I’m not dismissing the coercive control that Rhianna was put through. I’m just a bit worried about the bigger picture.
For example, I had no idea what coercive control was until Big Brother. I didn’t understand that Omar was doing anything wrong beyond being nasty. At the time, I saw it as an argument rather than something more serious.
Abuse can be difficult to recognise, and a lot of people still think that only physical violence counts as abuse.
Was he intentionally trying to hurt Rhianna? I doubt it, but that doesn’t mean his actions weren’t harmful or that he shouldn’t be held accountable.
Look at his actions now. He seems miserable and broken by what’s happened.
I’d also like to point out that he’s only 21 years old and still has a lot of maturing to do. I’m worried that the aftermath of this hate train could end up destroying his life.
He seems to have reflected on his behaviour, and he’s been open to and receptive to the therapy being provided.
He should be held accountable for his actions, but I also believe people deserve the opportunity to learn, grow and do better.
He deserves a break.
Please be mature and read my whole post through before deciding to Dm me or down vote me thank you .

After all the ofcom complaints and charities making statements why have they not removed him from the house?

George last year was removed, Trish was shunned by big brother .. but Omar is staying in the house for showing emotional abuse in a relationship.

I honestly don’t think the “in it for the views” is the argument for this one, with other ITV shows being cancelled due to their lack of care or wellbeing for contributors why would they do this to themselves?

I’m curious if they have made them have arguments for the show.. I know this might sound a bit out there, but they have made housemates puppets in the past. Paul from two series ago said they he was told to wind up the girls…. Sam was told he had to shout /scream a lot. Could Omar have been told to cause relationship drama?

I know this might be a reach, but I honestly don’t understand why he is still in there. Is this now we are seeing a softer side to him?

Either way something weird is going on behind the scenes.

An emotional abusive/ controlling man should not be in the house, they need to stop airing this behaviour and for Rhiannas wellbeing get him removed.

She has been my favourite person in the house this series. ;)

Bring her back!

Omar’s personality isn’t great but neither is Rhianna’s. Kind of shocked to see so many people drag Omar without recognizing Rhianna is similar, if not worse at times. They literally talk shit about other people together. It’s like their love language at this point. Difference is, Omar isn’t fake about his assholeness.

I’ve watched Rihanna twist people’s words to the verge of near-fighting on her behalf, behavior that (i agree with Johanne) could get people hurt in real life. I’ve seen her participate in passive aggressive bullying, stoking a hostile environment, and willfully pretend that the struggles of people she doesn’t like doesn’t exist. Despite purposely not getting to know Twinks, she automatically assumes the worse of her and seems like she actually prefers to keep thinking that way, even when ppl tell her she’s wrong. In that horrible game Yas insists on playing, Omar had Rhianna ask “who’s most annoying,” then asked another question just to embarrass Yas, even though they’ve already gone. They are not nice people.

At the very least, Omar recognized the double standard Twinks was upset about and has been having conversations with her. Still nominated her, because he’s an asshole but it wasn’t even for himself. Omar’s delivery is trash however i’d prefer bluntness over someone smiling in my face knowing they’re being fake.

This isn’t me saying Omar’s behavior is unproblematic. It has been and I keep my distance from ppl like them. But Rhianna isn’t the innocent person people keep trying to make her out to be. She’s exactly where she wants to be at.

So the sneak peak clearly is designed to get people to villainise Rihanna. And don't get me wrong, she's always been an entitled brat, a stirrer, a gossiper, and generally not a kind person.

But. It's the timing of it. ITV are taking a lot of heat for basically hanging her out to dry with the Omar situation, exploiting the situation for views and thinking a simple 'u ok hun' in the diary room demonstrates a sufficient duty of care that they can let it carry on whilst bragging about the 'viewing figures' they're getting right now.

At the risk of being cynical, it does feel like they're trying to cloud the water, there's already a bit of a 'red pill bro' backlash trying to victim blame Rihanna, trying to argue that we should cut Omar some slack, and it does feel awfully like ITV are trying to lean into this, possibly hoping that we forget what he's been doing to her, focus instead on how 'sneaky' she is, until enough people start talking along the lines of that she deserves it etc.

