Big Brother And The Conservative Audience

Monitor Editor | Monday September 22, 2014 16:33

Botswana is represented by a certain Goitse  from Mahalapye who describes herself simply as someone who lives on the wild side and is ready to wow the audience.

Hopefully, everyone will love, or at least respect  her for who she is. Indeed the Big Brother  activities can either make you a hero or a villain amongst your people. The audience always views the person in the house as a representative of their country, and any perception of way-ward behavior can spark scorn and controversy.

Look at our 2008 Big Brother representative, Tawana Lebale, whose antics in the house reached Parliament and had MPs taking turns in bashing her for the behavior in the house.

We also hear that an Ethiopian beauty, Betty,  feared going back to her country after leaving the Big Brother  house because  she knew she was going to be disciplined for her  actions in the house. While stories of women being bashed for their activities in the house are awash, Africa  doesn’t seems to have problems with  the adventurous male folk in the house who explore things. These men are usually praised and hailed as true representatives of their countries. The latest Botswana representative for the show that is scheduled to start on October 6, describes herself as “vibrant and bold” who likes to have fun. She said she is street smart and gets most of her inspiration from the ‘street’. Goitse says she entered Big Brother Hotshots for the adventure.  Whatever  it means, one can only hope that the woman won’t be harshly judged by her audience on account of her gender.

We can only hope that the nation has learnt a lot from the experiences of the past regarding how to balance their judgement.

She may be from Botswana but first and foremost, Goitse is representing herself and how she would love to be viewed as a bold and vibrant person who likes to have fun.

She takes over from Motamma, the last Botswana Big Brother representative who,  arguably, lived up to the stereotype expectation of a Motswana woman by being careful not to  indulge in excessive fun and  getting naughty.