Tuesday 22 October 2013

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby.

I think people have forgotten what The Great British Bake Off once was. I cannot believe the lengths people are going to to make this light-hearted baking show something it's not. I'm not saying GBBO should be sugar coated, but some 'fans' are ruining the whole experience, like hemp in a tea loaf, and focusing on Ruby Tandoh personally is a dangerous and wrong outcome for what used to be an innocent programme.

Paul 4 Ruby 4eva

First and foremost, the allegations that Paul Hollywood fancies her is no fault of her own. Despite the rumours earlier in the year about his American antics, the British fans have decided to interpret his creepy ways to take the stick out on the innocent one here: Ruby. Even if he did fancy her, what hassle does she deserve to receive and how does his behaviour affect the quality of her baking? P.S. THERE ARE TWO JUDGES.

Remember that time last year when Mary Berry lined up the finalists (all-male) in hottie order instead of rating their technical challenge and went round to all the journalists proclaiming her preference? NO, ME NEITHER. Do people really care about who Paul Hollywood believes to be the prettiest? All it does is spark unnecessary controversy. Yawn.

Diligence

Another thing that has been mentioned many times during GBBO is the fact Ruby was working towards her History of Art and Philosophy degree and had exams throughout her time in the competition. Ruby was stressed out - quelle surprise! She only has to bake a signature pie and then go home to study for some exams about pluralistic rationalism then come back the next day to produce some casually perfect petit fours, go home to study for some exams on hedonism and then get up the next morning and do the exam and then have to come home and try to create a lovely cake out of vegetables!? She should be congratulated and praised for her diligence.


'The victim'


Many viewers are obsessed with the term 'victim', and how Ruby has been 'playing' this 'role'. The overuse of the word 'victim' is utterly wrong in these tasteless quips. Since when did people lose their grasp on what it means to be actually be a victim. What does it mean when they say:



Her lack of self-confidence was unexpected, not irritating. When has modesty and surprise made someone false and devising? Sorry, is Ruby doing an evening course in drama, too? What's awful is that now Ruby is a victim: of Twitter bullying.

Body image

NEW LEVEL OF RIDICULOUS AND BLATANT SEXISM ALERT

I saw this article about Raymond Blanc questioning Ruby's love of food simply because of her weight.

Never mind his weak comment about 'female tears', is Raymond saying that if she were grossly obese her obvious 'love of food' would mean she would qualify as a proper contestant?! Doubtful.

As Sarah Ditum puts so neatly in her piece for the Guardian,

'Here's why I think people are so free with their dislike of Tandoh: because they follow the same narrative the media does, and they know that when a woman does well, step number two is always to give her a pummelling.'

It's so true and sad.

The Final Bake

GBBO squashes other BBC2 programmes twofold with its mega audience figures, so it's moving to BBC1 for its fifth series. As its popularity increases, I'm sure the trolls will grow like a proving sour dough. Twitter is a lazy tool which allows people to say things quickly, without thought. Viewers are caught up in the whirlwind of reality tv in real-time, where following the nasties is far easier than thinking about a point to make their own.