In a blog post late last month entitled ‘Deal With It: Fat Bitches In The Spotlight’, former Voice Australia hopeful Nicole Martini laid in to the show and its use of social media, following a flood of scathing comments about her appearance. Martini was unfairly kicked off during the blind auditions, but the snark on The Voice‘s official Facebook stung far worse than the rejection.
On her blog, the amazingly titled Bitter Boobies, Martini wrote an account of what happened. “The Voice posted a status [that read] “Bombshell or bomb? What did you think of Nicole Martini’s performance?” On top of having my character ripped, this phrasing was like opening up a floodgate for people to comment on my body. You would think i had competed on The Ass not in fact The Voice.”
On the night her performance aired, Martini read through the comments on Facebook, and was disheartened to see people calling her “disgusting” and accusing her of breaking their TVs. She criticised Nine for not moderating their Facebook well enough, and expressed exasperation that this kind of bullying still takes place online.
“Now I’m not advocating being overweight, and God knows I could be in better form,” she said,” but I certainly am advocating to others to mind their own fucking business about other people’s bodies. It’s about time women all stood up and instead of feeling bad for our wobbly asses, imperfect thighs and love handles and letting them be insulted, we treat ourselves with the respect that others who judge us for them lack.”
When approached for comment by TV Tonight, Voice production company Shine Australia hedged their bets with a typically vague clarification and apology. “Shine Australia does not condone behaviour which is offensive, threatening or bullying,” they said. “We have a legal policy around all our social media activities that is in place to moderate and if necessary ban or remove posts which are offensive or damaging to individuals.”
“This policy covers our sites on Facebook and the web but on sites that are outside our control, we support our talent in managing their own personal space through direct coaching.
All artists on The Voice have ongoing access to a clinical psychologist. They also have a talent team dedicated to supporting them through the process. Shine Australia’s duty of care to the artists is paramount and we have a continuing care beyond the show itself.”
Blah blah, whatever. On careful consideration, this is most definitely a victory for the sassy Nicole Martini. Shine can make things right by giving this woman her own talk show immediately.
via TV Tonight
