Celebrity Big Brother Announces An All Female Line-Up
The popular reality show will return for its 21st series on January 2, 2018.
Although the show is no stranger to controversy, this year is set to be it's most interesting and experimental yet. All the housemates who enter the house on launch night will be female. According to the BBC, the line-up is a salute and celebration of the 100th anniversary of the introduction of female suffrage - for women under the age of 30.
Male contestants will eventually be placed into the house but it's unclear how long the house will remain male free. Dr Helen Pankhurst, a great-granddaughter of the suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst, told BBC News that they would've laughed at the idea but it's a message that needs to be heard:
Anything that draws attention the centenary and allows a discussion and gets that message through to different audiences is a great thing...I'll be really interested to hear what the audience have to say about it all and to hear the whole discussion it will promote.
According to the showrunners, this years house will explore "what happens when women hold the power" and it's aim is to flip our ideas of gender on its head:
The housemates will take part in a series of entertaining tasks and hidden experiments which will test their - and our - assumptions, challenge gender stereotypes and reveal fascinating truths about what it is to be a woman - and man - in the 21st Century
Celebrity Big Brother isn't the only one to do a full female line-up. Today The Times revealed that their Person of the Year is a collective of women known named "the silence breakers". The story highlights the first women and men to break their stories of sexual harassment in Hollywood to the public and the "silence breakers" front cover is an all-female line-up. Famous faces Taylor Swift, Rose Mc Gowan, Selma Blair and male actor Terry Crews are amongst the countless others speaking to Times magazine about the issue of sexual harassment and assault.
The hashtag #thesilencebreakers is trending online with many referring to the revelations as the beginnings of even bigger movement:
.@TIME's Person of the Year is not a single person, but a movement #TheSilenceBreakers pic.twitter.com/VVvsZ1yBDn
— Aric Jenkins (@aricwithan_a) December 6, 2017
❤ An entire movement of fearless, brave, powerful inspiring women chosen as Time's Person Of The Year. #MeToo Teachable moment for every teen girl & boy who sees The Silence Breakers cover. 2017. #TimePersonOfTheYear #WednesdayWisdom #TheSilenceBreakers pic.twitter.com/vjUa6HMpA3
— Nicki ? (@nickiknowsnada) December 6, 2017
I cried tears of anger last year when Donald Trump said Time Person of the Year should go back to Man of the Year.
Today I’m crying tears of joy. Women are writing themselves back into the narrative through #MeToo and #HerToo.#TimePOY#BreakTheSilence#TheSilenceBreakers pic.twitter.com/sK5FSJssWF
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) December 6, 2017
Women have had it w bosses & co-workers who not only cross boundaries but don’t even seem to know that boundaries exist. They’ve had it w the fear of retaliation, of being blackballed, of being fired from a job they can’t afford to lose #TIMEPOY #MeToo #TheSilenceBreakers pic.twitter.com/01SUN4Evvh
— Khary Penebaker (@kharyp) December 6, 2017
Follow the hashtag #metoo on Twitter to read more stories of survival.