“Big Brother Brasil” is a program in which seventeen contestants are chosen to live confined in a scenic house for three months without sharing any contact with the outside world. In the meantime, they are exposed to different experiences, such as competitions to reveal the best player, disagreements with the other peers, loneliness, parties and much more to win the prize of R$1,5 million.Â
The first edition of the program was in 2000. That means it’s been 20 years that BBB has been offering just pure entertainment to the public. However, some polemic editions, like BBB17 and BBB19 and the current edition, BBB20, have revealed that the program is not only a reflection of our society, but also, that we can no longer accept some wrong attitudes that happen in and out of the show, as racism, sexist behavior, sexual and psychological abuse.Â
This year’s edition has been special because of the program’s 20th anniversary, so Globo Productions selected famous contestants, such as digital influencers, actors, singers and athletes, to live together with the “ordinary” people in the confinement. Although it promotes a diverse integration among the contestants, this is almost not realized by the public, who has proved not to be pleased with lots of bad attitudes coming specially from the men inside de house.
- Harassment
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The first noted case was the episode in which the contestant Petrix, an athlete from the Brazilian Olympic Gymnastics Team, clearly palpated Bianca Andrade’s breasts during a party in which she was obviously drunk. Although the public has created a campaign for Petrix expulsion, Rede Globo Production hasn’t taken any measures against him. So, when the chance appeared, the public voted for his elimination. After being eliminated by 80,27% of the public votes, he was summoned to testify at the Woman’s Police Station in Rio de Janeiro in his defense against the harassment allegations. The lawsuit is still going on.    Â
- Abusive relationship
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Beside this situation, during the other episodes, some of the male contestants have shown a sexist behavior. The couple formed by Guilherme and Gabi was also noted by the viewers. In the beginning, they seemed to be having a healthy relationship. But, the public realized that Guilherme was psychologically pressing Gabi and pointed that as one of the first steps for an abusive relationship. It turned out that people voted and Guilherme was eliminated from the game.Â
- Racism
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Yet, it’s not only harassment and psychological pressure that’s been happening inside the house. There’s also Babu’s case, an old black fat male contestant that is put aside by the others, who use the lame “he is boring” excuse. Once more, the public has realized that the situation lived by Babu in the reality show is a case of racial prejudice, but neither the contestant or the producers take action because the attitudes are subtle and indirect – what we call covert racism.  Â
Therefore, no more talking about the program, yet how does it pertrays our society. Most people used to say that Big Brother Brasil was a futile program and that we can’t learn anything from it. This kind of perspective has changed since the latest editions. It’s clear that all the situations that happen there also happen in the outside world, in our daily lives, like the sexist behavior from men, the abusive relationships, the harassment cases and the racism ones. Besides, it’s obvious that society doesn’t accept what people used to call “whining” and reacts by protesting on Twitter against every kind of offense that happens there and in the real world.
Also, most part of the female contestants declare themselves feminists and during each episode, talk about it and explain the subject. One of BBB’s episodes showed a young contestant, Felipe Prior, making lots of sexist comments about women and being disrespectful. After some arguments, he is now trying to understand his mistakes and get it right by learning about feminism from the girls in the house. In the real world, there are also people reviewing their attitude towards women and trying to learn some words said by the girls. For example, the number of researches for the meaning of the word “sorority” has increased 250% after the contestant Manu Gavassi quoted it, according to an article of the Brazilian newspaper EstadĂŁo.Â
In order to understand more about how reality shows reflect our society, the Sociology Professor from Faculdade Cásper LĂbero, Liráucio Girardi JĂşnior, explains that reality shows have the purpose to attract people’s attention and to profit from it.This model works because people are curious about others lives. According to him, it’s not possible to define if that influence is positive or negative because it can be both, depending on who watches. Professor Lira emphasizes that the program was made to test the virtues and flaws of each contestant, which is exactly what happens on the outside. So in this case, Big Brother Brasil can be considered as a simulation of our reality.Â
After all of this, we get to the point where Big Brother Brasil doesn’t necessarily reflects our society, but somehow affects the behavior or daily lives of people, in a positive or negative way. Now it is up to you, how do you want to be influenced by a reality show?Â
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The article above was edited by Gabriela Girardi
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