Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be amazed that something as psychologically manipulative as X Factor is allowed on air?

298 replies

moondog · 09/10/2011 20:59

I've been watcihng it for the 1st time.
I can't beleive they are allowed to toy with people's lives like this, building them up, playing with them and then casting them aside.

What an unbelievably unpleasant concept.
I feel tainted for having watched it.

OP posts:
NinkyNonker · 09/10/2011 21:00

It's just such crap.

GypsyMoth · 09/10/2011 21:01

Well they aren't just cast aside. Sone of them get mire from it once they have been voted off and can do better than the actual winner

Original poster
moondog · 09/10/2011 21:02

It's not just crap.
It's evil.
How long have they been doing it? Ten years?
How many peopel have been spat up and chewed out by it?

OP posts:
GypsyMoth · 09/10/2011 21:02

Grr I phone!

  • some
  • more
Original poster
moondog · 09/10/2011 21:02

Have some peopelk made it big?

OP posts:
VampiresWearBlackVelvet · 09/10/2011 21:04

It't not like people are dragged to the auditions kicking and screaming....

squeakytoy · 09/10/2011 21:05

it is a talent COMPETITION... unfortunately a lot of todays generation are being raised to believe that they are all equal, and there should be no winners, losers or anyone coming second.. so it seems to come as a shock to them to find out that the real world doesnt work that way..

BatsUpMeNightie · 09/10/2011 21:06

Tears make good viewing - don't for one minute believe it's the end of their lives. They go into it knowing full well what could happen!

BatsUpMeNightie · 09/10/2011 21:07

Bloody exactly squeakytoy - we're raising generations of kids who have no idea at all how to handle being told they're not utterly fabulous!

chibi · 09/10/2011 21:07

in 21st century, bedlam comes to you! ( through the magic of television)

ghastly crap, panis et circenses

Princessescanclimbtreestoo · 09/10/2011 21:07

not to mention the point-and-laugh mentality that is encouraged in the earlier rounds, where people with obvious SN and MH issues are set up to provide fodder fro the gormless masses watching.

it is truly disgusting, and what is worse is that so many people do watch it.

squeakytoy · 09/10/2011 21:09

do you not think the families of those with issues should be the first ones to step in and stop them from going to the bloody auditions in the first place...

BatsUpMeNightie · 09/10/2011 21:10

I thought we were all for 100% inclusion for those with SN etc? Now we're not? FFS - someone help me keep up!

Princessescanclimbtreestoo · 09/10/2011 21:11

no I don't.

sometimes they won't have families.

sometimes they won't tell families.

sometimes families might be saying exactly that, but the person is being built up by 'tv execs', so won't listen to their families.

people with SN and MH issues are allowed an independent life, you know. and that does not mean that it is ok for them to be ruthlessly exploited for cheap laughs.

SpectralHarrassmentPandaPop · 09/10/2011 21:11

I think, well actually I know, they use vulnerable adults for entertainment which is rather sick.

horMOANSnomore · 09/10/2011 21:12

In the early days it was interesting and quite exciting to watch.

Now the 'judges' are puppets clearly spouting rehearsed lines - not spontaneous or genuine at all.

Exploitative and abusive.

VampiresWearBlackVelvet · 09/10/2011 21:13

lets not make this thread all about SN.

Like I said before, it's not like the people are dragged to the auditions kicking and screaming...

SpectralHarrassmentPandaPop · 09/10/2011 21:13

Inclusion doesn't mean manipulation though. Like putting people with mh issues through a number of pre-auditions and telling them how good they are so that the judges can mock them and people at home can point and laugh.

Pacita · 09/10/2011 21:13

What princess said

duckdodgers · 09/10/2011 21:14

Its not evil, at the end of the day its a TV show first and foremost and a talent competition next. No-one forces people to go on it and no-one forces people to watch.

SpectralHarrassmentPandaPop · 09/10/2011 21:14

It is about SN though. A lot of the ones they mock I suspect have sn of some kind and I know one that does because he is a friend of my sisters. (That was BGT though not X Fcctor).

squeakytoy · 09/10/2011 21:15

sometimes they won't have families.

sometimes they won't tell families

never seen a contestant yet who has not been supported in the wings by their family, that is part of the show..

what about susan boyle..? she did ok out of it..

GypsyMoth · 09/10/2011 21:15

Made it big?

Leona Lewis for a start..

Princessescanclimbtreestoo · 09/10/2011 21:15

so Bats, you think it is ok to use a person who clearly cannot understand that eh audience is laughing at them, rather than with them, for casual entertainment?

you'd have been at the front of the queue for the tours round Victorian mental hospitals, wouldn't you?

inclusion is not about being mocked, and set up in front of millions of people. I did not say that people with SN and MH issues shoudl not be allowed to enter the competition. but they should be allowed to keep their dignity as well, and should not be lied to before being casually cast aside.

GypsyMoth · 09/10/2011 21:16

SN?? When the family accompany them, build them up and encourage them to go for it?