This past week, Big Brother houseguest Aaryn was unanimously evicted by fellow competitors.
Even if you don’t watch BB, you probably heard about this gal. Aaryn, a blonde, 22-year-old model/student from Texas, made headlines with her offensive comments about African Americans, Asians, homosexuals and well, everyone.
So audiences cheered when her modeling agency summarily fired her.
Even Asian host, Julie Chen, reacted stating, “My heart is pounding. … Am I the only one who feels so enraged?”
In a post-eviction interview, Chen wasted no time confronting Aaryn who said, “I do not remember saying those things.”
Based on the audience reaction, few believed her.
But perhaps she isn’t really lying.
The network executives have always promoted the show as a social experiment. The houseguests are recorded on-camera, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
But they realize that the more controversial and outlandish they are, the more interest and airtime they’ll receive.
They’re also living in a totally isolated and unreal world where no one has to go to work. Food is always available. Day-to-day safety and security is not an issue. No one else exists but them. They play games and then just talk.
Next time you’re with friends in a private environment, listen to the conversation around you. It may start out fairly benign, but given time, it can often degenerate in language and content as each person tries to outdo the others in humour or shock value.
Would your behind-closed-doors conversations stand up to scrutiny?
Of course, it’s not behind closed doors. It’s on television. There are cameras in literally every corner of the house. And the houseguests wear microphones.
At the same time, it’s easy to become desensitized to all that equipment. Most of my guests on Around Town try to leave while still wearing their microphone. (And that’s with an uncomfortable mic pack jamming into their lower back.)
Aaryn could be one of the most disliked houseguests ever to cross the Big Brother doorway. And even after Julie Chen’s interrogation, she appears unaware of what she’s in for when she returns to the real world.
In her defense, Aaryn did apologize, saying that her comments were meant as a joke. She even claimed it was a Texas thing. Although at the time of this publication no Texans could be located to prove or disprove her statement, the general Twitter consensus has been “That dawg don’t hunt.”
Does Aaryn understand the depth of the hurt those comments can inflict? Does she realize that saying them on television will haunt her future?
As she’s still being sequestered at the jury house until the finale, she still has no idea she’s been fired.
Unfortunately, Aaryn’s generation has been taught that even negative notoriety can become positive publicity.
Who knows, she could still get a Playboy spread out of this.
No wonder she doesn’t remember her words or get their importance.
After all, nothing about this is real for her.
