The level of unacceptable sexual harassment varies from country to country. In England, not holding a door open for a female is tantamount to rape and is punishable by 15 years in prison, while we hear the Greeks are free to openly masturbate in libraries.
Australia, though, has its own rules on sexual harassment, as the recent fuss about two male Big Brother housemates holding a female housemate down and rubbing one of their crotches in her face has shown. But, after a full and frank investigation into the apparent Big Brother sexual attack, the Australian communications watchdog has cleared Big Brother of breaching any broadcasting regulations. In its defence, the watchdog referred to the top-rated Australian TV drama – Stick This In Your Face You Flaming Galah –as an example.
Over the last few years, Big Brother has acted as a kind of global temporary shelter for all kinds of attention-seeking social inadequates. Are you a fat girl who likes to shove wine bottles up your vagina? Big Brother's for you. Are you a constantly-belching fat girl who dresses up in PVC for kicks? Big Brother's for you? Are you two boys whose idea of fun is to hold a girl down while one of you rubs your crotch in her face? Big Brother's… actually, no, Big Brother isn't for you.
Last week, Australian Big Brother housemates Michael 'Ashley' Cox and Michael 'John' Bric were thrown off the show after a female housemate accused them of sexually harassing her. Even the Australian Prime Minister got in on the act, demanding that Big Brother be yanked from the airwaves and replaced with a new show of his invention, The John Howard Laughomatic Social Policies Discussion Hour.
Outside of the Big Brother house, the crotch-rubbing housemates have been apologising for what they did, calling it a joke that got out of hand, and will not face any police action. And now the Australian communications watchdog has cleared broadcaster Ten of breaching any broadcasting code, and all because of a slightly confusing law about the internet and stuff. Communications Minister Helen Coonan explains:
"Essentially what ACMA [Australian Communications and Media Authority] has found… is that because the internet footage was screened live as a webcast, and not stored, it isn't technically broadcast [under the existing Broadcasting Services Act]."
See? The Big Brother crotch rub was streamed live to a paid limited audience over the age of 18, so it wasn't technically broadcast, so it didn't technically breach any broadcast rules. Fantastic – and, incidentally, be sure to join us next week for the all-new, all-streaming hecklerspray Live Paid Crotchy Face-Rub Marathon, straight out of Woollongong.
Read more:
No Big Brother Breach: Watchdog – Adelaide Advertiser
[story by Stuart Heritage]