By Paul Eksteen
The reality show was designed largely with one goal in mind. And that is, to watch people fight and have sex. Without those base elements, the show is about as exciting as a DVD boxset on watching grass grow. So why all the faux indignation when these D-List celebs live up to their tawdry hype?
Last week, Miss Great Britain Zara Holland was stripped of her title after she had sex with a fellow contestant on the British show Love Island. The main thrust of the show (pun so definitely intended) revolves around men and women pairing up. Miss Holland, beauty title not withstanding, probably saw a spot of reality show infamy as just the tonic for her fledgling celebrity career. There were no tantrums as her tiara was taken from her, although she did confess to some regret. Apparently, her mother had seen it coming (as did all the viewers).
“I regret that I slept with him on national TV but I don’t regret, like, having sex. There’s nothing wrong with that. At all,” explained Holland.
“I did promise my mum that I wouldn’t sleep with anyone there and I broke that promise so that’s why I feel like I have made a mistake and let people down.”
That’s one way of looking at it. The other is that she made many a viewer’s day. Over 1 million people tuned in to watch Holland do the horizontal mambo with a builder who, as one Love Island insider breathlessly put it, had a “look of delight” on his face. Isn’t that, after all, the point of being a beauty queen? Spreading joy and happiness?
Not according to the Miss Great Britain organisers.
“We pride ourselves on promoting the positivity of pageants in modern society and this includes the promotion of a strong, positive female role model in our winners,” they claim.
“The feedback we have received from pageant insiders and members of the general public is such that we cannot promote Zara as a positive role model moving forward.”
But this same “general public” were amongst the million watching Holland writhing about in the sack. And I’m sure they didn’t tune into Love Island in a desperate hunt for role models.