I've heard from DS that they closed the thread because, in their opinion, it was no longer constructive.

It was really interesting to get the viewpoint of someone who wasn't so closely involved as myself too.

Ah well, DS make the rules so I guess we'll have to leave the discussion at that. I can imagine that to anyone not directly involved it must have sounded very contentious. I hope the readers took away the general points though. If it's made anyone stop and think about how they should conduct themselves round a HM then we've achieved something.

Sorry I meant to reply to this before and forgot. Yes around 500 people were dumped the facebook group without explanation or right of appeal. I know of a couple who tried to find out why, thinking they had done something wrong but were just ignored. They didn't realise that around 500 others had gone too as the group became secret at the same time so they couldn't see how the numbers had dropped from around 650 to 150 meaning they were part of mass cull rather than being dropped for their individual behaviour.

It seems an odd thing to do and to be accepted without question by the remaining members. I would have thought a fan group would have wanted to be open and honest rather than secret and attract new members rather than throwing out existing ones but who am I to judge? I was one of the bad guys who was thrown out. Maybe I'm an evil Oyster on the quiet, I just thought I was a decent person who genuinely cared about Luke and wanted the best for him which was why I post so frequently in this Appreciation Thread

As this is an appreciation thread it seems wrong to discuss the things in here that we were talking about on the other thread. I feel guilty even mentioning it :/

So, time for a bit of appreciation. I am still fundamentally grateful to Luke for the way he changed my outlook on transgender people. Before I watched Luke and got to know him in BB I had very little knowledge of the issue other than a couple of dodgy, eye-watering TV programmes that I'd seen. He transformed my understanding of the issue, reminded me that transgender people are PEOPLE first and foremost, they are not defined by their gender issues anymore than a black person is defined by the colour of their skin or a gay person by their sexual orientation. Seeing people as people, not the various things that others use as an excuse to berate and belittle them is they key to defeating all these prejudices. I remember reading something about Oskar Schindler saying that he got to know the Jewish people who worked for him, knew them as human beings and that is why he risked his life the way he did to save them and it's true, that's the way to defeat all these ridiculous prejudices that people have, to realise that they are all people first and foremost with various good, bad and indifferent personality traits.

Luke did that for me and I'm very, very grateful that he did. I still think he's a genuinely lovely guy and wish the best for him in the future, that whatever he does it makes him as happy as I think he deserves to be.

Very well said! It was definitely Luke's ordinariness and likability that have been his biggest assets. It was such a refreshing change to see someone transgendered presented as a fully-rounded human being rather than just a medical condition. It definitely does make you stop and think about all the mental torture transgendered people must go through when they can't even look in the mirror and see the person their brain's telling them they are.

Talking of which, did anyone see the programme about The NHS In A Day on BBC2 last night? It's been a fascinating series about a day in the life of various hospital departments and this week one of them was the gender clinic. They followed a transwoman having surgery to tighten her vocal cords to make her voice higher. I didn't even know they could do that, especially when you think how much of a difference the hormones made to Luke's voice. I always thought that if the hormones didn't do the job it was all done through vocal training.

The surgeon explained there's been a massive drop in NHS referrals for this type of surgery in recent years because it's not seen as a priority. He then explained that if you have gender dysphoria you feel horribly insecure so you're less likely to go out to work. That means you're not contributing to the economy. It also makes you far more likely to be treated for depression with many people attempting suicide. If this lands them in intensive care, even for one night, that's far more expensive than gender transition surgery. So actually it's far more cost effective to give them all the treatment they need so they can live a happier, more productive life. Definitely an argument to throw back at the Daily Mail and co next time they kick off.

If you can cope with a bit of graphic throat surgery, it's well worth watching on iPlayer or the repeat tonight.

Thanks Noisy x I wasn't aware this had happened but did notice it is just a handful or so of people that are posting now. I find this very disappointing as we are all fans of Luke whether we agree with everyone else or not. So sad.

I prefer posting here anyway, it's a much nicer atmosphere .

You're right it is, much nicer

Aww I've noticed that Luke was only ranked 105 in the hotness poll, hotter then Tom but not quite as hot as Johny from BB3 He got a 10/10 from me!

I think to get that low he must have got a lot of 1's. I'm off the BB forum for a bit - just got too much - and slugging it out for the liberal cause on the general discussion forum.

Given that the highest ranked male last time had only 7.75. Luke's average score of 4.36 doesn't seem unreasonable.

I don't think he'd have to have had a lot of 1s, or even any.

(BTW, Wonkey, I almost always agree with that I see you say in other D Spy forums; it's only in the BB one where I usually disagree with you. Strange, eh?)

Well he needn't have got any 1's I guess, but he must have got some very low scores to counter the 10's. 105 seems ridiculous to me - look at the people he is below. It does seem like a clear case of revenge to me by people who just never liked him and don't even pretend to be objective. Last time he was 37th, and that seemed low to me, but not inexplicably low. It wasn't just that poll, obviously, it was the relentless negativity of a few people still constantly starting hostile threads about him on ridiculously tenuous grounds. Doesn't matter. I do recognise the the problem is mine: having crossed a boundary where to some extent I know him (and I do absolutely agree with what you said about it being unequal) I don't like to see him attacked, any more than any of us would like seeing a friend attacked.

True, I don't remember falling out in any other part of the forum. I guess that I am more consistent in GD - generally reliably taking a liberal standpoint - whereas in BB there is obviously a bit of randomness as we either warm to someone or we don't.

