Maggie Oliver, a simple name one however that will be etched into my brain for ever. This years CBB theme is The Year of the Woman, a refreshing and fascinating format change to the usual CBB formula. Admittedly, I am a die hard fan of Big Brother be it celebrity or just us plain old civilians incarcerated. Usually I watch just for the intrigue of people watching, I'm not that fussed who wins. But last night was an eviction of a housemate that has seemed to rocked me down to my foundations.
Maggie Oliver. The police woman who worked relentlessly along side another woman to bring a stop to the grooming of girls in Rochdale. Why is she in CBB house? She's not a Celebrity! No, but if there were ever a woman to be celebrated in this house it's Maggie Oliver. This heroic woman fought against the odds to be heard and for the sake of young women that were being badly abused. She was acting how a member of the police force should, she was protecting the public. And how was Maggie Oliver thanked? Well she wasn't, she was in fact forced to resign from her job in the Police Force. This woman was not acknowledged and rewarded or decorated for what she had achieved. She was shockingly shut down and silenced.
Now, in order for Maggie to be evicted from the CBB house fellow housemates had to nominate her. Maggie had no nominations from any of her housemates. She was given nomination as a result of housemate, Ann Widdecombe, winning a task and being given the power to relieve a housemate from nomination. She then had to nominate another housemate ,which was Maggie to the shock and disbelief of the her fellow housemates, and the viewers. Ann Widdecombes reasons were in my opinion invalid and hugely hypocritical. This however is not the thing that has enraged me and left me feeling all out of sorts still the following day. My problem is how CBB ironically exhibited how someone in power can shut down the power-less, and the irony of it being a politician over a (now) civilian. This i believe is more powerful than they could have imagined when planning this years theme.
Here's my massive problem. Maggie Oliver when doing her job was repeatedly hitting brick walls, attempts made to shut her down, silence her. Thank God for Maggies bravery, persistence and tenacity for the sake of those abused girls. Maggie managed to create a crack in those concrete walls created by people with power and money. She managed to create a space just wide enough to infiltrate the closed ranks ultimately making it near on impossible to ignore her and her colleague. She would not go away, Maggie Oliver was fundamental in the arrest and charging of a group of men grooming young girls. This in my book not took only astonishing guts but complete commitment to those girls, in her role as a police woman to protect them. This is what the police are supposed to be for, this is their role in our society. It is a disgrace that she was batted away continuously whilst trying to for fill her job description as a police woman.
I have a close friend who was horrifically abused from a very early age for a number of years. She has never been able to do anything about it, she has been silenced, had her hands tied by those in power. After many years of horrendous emotional struggle she dug deep for the bravery to approach the authorities. Initially she was listened too and a case opened only for it to suddenly be stopped in its tracks and shut down with a senseless excuse. If she had been heard by Maggie Oliver her story may be completely different now. But there are not enough Maggie Oliver's and my friend along with many other children and adults who have, and are being abused are left with a voice that won't be heard. This makes my gut twist with anger at the scale of injustice.
The Big Brother house ultimately failed as being the year of the woman with Maggie Oliver being voted out 3rd. Her presence in the house clearly flying over the heads of the voting viewers. Wether or not Maggie Oliver won this series is in my eyes irrelevant. The relevance however is huge if this gives Maggie Oliver the platform to tell her story, exposing the abuse of power in places of hierarchy shutting down the powerless. The places that we are taught are there to protect us such as the police force, the army, the navy the house of commons, places of care for the young and elderly. The tiny divide Maggie Oliver made could be the simple wedge that needs tapping on to blow these walls apart putting them under the microscope.
In these times of 'Me Too' involving movie stars, directors and the likes, surely the wellbeing and safety of our own flesh and blood, the child next door, the adult living with the scars of mental and physical abuse is imperative. This is the time for the Maggie Oliver's in our society to be heard. Like I've said I'm no political expert, or activist I'm just a single Mum who's been drastically affected by a series of CBB, sounds ridiculous I know. If nothing else comes of Maggie Oliver's visit to the house, Big Brother can be rest assured that the Year of the Woman series has got this woman's, and I pray many others, backsides up and down to the polling stations to vote again and again and again. The suffragettes fought for our right 100 yrs ago and this is bigger than Big Brother, this needs changing from the top and there's no more time to waste.
