Face to Race

21    In stark comparison, Watkins fails to draw on gender discourses when comparing the conflict between the girls in the house, to his own experiences of bullying at school.

Watkins [Ian]: I'm talking about, you know the things Danielle [Lloyd] has said, cos' she said some really nasty thing to Shilpa [Shetty], and I just think that she's being influenced by Jade [Goody] a little bit. Every time I try and say something to stay neutral, um, ah, they just bite my head off and start slagging Shilpa off and I just won't be part of it any more — so the best thing to do is extract myself from the situation. I feel really kind of isolated really. It's almost like bullying — you know I was bullied at school. And that's what it feels like. Really really unfair.

Whilst reference is made to group mentality in order justify particular behaviours ("I just think she's being influenced by Jade a little bit" — Watkins), the behaviour is this time constructed as "almost like bullying." In likening the events in the house to his own experiences of bullying, Watkins (a white gay man) in his own case does not construct the behaviour as gender-driven, implicitly suggesting that female disputes are more likely to be attributed to gender characteristics, whereas male disputes are more likely to be attributed to external influences, or "real" unfairness, such as bullying.

22    Discussions between two of the British girls regarding their treatment of Shetty also draw on a discourse of gender and constructions of group mentality. When defending their actions and their views of Shetty, Lloyd and O'Meara extend this argument to include Shetty's different culture and background as provocative, in order to justify their actions.

Lloyd: Shilpa's [Shetty] not a bad person. She means well. But she is very controlling. Very controlling. I just don't like getting told what to do. Ever. That just really pisses me off. But she does mean well.
O'Meara: Yeah she does. It's just completely different cultures and different ways of living and mannerisms. I mean we're eleven strangers thrown in a really close house. It's a good size but it's small for the amount of people – you can't get away ever. . .

In their discussion, Lloyd and O'Meara work up two concurrent versions of Shetty; firstly, as a well-meaning person, and secondly as a controlling and non-genuine person. Lloyd's construction of Shetty as someone who "means well" effectively works to portray Lloyd as intuitive and understanding of Shetty's character, and also works to deny any malevolent intent in her words to follow. Her statement that Shetty is "controlling" is softened by preceding and subsequent assurances that Shetty "does mean well," which work to lend credence to the statement that Shetty, indeed, must be controlling and dominating. Constructions of Shetty as "controlling" further lend justification to the dislike of Shetty displayed by the three girls, as though it is merely reactionary — as Lloyd states: no-one likes "getting told what to do." While Lloyd appears to be referring primarily to Shetty's personality, O'Meara suggests that Shetty's "different cultures and different ways of living and mannerisms" are the underlying cause of her domineering behaviour. Thus, while O'Meara is talking about the "different cultures and different ways of living [. . .] [of] eleven strangers," begins her sentence with explicit reference to Shetty ("Yeah she does") and hence constructs this difference as referenced from Shetty – Shetty is the point from which difference is measured.

23    The second reason put forward for the exclusion of Shetty, and one that references the construction of "girls being girls," evokes the idea that Lloyd, O'Meara and Goody all "live in the same sort of area, go to the same sort of place" and "just get on."

Lloyd: It's like a big massive celebrity from here going over to India and none of them knowing who she is or whatever. But then again I do think, I don't know sometimes whether Shilpa is being herself or not, but I don't think we'll ever find out. It's just hard. And obviously me, you and Jade are young girls and we have the same sort —
O'Meara: Yeah, we all live in the same sort of area, go to the same sort of place.
Lloyd: That's why we just get on. We're not doing it to leave her out or be spiteful or be fuckin' bitches or whatever.

Implied here is that Shetty is unable to "just get on" with them, and thus that she is not one of the "young girls." The justification for this is that she doesn't live in a similar area or go to similar places. While it is not stated explicitly at this point in the extract, the implication is, following on from the earlier construction of Shetty as the point from which difference is measured, that "the same sort of area/places" are in fact British areas and places, thus suggesting that it is Shetty's cultural differences that make it impossible for all of the girls to "just get on." Thus in this extract the three British girls "just get on" by being girls from the same area whilst Shetty (being a "girl" from another "area") is not included in this construction of girls "just getting on."

24    Once again, a discourse of gender is drawn upon to justify the three British girls' behaviour and views. Their behaviour is justified as not purposeful, but merely resulting from how well they get on as three "young girls" who have similar backgrounds. They are not trying to "leave [Shetty] out or be spiteful or fuckin' bitches," but rather suggest that it is just too difficult to bridge the cultural and geographical gap between themselves and Shetty. This, too, is justified with the assertion that Shetty is possibly not genuine, which would thus make it very difficult (and ultimately unnecessary) to connect with her. Such rhetoric is reminiscent of Augoustinos and Every's assertion that certain events or attitudes are commonly justified as being reflective of the "real" world or an external "truth," whilst downplaying the role that their own individual subjectivity plays in such constructions. Their (mis)treatment of Shetty is thus constructed as unintentional, and also as unavoidable, due to Shetty's own "controlling" and non-genuine personality.

25    In a discussion between Shetty and the three British girls regarding Shetty's use of facial bleaching cream, we are able to see constructions of the "other" clearly emerging in the construction of Shetty's gendered identity by the three British girls.

Lloyd: Bleaching your facial hair?
Goody: Yeah she got – she shaves.
O'Meara: Piss off
Lloyd: She does. She shaves her face.
O'Meara: What, her whole face?
Goody: Yeah she, they — she shaves her face.
O'Meara: What has she got a face like a man?
Goody: Like wolf-boy probably [all laugh]

What is most apparent here is the way in which Shetty is not only constructed as physically different to the three British girls, but also as somehow less feminine on the basis of this physical difference. The incredulity demonstrated by O'Meara when finding out that Shetty bleaches her facial hair ("Piss off"; "What has she got a face like a man?") creates the impression that Shetty's facial hair is something abnormal, and deviating from the normal physical bounds defining natural femininity. While on the one hand this supposedly strange and unfeminine difference to their own is constructed as something only afflicting Shetty as an individual, it becomes clear by default that Shetty is being considered as part of a group when Goody says "Yeah she, they — she shaves her face." Clearly, Shetty is being included in the category "they," which assumedly refers to all Indian women, thus extending the negative connotations associated with facial hair to Indian women more generally, as compared to British women who are implicitly constructed as not having facial hair.