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Girls Alone
Great TV or Reality TV gone too far?
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THINKTV
4th Mar 03 Channel 4 21:00
Last summer Channel 4 put ten 11-year-old boys in a house
together for a week under the watchful eyes of television cameras.
Their parents were next door, a camera crew was with them and
a psychologist was on hand, but the boys had the chance to live
by their own rules. The resulting film, Boys Alone ,
was described by one newspaper as "TV's real-life Lord
of The Flies". The boys trashed their surroundings, lived
on junk food, rarely slept or washed and attempted to torture
a hedgehog. But it was an eye-opening look at how boys on the
cusp of teenage life cope without adult intervention. A year
on, the film-makers decided to repeat the experience with a
group of girls of the same age. The girls were chosen carefully
with the help of a psychologist, they were all emotionally stable,
popular and outgoing, but they did not know one another beforehand.
Parents were even able to watch their children from a room next
door. For the programme's producer, Lisa Fairbank, the exercise
proved to be a unique insight into the differences between boys
and girls. "I think all children have thought at least
once how wonderful it would be not to have adults around,"
says Fairbank. "They could go to bed when they want, eat
what they want and do what they want. But it's not that simple.
Children are so used to having an adult framework for everything
that they do - whether at home or at school - that they seem
to find life without adults bewildering." "For a start,
there is none of the structure that they are used to - even
the simple things like mealtimes and bedtimes. They also don't
have anyone to settle their arguments or provide discipline.
But the interesting thing is that they start to find ways to
do this for themselves; they take on roles." The week confirmed
a lot of commonly held ideas about how girls differ from boys,
but the production team was also surprised. "We wondered
whether the girls would react differently to the situation,"
says Fairbank. "The nursery rhyme may say that girls are
made of 'sugar and spice and all things nice', but we all know
that real girls are far from angels. "They did almost everything
differently. For example, they just didn't have the boys' stomach
for mess and destruction, which was hardly a surprise. The girls
initially fed themselves much better than the boys and were
more creative in their play and co-operative in the way they
lived together. "But there were tensions. And while the
girls are very supportive of one another, there was also very
evident scape-goating of certain individuals, who took the blame
for problems. And while the girls comforted one another, often
it appeared to be as a means of establishing control. They were
also very aware of attention seeking and how some of the girls
used it to get their way."
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THINKTV
4th Mar 03
A year on from Channel 4's revealing Boys Alone
, where ten 11-year-old boys lived in a house together for a
week under the watchful eyes of television cameras, the experience
is repeated for a group of girls. Their parents are next door,
a camera crew is with them and a psychologist is on hand, but
the girls have the chance to live by their own rules. Last year's
film was an eye-opening look at how boys on the cusp of teenage
life cope without adult intervention: they trashed their surroundings,
lived on junk food, rarely slept or washed and attempted to
torture a hedgehog. Will the girls prove they are the fairer
sex?
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Comments about Boys Alone
Aba-Sah Dadzie
4th Mar 03
I just watched the "Boys Alone Update", and I think
it a sad reflection on (some of) British society today. With
the exception of the one meal they had together, and maybe filling
up the pool (the first "bath" most of the boys had
that week), there was not very much constructive that was done
by this group. Trashing the house seemed to be "fun"
- in fact most of what happened in that house was systematic
destruction – till there was almost nothing left to destroy.
Then they still managed to destroy a lot more. And the parents
reaction was partly surprised, partly amused. So obviously the
boys saw very little wrong with what they had done, and this
was pretty much reinforced by their parents’ reactions.
And it's sad that they don’t seem to grow out of it - studying
at a British university and living in halls means I've seen
the same kind of systematic destruction take place. For “fun”.
And the reason I specify “British Society” is most
of the destruction of this type that takes place at University
occurs where residences house almost exclusively British students,
mostly first years, I grant, but still occurring for continuing
students.
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Rory Reynolds
4th Mar 03
Boys Alone. Sorry guys - this is very wrong. Whose silly
idea was it to lock the kids up like this? As a child and family
therapist I spend my life trying to stop youngsters getting
messed up and here are TV makers going in the opposite direction.
You don't need any qualifications though to see the distress
those youngsters were in last night. I'm sure when Golding wrote
Lord of the Flies he didn't think anyone would go ahead and
actually do it. So what did it all prove then? Kids can be bloody
horrible to eachother - wow! What a conclusion. Was it worth
putting those kids through it just to demonstrate it once again?
No it wasn't. Not Cutting Edge more the obvious! If you want
to do a good cutting edge programme that will really help youngsters
and their families why not contact me or someone like me and
we'll share the work we do. Its fascinating, and it will get
loads of viewers too. Reality TV with some attitude!
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Andrea Bennett
4th Mar 03
Boys Alone. I was both shocked and disturbed by the antics
of the boys in Boys Alone when left to fend for themselves.
They behaved more like animals than human beings and had daubed
grafitti on the walls by the second day!The similarity with
Lord of the Flies was also quite spooky.One thing is clear and
that is those parents who told their children they had done
very well on leaving the house need locking up!
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K F
4th Mar 03
I think the show is really interesting to show a difference
between genders, but the only thing is that the girls and boys
on this are only 11 - 12. Perhaps a "Teens" Alone
programme should be made. It would be quite interesting to see
how slightly older teens cope in the house.
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Lee Clarke
4th Mar 03
This is really just trash TV. Now I don't mean that in an insulting
way, I know it's very popular to some people. I didn't like
Big Brother either, and I just think this is the same sort of
thing. I watched this and Boys Alone, but really just because
I love kids and I think they're all cute. :-) But as a TV show,
this is a terrible waste of time. Why would anyone sit and watch
it for its content?
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Keith Ballard
4th Mar 03
Loved the programme. It really gave an insight into the 'secret
life' of the girls in the programme. It gave many surprises,
where events differed massively from how I would have expected
girls of this age to act when left under their own control.
I look forward to more projects of this nature in the future.
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Matt Ison
4th Mar 03
I thought the program was good, but like most reality TV it
did not include enough analysis. Big Brother included some psychologists
giving their views and I thought this was the best part. There
should be much more of this on all reality TV. What's the point
of conducting an experiment if we don't hear enough of the results
and findings.
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Marysia K
4th Mar 03
I don't think this show or the previous boys one were trash
TV or even really reality tv. However they both begged to be
a half hour longer with that half hour being used for interpretation
and discussion of the events among the parents and the scientists
involved in what was essentially a sociological experiment.
The layout was not so dissimilar from that of a nature show
observing primate behaviour and that would have been a good
way to approach it. I also think it would have been a good idea
to repeat the boys show before showing it or to repeat it in
the very near future as the length of time makes it hard to
compare and contrast even if you have watched both.
THINKTV A Boys Alone update was shown on 3rd March at 23.05.
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