My two cents on John and Ashley (apologies to people sick of Big Brother)

For those who've been hiding under a rock, two housemates - John and Ashley - were kicked out of the Australian Big Brother house over the weekend for an incident involving Camilla in which sexual misconduct occurred.

I heard the audio of the incident on radio this morning - it is apparent that Camilla was 'playing along'. But that does not make it ok. There is a huge amount of pressure in the BB house to "be a good bloke" and every season the guys seem to set the social agenda and the rules of engagement. And of course we don't live in the nineteenth century - girls can encourage male attention if they want to!

The bottom line is - and must remain - unwanted or non-consensual sexual behaviour is never ok. It's not just a laugh or harmless mischief or boys being boys. It's not ok. John and Ashley had to go - and should have been removed far sooner.

I was disturbed, also, by the reaction of the house (at least as shown on tv). There was plenty of sympathy for the guys in getting kicked out, which I understand - they appear to have blundered into sexually inappropriate behaviour through stupidity rather than malice - but where was the genuine sympathy for Camilla for having been subjected to the behaviour?