Have I??

I have read with interest. I said earlier that I would stay out of it in the interest of fair play. When I did interject it all went a bit pear shaped. I can assure you - I haven't ignored it.

I think the humour and the self-deprecation are the things I like most about her. She's very funny, pithy and dry. She describes herself as being a miserable bitch; she told Danielle that she obviously has done something wrong or people wouldn't be booing her; she's gas - a very funny girl.



The arse doesn't do much for me - but I like her nonetheless.



That's part of it but it's certainly not all of it. Read the posts I've quoted above and come back with a response, maybe.

OK, so here's why I like Ashleigh. Having carefully taken the measure of the housemates, and with the notable exception of Toya, her opinions of them are my opinions of them. I feel huge empathy for her because I literally could not live with Helen and Ash. Literally. I've struggled to figure out how I would cope with them; I think I might have gotten myself thrown out at this stage.

I find her very funny. 'Noooo! Stay back!' during the striptease; her swearing for emphasis, which is something I do myself; 'You haven't done anything for them to boo you' 'Well they saw something so I must have'; her laughter when Danielle was so upset at her boo'ing; her laughter after Jale, Kim and Helen saw the gossip (DR) clips; her cutting comments about Helen; the way she says 'arse'; etc. etc.

I love her self-deprecation and the way she described herself as a miserable bitch in the diary room. I find her very self-aware; which makes her almost singular in there; with the definite exception of Chris and the possible exception of Christopher.

She's gorgeous; and as a straight woman I can and do appreciate beautiful women with poise and good posture. I love the way she sits so straight and the way her dirty looks are even done with a centre je ne sais quoi.

She can't stand Helen. That IS one of the reasons I like her and I make no apologies for it. Central to this is the fact that so many fms on here insist that she only cannot stand Helen because Toya told her. It was in fact the other way around.
Approximate quotation from Toya - 'Helen keeps letting herself be led into bad behaviour'
Exact response from Ashleigh - 'Really? You think that's what's happening?'

So Penny - will that do as an answer?

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Please don't discuss other forum members. Who they like is their business and isn't up for discussion.




Perhaps this should apply to this thread!

I don't know, Cranberrry; if the OP wanted answers, he/she has had them in spades. And while they include 'not liking Helen'; they're certainly have been very many other reasons given. The OP has chosen, however, not to respond at all to them.

and a few other anti-Ashleigh threads too. It seems to be getting a habit with some of her detractors.

Well yes I did infer it as I couldn't quite remember what her actual words were. I had thought she said that she was more intelligent that all of them in the diary room, maybe I was wrong.

Yep, more than enough reasons. I personally don't see the need to justify why I like, or dislike anybody for that matter. It's my business and my opinion.

As you wish.

For me, it is all rather rose tinted...


A matter of opinion. I thought that was all she was shown to do for weeks. Her and Danielle in the pod, whining or bitching about someone, or something.


She called Marlon a "f...ing prick", she said Winston looks like a "f...ing monkey", she called Helen a slag. Yeh these types of comments do exist on this forum from time to time but they normally tend to get deleted by the mods quite quickly.


I don't see what being pretty has to do with anything (maybe that's part of my problem?). Standing up to bullies is a good thing and if you believe Ashleigh is doing this then I do respect and agree with this point of view, although I would argue that the likes of Christopher, Danielle and Matthew have stood up more directly to Helen than Ashleigh has.


Well this is just a cheap dig at other housemates, and isn't relevant to any of the housemates' time in the house. Lest we forget Davidson won the last series, despite his shady past...


A good character trait indeed.


She does it rather a lot. I think only Helen could rival her in sheer quantity of instances of sneering and bitching. Just my opinion...


I have nothing to base her intelligence level on, but I am sure that if she is intelligent, it doesn't manifest itself in her articulation. One of my pet hates is people who are seemly unable to complete a sentence without swearing. And she swears, a lot.


Humour is subjective. Personally I can't recall any occasion where she gave me cause to laugh.

I was accused of being disingenuous in starting this thread Patsy - I am interested to know why people like her. The fact is I don't happen to agree with a lot of the reasons but if I storm in and start saying why I'll get ripped apart. I pointed out very early on that I'll stand back n- It's a no win situation for me.

I have found it interesting - but ..........I just don't really know what to say - what can I do?

I do think it might be good if the thread is locked - it got personal towards me very early. It wasn't my intention to start a fight.

You were

But of course you could respond! Why not? Snowstorm just did and it was fine. I disagree on many of the points and he/she didn't address self-deprecation, which is fairly high on my personal list, but it was an answer. You don't have to 'storm' anywhere. Just respond as to why you don't or do agree with the positives that have been listed.

Well answered questions, great answers and I agree entirely with all of them. Well done Snow Storm. I guess we just all see things differently and have our different opinions don't we?

Storming was perhaps the wrong choice of words.

My name on a post is a red rag to a bull to some - no matter whether I'm polite or confrontational. I have made my feelings clear numerous times on other threads. I'm not going to do it on here - as soon as I do I'll be pulled up for being disingenuous as it's supposed to be 'reasons for likiing Ashleigh'

It's a no win for me TBH.

You have something in common with Ashleigh after all then Example: She didn't press the button but according to some, she would have if Marlon hadn't got there first even though she and Jale were the only two who immediately said they weren't going to press it.