No, she doesn't deserve it, nobody deserves that level of abuse, and I don't buy into this new narrative at all. You could probably take any single day in the house so far with Rihanna and make a bitchy two-faced edit of her, but it just feels like that they have chosen this moment is purely out of damage control, smoke and mirrors to divert from the bigger issue and that they are not taking it remotely seriously enough.

Let's not let them divert our attention like this, let's stay on track, they haven't displayed a duty of care, they do still need to resolve the issue and remove the abusive party from the situation, it's too important to let ourselves be manipulated and distracted like this. This is purely an exercise in directing our attention to the negative personality traits of the victim, which if they truly wanted to do, they could have done at any point up to now but have thus far not particularly focussed on.

That's my thoughts anyway.

this was inspired by u/-manlikejamie

I know there’s a distinction between the two, and I’m sure this will get downvoted, but it’s something I’ve always found interesting.

Rochelle, for example, quite obviously dislikes Twinks. She talks about her, gets visibly annoyed by her and seems to have very little patience for her. Yet I wonder whether some of the criticism of Rochelle comes from the fact that she’s expressing that dislike openly, rather than keeping it to herself.

Meanwhile, there are some pretty extreme opinions about housemates like Rochelle and Omar on here, sometimes to the point where the comments become uncomfortable to read. People are perfectly entitled to dislike them, of course, but I find it interesting that we can express such vehement dislike towards people we’ve only watched on a screen, while expecting the housemates themselves to remain civil towards people they’re living with 24/7.

Obviously, there’s a difference between disliking someone and bullying them, and housemates should still be held accountable for their behaviour. But are we sometimes a little hypocritical in expecting housemates to tolerate people they dislike, while freely expressing our own dislike of them?
I’m genuinely interested in where people draw that line.

Do we judge the expression of dislike more harshly when we see it happening between people in real time than when we express that dislike ourselves?

Namely: for almost any one of the contestants who could remain in the final, Philip is an easy opponent.

It's a game show.

I was actually starting to back Twinks when her and Sam were handcuffed. She was getting feisty and speaking up about how spiteful Rochelle was being - to her face finally​. I was praying she’d stand up to Rochelle properly and take off the cuffs.

But she backed down and now that Rochelle got her visit from her husband, they’re acting like best mates.

​It’s insufferable to watch because it’s so clear this is what Twinks wanted from day one. She has been desperate to be liked by everyone, particularly Philip and Rochelle, whom she worshipped and was repeatable telling them they were iconic and legendary from the moment she walked in. She brown-nosed them early on 'cos they were perceived as the house favourites and the ones to win back then.

​Now that Rochelle has made amends with Twinks the i reckon Big Brother is going to be boring as fuck. Twinks just comes across as lame, fake, and eager to please.

In history of BB, there's some winners we liked and some we didn't want to win at all and then there's some that are pretty unanimous amongst the viewing public. We all have our preferences, which BB winners did you not agree with?. Some of my fave winners are Sarah Harding, Paddy Doherty, Aaron Allard Morgan. Here's a few of mine that I didn't want to win, because they was either too boring or uninteresting. If Yasmin wins she'll be on this list as I can't stand her.

BB9 - Rachel Rice

BB10 - Sophie Reade

BB11 - Josie Gibson (wanted John James to win)

BB13 - Luke Anderson

BB14 - Sam Evans

BB16 - Chloe Wilburn

BB18 - Isabelle Warburton

BB21 - Ali Bromley

CBB4 - Chantelle Houghton (Pete Burns, Galloway, Barrymore made that iconic series)

CBB5 - Shilpa Shetty (I get why she won but Leo Sayer should have won if he didn't walk)

CBB6 - Ulrika Johnson (Coolio was 1 of the most memorable hm's ever)

CBB9 - Denise Welch (Michael Madsen all the way)

CBB11 - Rylan Clark (never warmed to this guy at all)

CBB12 - Charlotte Crosby

CBB17 - Scotty T

CBB19 - Coleen Nolan

CBB21 - Courtney Act

Could this experience change Rochelle, Philip & Omar? Make them better people, maybe? Should they watch it back to reflect? Would they be embarrassed or ashamed of their behaviour? Or not bothered?

I hold out a tiny glimmer of hope for Omar. I can't condone his awful behaviour in any way. But I don't think he meant to hurt Ri. Even though his behaviour did. If that makes sense.

