The show we all know and love/hate is back on our screens in its seventh reincarnation, with all the usual exhibitionist characters. However, this year one of the contestants, Pete, has Tourette's Syndrome. It is questionable whether this is a ratings tactic or a genuine attempt to educate the public about a probably much-misunderstood condition. Tourette's is characterised by tics and coprolalia (involunatary, often rude speech).
Read the Guardian Unlimited opinion on Pete here.
Read a BBC roundup of the housemates here.
4 comments:
A disability should not stop a mentally competent person from carrying out a task that is not judged to be harmful to themselves or others.
This 'disability' shouldn't be viewed as a spectacle though; we should really be here to watch Pete, not his Tourette's!
So far, Pete is the most searched for of the contestant's online, indicating that people are interested in learning more. Also, the #4 downstream site after Channel 4 Big Brother is the Tourette's Syndrome Association (www.tsa.org.uk). I blogged about this if you're interested in seeing more.
Sorry, here's the link to my
blog
Hey Heather,
Thanks for stopping by.
I'm glad to see BB is raising awareness of Tourette's if nothing else.
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