[Big Brother UK] Charley's journey not hampered by lack of movement

It's been a dull 10 days in the Big Brother house by any standards.  The same people dislike each other, the same people like each other and the highlights are full of Chiggy.  Chiggy by the barrel-full.  Chiggy by the barrow-load.  As I remarked not long after the pair got together, Chanelle and Ziggy were never a real couple.  Their desire to be together was dictated more by the need for mutual emotional protection in the early days of this year's series.  Once more boys were let in and the mood of the house shifted, the justifications for that coupling started to look dubious and the rot set in leaving to a level of bitterness not seen since the days of Look Back in Anger

Chanelle and Ziggy's relationship did not so much fizzle out as rot, infesting the entire house with its fetid and bitter stench.  Desperate to distance himself from Chanelle but not wanting to look like a bastard, Ziggy took to spending more and more time in the company of others just as Chanelle started regressing back towards childhood; throwing tantrums, never getting dressed and seemingly rarely showering or putting on make-up.  Gone was the Posh Spice lookalike who'd apply moisturiser in a thong, and resplendent was a weedy northern teenager with a permanent sulk and a whiny voice.  The sniping and the bitterness culminated in Chanelle being up for eviction against Welsh poison Laura.  A reflection not on Chanelle herself but upon her increasingly childsih behaviour with regards to Ziggy (at least, that's what Carole said, but Carole clearly wants nothing more than to rip Ziggy's clothes from his craggy body and ride him like a prize bull... so perhaps I should take it with a pinch of salt).

Even the arrival of fake house-mate Pauline proved to be something of a damp squib as the actress simply failed to be particularly weird or interesting.  She left much as she arrived; with shrugs and comments to the effect that she was very pretty.  Doubtless Hollyoaks awaits.  Yawn.

However, things suddenly perked up when Charley was kicked out of the house for a few minutes during a fake eviction.  Met only with stony silence and placards reading "This is not an audience", Charley was clearly lost as to what was going on.  We know this because she said "What's going on, this is freaking me out!".  Davina dragged her to the interview studio and showed her not only who evicted her but also some of the reasons why she might have been evicted, namely Charley's hideous temper tantrums and screaming matches not only with old rival Chanelle but also with people who would later come to be considered friends such as Shabnam, Billy and Nicky.

This footage was spectacular largely because it showed Charley's absolute shock and horror not only at who had nominated her but also at how she looked when she was screaming.

When I first started writing about Charley, I accused her of being a proper idiot.  A woman incapable of grasping the complex nature of a social environment and unable to realise the consequences of her actions.  As the weeks have ticked by, some doubts have clouded this original diagnosis as Charley has revealed herself to be incredibly manipulative and dishonest.  However, Charley is also complete rubbish as being manipulative and is absolutely terrible at picking friends.  Every single housemate who has formed a friendship with Charley has found themselves kicked out when they came up for nomination.  A kiss of friendship from Charley is like a kiss of death... she might as well add "It was you Fredo!" when she tries to imply that it's her and them against everyone else, which she invariably does such is her jealousy and resentment of the relative in-house popularity of Ziggy and Chanelle.

Charley's attempts at manipulation tend to involve being quiet and nice in the days running up to nominations and if she doesn't argue with someone then she assumes that she's on good terms with them.  This is why Charley was so completely shocked to learn that Ziggy, Liam and Sam had nominated her... these people aren't her rivals... they aren't jealous of her having all the outfits and knowing all the footballers... why would they dislike her? Charley is incapable of understanding that screaming and shouting at people tends to result in those people not liking you.  She fails to understand that being a ticking time bomb of stress and awkwardness for the entire house means that she is alienated from the main group and handled carefully precisely because people don't want her to go off on one.  Charley is disliked because of who she is and what she does, but Charley simply cannot realise this.

Charley appears to have what psychologists would call a Cluster B personality disorder, in particular a Narcissistic personality disorder.  This kind of personality can be identified if the subject has at least five of the following characteristics :

1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance
2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. Believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by other "special" people
4. Requires excessive admiration
5. Strong sense of entitlement
6. Takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
7. Lacks empathy
8. Is often envious or believes others to be envious of him or her
9. Arrogant affect

Now, I don't know about you but I reckon that Charley satisfies about 8 of those.  Which makes Big Brother's increasingly desperate attempts at rehabilitation seem even more pathetic and pointless than they really are.