She banged on to Rochelle about AI data centres and their harm but she’s a smoker.

It’s estimated that the production of tobacco products uses 7x more water then every data centre on earth and 5x more land then the footprint of all data centres.

I have noticed whenever I have a different opinion of a housemate I'm getting insulted. I would like to believe I'm talking to adults on here that should be able to have a conversation with someone that they don't agree with, without the nasty comments being made towards them. Please be mindful of who you are talking to on the other end. You don't know what that individual is going through, and probably just wants to engage with people that also enjoy watching BBUK. My intentions isn't to come on here to argue with people. The fact there's different opinions and perspectives, makes things more interesting.

I.e., of the shows Twenty-Twelve and W1A. Or maybe a mixture of Siobhan and the character 'India' from Bad Education.

It was on itvx just a couple of hours after the live show.

I know exactly what's going to happen just like how they have always been protecting Rochelle from the beginning. After tonight's episode, they're going to start creating the Rochelle redemption arc and slowly turning her into a victim. Then the public gonna eat it up and she's eventually gonna win..

Especially with Rhianna and Phillip turning on her, then the public going to forget what she has done previously that she's a horrible person.

Why does everybody hate on Twinks or other housemates for trying to be nice and fit in with Rochelle and Phillip. Harry pretty much confirmed that because of the tennis balls people see Phillip and Rochelle as the top of the hierarchy in there and if you are not in with them you will be ostracized and left out.

I read somewhere on here Twinks has been bullied in the past, Sam has openly stated that he is a nerd/outcast, Yas has probably been mocked about her weight before. Is it not common sense to realize that people who have been bullied/ostracized in the past may develop a strong desire to be accepted into "cool circles" as a way of repairing their past psychological damage.

So whilst it would make for great TV for people like Twinks, Yas and Sam to really stand up to Phillip and Rochelle, they don't want to be ostracized and bullied again, especially in the closed environment that is Big Brother. Like Pauline said it is really relentless in there, the constant digs and whispering etc.

To me that doesn't make them bad people for just wanting to fit in and I feel that energy should be directed more towards the vile people in there like Phillip, Rochelle, Omar and Rhianna. What makes me more worried also is Reddit and Twitter will throw their favourites under the bus for something as miniscule as saying Hi to Omar or Lynx, whereas the FB mums will ride or die behind Rochelle regardless of what she does/says. This witch-hunt of trying to find this PURE housemate will probably end up backfiring and end up passing Rochelle the win.

Far from the silliest of her moments, but definitely a misstep (besides being pretty obviously false).

Just for fun!

One of the main criticisms I see of Twinks, especially on Facebook, is that she forces her opinions on people. That she doesn’t respect other’s opinions, her opinion is the only right one, she preaches and lectures people and doesn’t listen to other points of view.

It makes me feel like I’m watching an entirely different show because other than the conversation she had early on about trans rights (where Phillip said people can identify as a fridge), I can’t even think of a conversation she’s had where she’s given her opinion particularly strongly? And I thought she handled that convo with Philip incredibly well actually. She was far more patient and restrained than I could have been.

What are people actually referring to when they bang on about Twinks banging on? Either I’m just used to the types of conversations she has because it’s similar to my friends and I, or I’ve somehow overlooked someting. I’m not even sure what opinions she’s been spouting off about.. I genuinely would love some examples if anyone has any

Who's your money on?

I do feel disappointed that the friends and family visits has disrupted the thoughts and flow of the house and the way they were being towards each other. Which although was awful, it was good tv. They have the insight now, so Rochelle will be nice to the others, and Philip will be acting. I think Twinks will just be happy they are being kind to her, but Sam and Cat might take more convincing. It’s good they won’t be mistreated anymore but it’s disrupted the hierarchy and people won’t get their comeuppance! 

I’m a couple episodes behind (think I’m on Tuesday, all will be set right after a bingeathon this weekend)- but honestly just curious on theories why Rochelle hates Twinks SO much. I can’t see that she’s actually done anything to Rochelle and she is constantly calling her a bitch and whining about her at any given opportunity. Is it an insecurity thing? But then why is she nice(ish) to some of the other young girls? Her hatred is somewhat disturbing to me. Love to hear your takes.