Ross, Brand and some great Sachs
All this fuss about Jonathan Ross & Russell Brand "insulting" Andrew Sachs... Well, apart from it obviously being whipped up beyond belief by the media, who scent blood on the Beeb, there's something a bit screwy here.
It was an asinine prank call, but what I take out of the aftermath, is that the focus from the media is pretty much based on Sachs' outraged sensibilities*.
On the radio today, the story was about the "insult" to Sachs, any unpleasantness for the woman in question was never touched upon. Alright, Sachs was the recipient of the call and therefore most immediately affected, but the tools, (apart from Brand & Ross themselves, haha) feed into some hideously sexist notions of the male ownership of female sexuality. Ie. it's getting one over on the male progenitor to have sex with his female family member without marrying her.
It's also a good excuse to put up lots of pictures of her in burlesque and splash her activities & sexual proclivities all over. Of course, she may well be perfectly happy with the exposure and it may do her career wonders, but even if she wasn't, it seems she doesn't deserve consideration because she's got that stuff online and she's in a rather outrageous burlesque troupe. So she calls herself a slut in the troupe, and she may have had sex with Brand, therefore she is a slut and cannot be shamed as she is shameless and deserves all she gets. She can of course bring shame upon her male family members, which is an awful, awful thing.
She doesn't have a right to make her own sexual choices without it being held offensive to her grandpa, because after all, men should still be controlling women's sexuality.
That's what I take from this anyway.
* Although he himself is asking for an apology to his granddaughter.
7 comments:
They were obviously at Fawlt, but should they get Sached for it? This story is a punster's paradise.
I hear that the granddaughter has now given an interview. She says that Brand gave a half-hearted apology and offered to make up for it by plugging her act.
I couldn't believe Gordon Brown was involved in a pile of stupid media nothing gossip. He demeans himself and the government by stooping to this level. It ought to stay on the tattle pages of the newspapers, where it can be safely ignored by people of culture and discernment.
I think the story itself is sexist as you say. I wasn't aware of the details. I didn't know there really was a granddaughter involved. I thought Sachs was a bit humourless but then again, his wife is in hospital. So he probably could do without the publicity. I think the nation is on the cusp of turning against Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand, because the British hate tall poppies, and they've got it all - successful careers and massive incomes from them. Perhaps this is about them getting too big for their boots and people want to bring them down. I've seen Russell Brand's show, he's not done anything new here. I mean, he's always making near the knuckle comments to other great celeb luminaries. It's just that this one has fought back.
To be honest I find it really hard to care about any of it. I daresay they will both survive and go on being as successful as they are. Abster x
The idiots have now been suspended by the bbc
Angelo: man,well, it was hard to resist. :D
Abs: I think a lot of the media furore is based on trying to besmirch the BBC - after all, a lot of it is being whipped up by the Mail and its ilk with financial interests that compete directly with the Beeb. I think it's actually very little to do with the presenters themselves, they've just given an opening for cries of 'heads should roll' and 'what are we paying our licence fee for'. I doubt Ross and Brand will suffer unduly - Brand's Ponderland on another channel was continuing to be advertised today, for example.
Lucy: ta for update. :)
Hi there,
Your explanation about family/sexuality/patriarchy etc is very good, something that people on messsageboards have missed the point about.
It's nobody's finest hour.
Abster x
Spot on. I was outraged by this the minute I heard about the prank, too. As someone who comes from a culture where females are charged with their family's honour till their death, I naively thought I could find solace with liberal British media personages.
Thanks for commenting, Ala. :)
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