He reality show The House of the Famous has become the most watched program of all time on Mexican television. More than 12.2 billion views on social networks and millions of telephone votes attest to its record. However, the popularity of the program has also been marked by the constant confrontations, insults and threats between its participants that have raised the tone of the discussion and reflect the normalization of sexist violence that affects an entire country.
The latest example that has set off alarm bells has been the comment made by contestant Adrián Marcelo after the sixth nominations gala in which contestant Gomita was expelled and where Marcelo was described by Gala as “narcissistic, misogynistic and sexist”. The controversial youtuber He took advantage of the expulsion to declare: “one less woman to mistreat”, while his statements were supported by the laughter of other members of the house. This type of statements, the constant confrontations and the violence between the participants has led both the production company EndemolShine, responsible for the program, and Televisa to be questioned about the limits of a format like this.
Women’s rights organizations, activists and fans of the show have denounced that Televisa — the largest television network in the country — serves as a platform for promoting violence. Other, more critical voices demand the contestant’s immediate departure and a warning. “These types of formats in which this behavior is allowed consolidate violence as entertainment,” says Aimée Vega Montiel, a researcher at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Sciences and Humanities at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
Meanwhile, the show’s producers say they are evaluating the comments made by the participant and Televisa categorically denies that violent content is being broadcast. “In Mexico there is a very specific regulation for television (broadcasting) and we are fully complying with it, taking care of what is broadcast daily with precision and not carrying anything that violates the classification schedules, or that encourages violence of any kind,” said Mario San Martín Robles, director of Information, Entertainment and Sports for the network, in statements to this newspaper.
Vega Montiel points out the importance that social networks have had in the expansion of the phenomenon of The House of the Famousthe secret ingredient of this new edition, and insists on the great influence of the media in “reinforcing the notion that society has about violence towards women”, as well as in fueling “the social impunity that comes with attacking a woman”. The specialist considers that Marcelo’s case is a case of “media violence”, included in the Law on Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence since 2021, and which is defined as “violence exercised by any natural or legal person who uses a means of communication to produce or disseminate content that violates the self-esteem, health, integrity, freedom and security of women and girls, which prevents their development and violates equality”.
What happened inside the reality In recent weeks, this has even led to a statement from the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (Conapred): “Entertainment does not have to be misogynistic, classist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, discriminatory. Enough is enough, nothing justifies hate narratives,” the institution said in a statement. A call that was also joined by the Secretariat of Women of Mexico City, which urged to “eliminate stereotypes that attack the dignity of women” and to “spread the culture of non-violence against women.”
In fact, this is not the first time the comedian has made this type of comment, in 2019, when he was working for the channel Multimediaused femicides as an analogy during the broadcast of a football match. “Yes, a mistake that could practically be considered a femicide. He left her dead, right there in the penalty area,” he said in his speech. Those words also caused a strong controversy and, shortly after, his departure as a commentator.
The House of the Famousthe contest that Wendy Guevara won in 2023, and that gave visibility to trans people with a story of tolerance and overcoming, this year doubles its metrics with a very different message. Despite the controversy, the television station insists on its commitment to fight against violence. “We will continue working for the best causes and avoiding any type of violence on television and in any other public space,” says San Martín Robles.
The most recent gala of the program broke records again. More than 28 million votes were cast and the show has already accumulated more than 266 million hours of viewing on the Vix streaming service. The matter, however, has gone beyond a dispute between participants or a controversial contestant. The mother of one of the assaulted contestants has filed a complaint against Marcelo for a crime of discrimination and gender violence against her daughter. “The promoters of the program have a responsibility for the messages that are promoted within it,” says Vega Montiel and adds that “freedom of expression has limits when a program glorifies violence and discrimination.” In a recent study, the specialist collected more than 10,000 demonstrations of violence against women in just one week of watching open television in Mexico. For its part, the production company condemns the attacks that two of the producers of the program are receiving as a result of the controversy with intimidating messages and direct threats.
Amid questions about the content that the media capitalizes on and who is responsible for the messages they transmit, millions of viewers are on tenterhooks. Meanwhile, the ratings of Mexico’s most-watched program continue to grow.
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