I didn't vote at all in that poll, but if I did, and had known that people were giving him tens, I would've voted him lower than an objective view might suggest to counter the equally farcial tens.

Do you really think he's ten out of ten for looks, or is marking someone up because you support them somehow better than marking them down because you don't like them? Surely they amount to the same thing: marking someone according to what you think of them as a HM rather than how 'hot' you think they are, and thus making a mockery of the polls aim.

I'm not making a mockery of the polls. Yes, I honestly think he is ten out of ten for looks. I gave several tens. I never make of mockery of polls and always try to be fair.

Well I think a perfect ten for Luke is as ridiculous as someone giving him a one - and that both are inspired by what they thought of him as a HM. Still, if I'm to accept that your view on Luke's 'hotness factor' is sincere then I guess I should at least be consistent and extend that acceptance to those who rated him very lowly.

I thought he was self-evidently good looking. And if not a 10, I don't think many people would say that he WASN'T good looking. Veri reasonably pointed out that Billi Bhatti was rated almost as low, and I agree: he also seems to me self-evidently good looking, though a complete tool.

There is no last time for Luke in this poll. As a bb13 HM, this is his first appearance.

That's why his results were reported like this:

Originally Posted by k0213818:
“...
105) Luke Anderson (4.36)
Big Brother 13

Previous Placings:
2011: N/A
2012: N/A
...”

In a different, though confusingly similar, poll, Ultimate Hottest Housemate 2012, Luke finished 43rd:

Originally Posted by Redmond:
“...
#43.
BB13 - Luke Anderson [Rating Average: 4.75]
...”

But (1) his average is 4.75, which is not hugely different from 4.36, and (2), that poll does not include the celebs.

(Curiously, Luke has nearly the same number of HMs below him in both polls: 111 - 43 = 68, and 168 - 105 = 63.)

(In the "all time ranking of the housemates poll 2012" -- which isn't a looks poll -- Luke finished 35th. I haven't been able to find a poll in which he was 37th.)


I have to say I find that very surprising. I'd expect most people to give him a 4 or 5, and I think that fits how he looked most of the time in BB.

I do think that rating Luke for looks is complicated by many of the photos he has had taken since he left BB. In the show, not much was made of his looks and he, like many of them at times, was given tasks where he was made to look unattractive - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly Task and the water-slide tasks for example. Those tasks must also have had an effect on how he viewed himself as he seemed to suffer from a lack of confidence and no doubt those tasks affected him in BB, making him perhaps feel unattractive and so not able to show the relaxed, fun side of him which would make him appear more attractive too - we all look better when we feel good and have a smile on our face. Confidence always makes someone look more attractive as long as it doesn't descend into cockiness.

Yet after he left he had some very attractive photographs taken in a professional photoshoot with Adam (no doubt helped by the confidence winning the show had given him) and there have also been some lovely professional quality photographs taken by his friend Lucas as well as some taken by himself and they do show him to be more attractive than anything shown in BB. He never seemed to be pushed as attractive or hot in BB but in those photographs he certainly is but they are not available to a wider audience so most people voting in the poll would not have seen them and been influenced by them the way those who have seen them would be.

I hope that makes sense

I wasn't aware that there were two different polls on hottness until you pointed it out! I notice that Redmond says that in his poll personality CAN be taken into account, whereas k0213818's poll asks us to put personality aside. I doubt that it makes much difference actually, and certainly didn't in Luke's case!

Personally, I gave Luke a 6. He has a pleasant, but not outstanding face and an average physique. I'm not surprised that some gave him a ten though as even average guys will have people who think they are very attractive and that's a good thing in my opinion. As an average looking guy myself, I have been very pleased when some women rate me a lot higher than others would! I'm sure Luke feels the same.

Even if you are not purposefully taking someone's personality into account they look much more attractive if they are happy, relaxed and confident rather than unhappy, ill-at-ease and lacking in confidence. Equally if you know someone has a very unpleasant personality it's impossible to rate their looks without taking that into account.

I didn't take part in the poll myself so no particular axe to grind

I never thought that. I thought it was pretty universally recognised that in BB13 he was better looking than Luke S, for example. Which he surely was and is. Doesn't matter, except that the poll came on the back of all those asinine and obsessive posts saying that his remark about Becky was the worst thing ever heard in BB and he should have been thrown out. I have just had enough for now of the same people posting idiotic things.

Yes, fine. I think his official BB photograph was the worst picture ever taken of him. This does sometimes happen. Even 6 years on, for example, I wonder how they managed to make Aisleyne look quite so grisly in the official BB photograph when she was perfectly good looking in real life. But still, Luke's features do seem to me classically good looking, however cheesy the pose.

I think the idea that his remark on Becky is the worst ever, etc, is ridiculous. Anyway, I can't remember his looks and Luke S's being compared, but by conventional standards, Luke A would presumably have the better-looking face and Luke S the better body, making it unclear which comes out ahead overall. (I'd pick Luke A.)


For Luke, do you mean the picture in this article:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/celebrities/luke-anderson/

I don't think that's anywhere near the worst picture of him.

For Ash, do you mean the pic here:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...-Aisleyne.html

in which she looks better than usual, not worse.

I don't think that is the worst picture of him but i don't think he looks like himself in it and the cheesy pose doesn't help .

Aww that's a shame I hope to see you on here once the next BB series starts, i wonder if we'll like the same housemates this time around.