to switch and embody their "value" as being large breasts! And she does, sometimes. But this is partly a great example of the struggle that is Bianca. Her struggle, some would say, is with herself. True, in so many ways - but one side of that "self" is very much the self determined by the social context - without the external, she would be less a girl of such immense inner-conflict. On the one hand, she is desperate to reconstruct herself out of being a sexual object because of her breasts, and so she rejects the concept of the physical, by embracing the intellectual. So symbolic is this, she happily plays into an absurd kind of caricature, donning the glasses and black skivvy - even carrying books for her profile shots (although, this could have been simply a producer's idea). Many criticise her for not being as smart as she puts forward - that's true, too - but let's cut her some slack, here. Alongside the obvious - that she's barely out of high school - is it not better to decide to embody an "image" of the intellectual, than to go the other way and embody the big-breasted vixen? She rejects the male gaze, because she finds it demeaning, and she strives for more - for more worth, for more meaning in her life. She may not have it, yet - far from it - but at 18, striving is pretty much all we can do. For that, she deserves more kudos than she is given. But this all becomes complicated, because she does have another ideal - a worthy one, that also deserves some credit - that she wants to be comfortable with her body. She's not, of course - this is what plagues her, psychologically. But this is something she has been dealt by her society. So, in rejecting the social gaze, she also must, in some way, reject her natual self. She rejects herself to the point where she considers a breast reduction. The problem with this is that it means that she does, ultimately, give into that social pressure, because she is changing herself to alter her integration in society, and the way it views and treats her - maning that, ultimately, she has had to do something fairly severe, in order to respond to this social gaze. She's smart enough to not want to have to be dealing with her breasts, but she cannot change the society - she is forced, then, to change herself. In orer to feel like she can really "be" herself, she has to become somebody else, so that society can see her as herself! Um.... yes... it's that complicated! And that's incredibly frustrating, it's a horrible catch-22, and it's where so much of her anger comes from. She's caught in a trap. But it's a trap laid by the society she lives in, and she is cornered, and effectively can't see any other way, other than walking into that trap. It's a difficult trap to miss. Yes, it would be lovely if we lived in a world where a woman's breasts didn't define the way others perceive her. But, we don't. The mistake she has then made, in the house, is to become so confused by this (it's bewildering, when you really consider it all, isn't it? You cant really blame her for being a tad messed up), she has walked into another trap, in the form of Rory (cringe). One of the more vivid moments of that fight for me - and a moment most seem to have missed - is where she says, "I thought about it... until I meet a guy who accepts me with them", alongside which, she points and glances at Rory. "Oh, Bianca," I sighed, gently. I do a lot of sighing, when watching Big Brother - you may have noticed. Rory is a boy who very much likes big tits. In the first week, Dixie's initial tears were actually a result of this - we all remember him telling her that "the only thing good about you would be your tits". He's a vile boy, who happily aspires to juggling a wife with his "mistresses", and who has very little respect for women. But yes, he likes those tits! And this is really where Bianca has come undone, and where the journey - if she stays on - will ultimately see her downfall (and I wouldn't underestimate the role of Rory in Renee's tension, either, who is now losing her hug buddy to Rhianna). In the Big Brother house, every pressure of the social gaze is exasperated, beyond belief, and Bianca's naivety has already been shown, in regards to what she thought the experience could hold for her. She went in, thinking she could change the world. But the world, funnily enough, has not changed - nor have her housemates particularly warmed to her. Even Dixie, the other large-breasted housemate she thought was her friend, ultimately (in her eyes, at least) betrayed her (in so many ways, mind you, she did). She has no support network, except for Travis, who, as a result of his slogan-mentality that invalidates basically anything that comes out of his mouth, doesn't really count, emotionally; leaving her with really only one person.... Rory. Rory's a bit of a smooth talker, to say the least, and a boy who very much likes to juggle as many girls as he can, in order to get his kicks. So ego-driven are these kicks, the actual sexual interplay is irrelevant - it's power he craves, and just to know he has the women under his spell is enough. He began by seducing Brigette (he liked her tits, of course), moved on to Renee (even taunting Nathan, at one stage, with his power over her), and then moved onto Bianca, who, the Three Amigos have decided, would be a great looking girl, if only she "fixed her teeth". When Bianca has had her moments of insecurity, frustration and depression, who has been the only one to sit by her, hold her hand, and tell her that her tits are, in fact, nothing to be ashamed of? The boy who, on his housemate profile, answered the question "Favourite book?" with "FHM". But, of course! And so, confused, angry and in need, Bianca turns to the very source of the gaze that has left her feeling (in this society she must now make herself an adult in) so confused, angry and in need. It's not a pretty picture. And, it's about to potentially get a whole lot worse, thanks to the arrival of Rhianna, who now offers Rory a new trophy to hunt. And Bianca knows this, after all - they all do (he's made it very clear to everyone what his intentions are). But she isn't going to risk the humility of externalising this to anyone, and so she will actually just internalise the emotion even more, which will, in turn, play into her anger management issues. Ouch. She has now followed suit of that wonderful protection device that housemates kick in - when they suspect they have well and truly lost the game, and want to somehow reconstruct the failure as a choice - and started telling anyone who will listen (and us, of course) that she wants to leave. I bet she does. But she knows that this probably isn't too distant a fate, whether or not she chooses it. And she's right. With the change in voting procedures, Bianca's time has no doubt come to an end. In so many ways, I almost hope that this weekend does bring her "time to go". There seems only one way from here, if she does stay in that house, and it's a fairly steep incline down, once the emotional snowball finally catches up with you in the Big Brother house. "I can't be in here, a second longer," she cried. And, really, who would blame her?
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 June 2008 ) |
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