For a while now, Big Brother on the Couch has been floating the idea that Charley is on a journey.  A psychological arc whereby the superbrat will realise the error of her ways and will become a nice person.  The fake eviction was set up in such a way that it was designed to be a jolt to Charley's system... a bit of tough love showing her how people she thought liked her actually wanted her out because of her behaviour.  Big Brother has even fiddled with the nominations again by bringing the nomination day forward so that Charley's lies about how she is adored and how "people of all nations came together" to worship at the altar of Charley might hold together just long enough to keep her in the house for another two weeks... something that has actually proved successful... again.

The problem is that Charley is psychologically incapable of changing.  She does not understand that she is behaving badly.  She thinks that it's perfectly justified to lie to people and set them against each other and then suck up to them in order to avoid getting nominated.  She thinks that screaming and shouting at people is a normal way to act and besides, she's completely justified because Charley's always right.  It's everyone else's fault if Charley is nasty... which is as close as you can get to an informal definition of a bully.  Charley is a brute who uses her volume and verbal savagery to beat people into submission.  You never know whether Charley will be nice or horrible to you but regardless of how Charley acts... it's always your fault.  By fiddling with nominations, Big Brother are not only making idiots of the British viewing public, which still wants Charley out, it's actively enabling a bully.  This is becoming intolerable... for fuck's sake someone get her out!

Comments

[mhayinde]

Completely agree. I truly cannot stand the girl and am sick of the producers' none-too-subtle attempts to keep her in the show. I suspect this will backfire on Edemol and make people even more cynical towards the whole Big Brother concept. Quite frankly, she should have had several warnings by now about her aggressive behaviour, but instead, because this is a slow series, she is allowed to parade around intimidating and antagonising as she sees fit.

Interestingly, today's Sun (yes, quality reading) claims that Charley has already been signed to the same agent as Davina, Dermot et al, which adds to the idea that this is all just one big fix to get Charley exposure.

I always watch Big Brother, but I don't think I've encountered another housemate who can inspire quite the same level of dislike. They need another tough Londoner in there to put her in her place - she's giving us such a bad name!

I think it may have come to the point where people will begin switching off because of her...

[Jonathan McCalmont]

I'm not too sure about the agent rumours, though that would explain Davina's bizarre attempt to convince people not to boo her. I'm sceptical largely because I can't imagine Charley on TV... I mean who would work for her and surely she's just too thick even for the likes of T4. She makes Vernon Kay look like Stephen Fry.

But aside from that yes, complete stitch up. They brought forward the nominations and only gave Chiggy one vote each and as a result she escaped being up for eviction purely because people were willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and were probably intimidated by stories of her being loved by all the nations of the Earth.

I am definitely anoyed by the housemates' complete submission to Charley. You'd think that by now someone would have worked out that if you wind her up, even a little then she ends up making herself look like a crazy person. The only way that Charley can look good is if people tread on egg shells around her and generally knuckle under to her and that's exactly what they're doing.

[mhayinde]

Yes, I suppose the other housemates are all too concerned about their own "careers" to risk making themselves look disagreeable or mean by confronting her. I certainly can't imagine Charley presenting anything, but perhaps they're planning a Nikki Grahame-style show, where cameras follow Charley around as she throws tantrums and flicks her weave. Although given the resounding failure of Princess Nikki, I can't imagine this working either...

I actually missed last night's highlights - what reason did they give for only allowing Chiggy one vote each? And was there any explanation for bringing the vote forward?

[Jonathan McCalmont]

Also I think Grahame was a good deal more likable than Charley. Most people at the time found her tantrums funny but aside from a few Charley fans most people see her as pretty toxic. So I don't think she has much of a chance as a media personality. She'll get the Heat spread, get put on a few guest lists and then fade from the limelight like housemates past.

Chiggy only got one vote because Ziggy got paranoid the night before and thought Chanelle was going to nominate him and essentially said "I won't nominate you". He then stupidly decided to nominate Nicky rather than Charley. Ziggy has a really weird and unhealthy love-hate thing going on with Charley. There's a proper love triangle going on there and every single side of it is ugly and disturbing and unhealthy and wrong.

there was no explanation or mention of the nomination day being brought forward, adding to the suspicion that this is a big stitch up and Charley's getting preferential treatment.