I agree with the OP. Unfortunately there are some people who are always going to dislike Emma merely because she was a Spice Girl. I doubt that any of them actually know her personally and yet they make statements about how she must feel and how she must be reacting without any evidence to back it up. The preconceptions some people have of her are clouding their ability to be on judgemental and they are therefore seeing and hearing eveything as evidence that she (and/or Darren) are smug/complacent/etc etc etc etc ... It's a sad indictment of a society where we prejudge people we do not know and have never met without giving them any chance to redeem themselves (because even that would be seen as some kind of 'desperate measure' or something). As an attitude it stinks and I won't be any part of it. I don't join in threads about people I have no interest in (as some others have done, merely to needlessly criticise) because I was taught that unless you have something nice to say about someone, say nothing at all.
That might sound slightly naieve but I prefer being naieve and polite and well-mannered to criticising needlessly (yes some criticism is deserved - I do believe Emma and Darren have been overmarked by the judges and I think it will ultimately hurt their chances for survival in this series; plus they're only *one* of my favourite couples. Actually, I love Mark and Karen, Carol and Matthew and Ray and Camilla and I have a very soft spot for Jan and Anton - but to carp on and on about them or about Emma and her motivations for doing SCD and the fact that she used to be a Spice Girl to me smacks more of envy or, on occasion, sheer nastiness. And I know that my comments are going to be controversial and probably engender a response from people but hey - if the cap fits, then wear it!).
I'm off to more mellow climes - I hate all this arguing and the direction that the SCD forum has taken of late.