Miriam: Death of a reality star. Ch4

TerriBull

I've only read about it, I haven't watched a reality show for years since the first few BBs. The premise of this sounded awful, deception and exploitation, really damaging for those involved and a increasingly these productions appear to becoming freak shows with a disregard for how those who take part are affected. Miriam looked remarkably femine and beautiful, but quite damaged it seems.

At some angles it was noticable enough that one contestant said all the way through he was sure Miriam/Hugo was a man.

I found it interesting that Miriam's Mother said she desperately wanted a girl when she was pregnant. A lot of her focus was on how pretty a child Miriam then Hugo was.
Then Miriams father brought in a priest to rid the child of perceived evil spirits.
One can only imagine the effect that had.

Nature v nurture comes to mind.

Bump

It's on my watch list

I've only read about it, I haven't watched a reality show for years since the first few BBs. The premise of this sounded awful, deception and exploitation, really damaging for those involved and a increasingly these productions appear to becoming freak shows with a disregard for how those who take part are affected. Miriam looked remarkably femine and beautiful, but quite damaged it seems.

Bump

I avoid reality shows because I find there is an element of exploitation in them. Their treatment of Miriam and the 6 male contestants was cruel and made uncomfortable watching for me.

The hormones stop a normal growth I think.
So things stay smaller and can be tucked away discreetly.

She was taking hormones from an early age: 11 I think. It didn’t explain in the programme how she had access to them and how she was able to continually access them ( which I assume she would have had to do past puberty?). I also don’t understand how she got away with wearing tight clothes and swimwear.

Usually , I can always tell that a woman man is trans , but not in the case of Miriam .
She was exquisitely beautiful and feminine .

I think that the entire concept of the programme was appalling and totally unacceptable .

I think many of the reality shows are deeply exploitative. If you listen to say the young women who were on Geordie Shore they deeply regret some of their behaviour which was often when they were drunk and very young. I think it was Charlotte from Geordie Shore (but I may be mixing up my reality stars) who was interviewed later and it was very moving to hear about the shame she felt

I totally agreed with everything the Psychiatrist said.. and I think they were all exploited and deliberately humiliated in order to gain viewers.. sadly I don't think much has improved in the past 20 years..

I only came across this because of the channel 4 documentary.

I've found it shocking TBH, what were they thinking? They set those 6 young men up for humiliation and it had nothing to do with their so called aim to see if someone's personality could transcend their biological sex, and make in this case a trans women a potential partner to a heterosexual man.

Miriam and the contestants were exploited, the young men more so because they had no idea what was going on despite one of them saying very early on he thought Miriam was a man, much to the amusement of the other 5.

I’ve never subscribed to Sky which, I assume, is why I hadn’t heard of it. And I don’t recall reading anything but, back then the only newspaper I read was The Observer. It’s so sad that she had no idea that she would be rejected by the lad that she’d chosen. And it was heartbreaking to see how disturbed he was at ‘the reveal’. I’m not sure that things have moved on to be honest when I think about the popularity of I’m a celebrity. I do find documentaries like that fascinating. I remember seeing a Rik Burns documentary about The Donner Party and felt quite worried by how fascinating I found it but, thankfully the review in The Observer described it as ‘hypnotic’ ( it was the first time I’d seen a Burns brothers documentary).

I watched it MayBee
I'm glad you posted about it, I was going to then I saw this.

The callousness of people involved in producing this program beggars belief.
First of all towards Hugo, who became known as Miriam, but also the young men involved.

Louella her desire for fame left her vulnerable yes I agree it did.

Very sad to see people set up for disasters, just to made money and fame for sky.

I must say it passed me by at the time.

Oh yes, we watched this last night.

I vaguely remember the furore at the time. Why anyone at Sky thought this was a good idea I'll never know

Miriam was stunning. But sadly her life really spiralled out of control.

Her desire for fame left her vulnerable.

I found the interview with her father heartbreaking. He'd been so opposed to the life his son had taken , couldn't accept him and refused to refer to her as a woman.

However, after her death he realised that he'd not understood and he'd missed out on so much.

And he actually referred to her as female but it had taken her death for him to accept.