Day 35 of Big Brother UK, and everyone is struggling with the Irish Dancing & Drumming task.
note: This is a five and a half minute video, which I’ve summarised but not transcribed yet – it’s school holidays and I’ve been a low-spoon-y. If anyone needs a transcription, please let me know. Does anyone know whether BB is captioned, and if so, if it’s possible to get hold of the transcripts?
Belinda tries to convince some of the housemates to stay up late at night so that they can “help Mikey” with the drumming. Mikey has a better handle on the drumming than Belinda does on her task.
Mikey is fuming in the bedroom, and Belinda comes in with a wheedley voice asking “Are you alright?” Mikey confronts her for patronising him, implying that he is incompetent because he is blind, and what’s more, laying the blame on him in advance for the group (presumptively) failing the task, when it’s she and everyone else who is struggling.
She flails hopelessly, gives him an unwelcome kiss and hug, and ends up saying that she fancies herself a “voice for the voiceless”. This is the point at which the viewer feels it all unravelling completely, and it sparks the smouldering fire in Mikey. Belinda ends up in tears, perhaps realising how badly she has stuffed up, or perhaps just upset that someone has called her out.
This is the first time we have seen Mikey fighting back. He usually reacts to ableism with little jokes, snarks (his “What’s your name again?” to Sylvia), raised eyebrows, or deflections. This is the first incident that has riled him right up. It’s good to see – not good that she behaved badly, but that at least she’s getting told.
Has Mikey reached the end of his tether, or is it more that Belinda is a new (and particularly irritating) housemate? She has certainly upped the ante on the ableism by blaming him for an impending task failure, and then disingeuously switching to the “I just wanted to spend time with you!” (In the Big Brother house?), and the “voice for the voiceless” really tipped things over the edge.
It possibly also doesn’t help that Belinda snores like a freight train, so no one has had a decent sleep. Not her fault, but I can see how it might bring tempers to the fore.
Plus, Mario’s still a mammoth twerpmuffin. At least he is up for nomination this week, along with Bex. Mario out! Mario out! Mario out!
Categories: arts & entertainment, media
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Oh yes, pleeeeeeease let it be Mario out this week! I can’t stand it anymore – if he calls himself a “facilitator” one more time…why does he constantly have to remind everyone how old he is and that he is a manager and a facilitator? And when he’s not doing it, Lisa’s doing it for him, “Mario’s 43, he’s a manager…” YES WE KNOW! Ahem, sorry…
Yes, Belinda – could you live with her? Me neither. The “voice for the voiceless” line is one she uses often, and it’s strange because it makes no sense. How, exactly, is she a “voice for the voiceless”? She does talk over people all the time, so maybe she thinks she can magically know what they are trying to say and say it for them, thus saving them the bother?
I was glad Mikey answered back (at last), but I’d just love to see him really rip into someone! Mario’s treatment of him in the beginning was just as patronising, but they are best buddies. Like you say, Belinda is super-annoying, and new too, so it’s probably easier to have a go at her than his “friend” Mario. I have to say Mikey is a misogynist, though, so perhaps he also finds it easier to answer back to a woman?
Tip for Belinda – the ‘voiceless’ aren’t silent because they have no voice, they’re just a bit busy biting their tongues and trying not to strange you to say anything.
Well, whee for the eviction just gone. And is the on-again, off-again showmance just for the cameras? Will Lisa still want Mario by the time she’s evicted? Will the luxury bedroom eat its young? Will Bex smother Belinda in her sleep? I’m riveted.