I give up at the "her face is constantly contorted in a sneer", since it's clearly not true. If you're genuinely interested in why people like Ashleigh, why put a false disparaging remark in with the question? It's not exactly going to start the discussion on a positive note.

^^ This

I like Ashleigh because she stood her ground with Helen the other night, poor Helen screaming like a banshee and Ashleigh played it nice and cool, even got a number of put downs in to Helen, well if you could hear over Helen screeching.
She has a boyfriend on the outside and has acted very respectfully towards him and her family outside, she could of done a Kimberly and faked a romance and "opened it" for one of the male housemates, she could also have paraded her body to secure the male votes. She has done neither, yes she has been miserable at times, but being holed up with Helen 24/7 would make me miserable.

I think Ashleigh is probably not right for Big Brother, especially this particular series.. In much the same way as previous contestants have been perhaps 'square pegs in round holes' going into the house.

Another example of someone really not fitting in might be Aaron from BB12?

So whilst i think Ashleigh is probably a likeable character in the real world, in this BB house, her negative character traits have come to the fore - maybe it has taken her back to a place from the past where she has mentioned she was bullied.

That can do strange things to people in the 'real world' so in BB it just magnifies that perhaps?

I also think the editing also has a lot to answer for this year. I've seen snippets taken out of context in true tabloid style, to fit the 'storyline'. That's not to say Ashleigh hasn't been negative and bitchy, but it makes me question whether her edit is a TRUE reflection of her time in the house...just as for anyone really, but because she has been rebounded it has made her seem more surly, and the editors have played on that.

So, I think if she stays it would be good for her to open her personality a bit more, so we can see the rounded person inside. That said, while Helen is there that will be very difficult.

The Helen factor cannot be understated in my view. People like Helen are very controlling of groups. I think if Ashleigh had been a few years older in this BB, that she would have had all the tools necessary to deconstruct Helen and make that house a slightly happier or balanced place..

It's a discussion forum, not a debating forum. That it's seen as a place to debate is one of the main reasons it works so poorly for discussion. It's seeing it as a debate that brings point-scoring in.

A debate is about winning, point-scoring, and trying to defeat the other side in any way you can, using belittling sarcasm, wind ups, and other tactics when evidence and reason fail -- there are endless examples from parliamentary debates -- rather than listening and exploring where the truth might lie, and perhaps gaining new insight from engaging with other points of view.

What was (unfortunately) bound to happen here was that some people would make an effort to express why they liked Ashleigh only to find their reasons rubbished, ridiculed, or ignored, so that it could be claimed that "no one could give a good reason why they liked Ashleigh".

Indeed, an entirely disingenuous OP.

But she didn't "come down to Helen's level" or "ostracise herself with Danielle against everybody". To get her down to Helen's level requires either misleadingly minimising how bad Helen's been or exaggerating how low Ashleigh's gone. No one can ostracise themself, and she's always been friendly with more HMs than just Danielle.

I think you knew exactly what you were doing. . Now you are playing the 'misunderstood'card. People have answered your question, and yiu were never going to agree with responses thatvsuppot Ashleigh.. So without an open mind your opening post really was just flaming.

I was a Jale fan before she transformed wasn't an Ashleigh fan but tbh she's the best of a dead vile group this year her and chris are my final 2. in a weird way she is the only housemate who made pick up the phone and actually vote but again 10 pounds is not that much

For brevity the two main reasons I like Ashleigh:

1. She makes me laugh.
2. She opposes Helen.

The sight of her and Danielle in their dressing gowns having a good bitch and moan and saying things I agreed with always cracked me up when most of the others just depressed me. I didn't have a sense of humour failure about any of that and write her off as just "spiteful" and "mean" and "a little bitch" as many did.

Her wit is sharp, dry, sardonic, acidic, all the things I like, plus she's very sharp and observant and weighs things up with an honesty and candour I admire.

Even the things her detractors list as negatives always made me laugh, such as being petulant and precious and probably (aside from bad times at school she mentioned) the fact that she's not used to being left out, discounted and written off (often because of her age) the way she has in the house.

Secondly, I think a lot of people simply don't grasp the toxic environment she's in. Cast your mind back to the height of Helen's bad behaviour, during her attacks on Matthew. That was pre formal warning (as far as I know) and it was all reaching extremely nasty levels. Ash was starting to intimidate the males who dared answer Helen back. He did it to Christopher and when Matthew tried to defend himself against Helen Ash threatened to "rip him apart".

So that's where things were heading. Helen would batter the females and any male she chose, and Ash would batter the males who dared to defend themselves (well at least until Winston had had enough of it all and put Ash on his back, which he would have done eventually).

Against this foul, toxic backdrop which has people either hiding away or desperately trying to get on Helen's good side, up popped Ashleigh, not only seeing it for what it was and commenting on it, but actually plotting to unsettle and change it. It was gutsy, brave, and the right thing to do, imo.

Yes, she overplayed her hand somewhat, she got "smug" (as some would have it) though I always thought she was just giddy with the fact it actually seemed to be working for a bit.

But I appreciated her efforts, the spark of life and resistance she showed when everyone else was just trying to cope and survive and not be the next one to be torn to shreds.

I gave her kudos for all that. She was funny and a fighter, and those are the kind of people I like.