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For every negative thing you said about Eric, I took them in a very different way. I never saw Eric as an "insane power-mad dictator." HE was a strong player trying to secure himself. His role as leader of a small group in the house gave him control over a certain number of votes. In order to make himself safe, he needed to enlarge that number. The way that is done is through alliance building. OFten in reality shows multiple alliances are made, and not expected to be followed. I can't get mad at someone for playing the game. Thats why I'm not mad at Kaysar either. He made alliances and broke them to further his position in the game.
I agree that Eric and Michael should both have been kicked out for their inability to control their violence. However I disagree that Eric's reactions to Michael were incredibly overblown. Michael was sexually assaulting people. I have a deep hatred for unwelcome sexual contact. Michael was not just flirting or kissing several women on the back of the neck, he kissed April stomach after she told him not too and lifted her bikini to look at her breasts. He also touched her breasts on two occasions on the live feeds. April told him to stop and complained ot Eric and Kaysar about this. If I was in the house, unless Michael tried to make amends with April, I would have faced difficulty holding my anger in. That behavior is just not acceptable in any society. When Howie was confronted, he apologized and stopped it. I have not seen any sexual groping from Howie since before the Eric/Michael fight. Michael once ran his foot up Sarah's though and placed it in her crotch, near her vagina. She told him to stop and he laughed. When you cross that type of line, and the woman does not return your feelings or express a desire to continue, you stop the behavior. Michael did not. For these reasons, I can hardly call Eric's reaction overblown. Someone needed to take it up a step to make Michael understand he was violating the "rules" if not the law.
I agree that the fight was the result of both Michael and Eric drinking a fair amount of alcohol at the time. I believe that is why BB did not kick them both out, but cut off the alcohol. It was a bad move to give them alcohol, but it happened. Even without the alcohol, Michael deserved to go. If he had pulled some of that crap on me, or touched a girl's breasts or crotch that clearly did not want it to happen, I would have gotten violent too.
Eric started the game with the four person alliance. I believe he planned to control those four and make himself, and his secret partner, the winner. He chose wisely, taking two of the best players in the house, James and Kaysar. Kaysar forced Michael into that alliance. Eric was smart enough to not want Michael because he was a terrible player and was pissing multiple people off. The Kaysar Eric relationship was damaged severely by Michael's tip to Eric that they were a pair. Eric needed to control Kaysar, and once Michael tipped Eric off about Kaysar talking to Michael about his actions toward Janelle, Eric knew he could not control or trust Kaysar, and learned that Kaysar was a better player than he thought. Still, he lived up to his word and did not remove Kaysar from the game when he had the chance. That was Eric's mistake, but I don't think it makes him a power mad dictator, it makes him a good player, just not as good as Kaysar.
I think you grossly misread why he was mad and broke the original four alliance. It was not because Michael was being friendly with Janelle, it was because Kaysar demonstrated that he was a strong player and Eric could not control him. Eric needed to make an alliance that would protect him. He did that. I fail to see how that is different than any other good player, and how it makes him a power mad dictator.
Eric's actions toward Beau chow Eric is clearly homophobic. Homophobes are fairly common, unfortuanately. I can bet you Beau has learned very well how to deal with someone who is homophobic, and tell the difference between a homophobe and someone who has an irrational hatred toward gays. Eric appears to have been the former, which I know from experience is very common in the male dominated field of firefighting. Beau knew how to play Eric, by letting Ivette take care of it. I have no problem with Eric dealing with his homophobia on screen. He seemed to be moving in the right direction and made some self discovery. He talked with Beau and IVette several times, even though he stayed away from Beau for the first two weeks. Anyway, I agree that Eric treated Beau poorly based upon his irrational feelings toward gays.
In fact, the only person who I did not see any change from on his anti-gay feelings was Kaysar. Kaysar's reactions to Beau have been nothing short of hate. He refused to talk with Beau, and has removed himself from any situation where Beau was present and the conversations turned to sex. Howie kissed Kaysar, which was a bad move on Howie's part and should have gotten him punched. I fail to see why BB will kicj someone out for a physical assault, but will let that type of assault go on. It can hurt just as much and cause more stress to the house. Again, Howie was drunk and I think BB should keep alcohol out of these situations. However mad Kaysar was, he was not drinking and smartly left the room. However, once he got out side the room, he and talked about how disgusting gay acts were. He has never shown any desire to move away from his anti-gay feelings. My feelings about Kaysar being an asshole were partly guided by some of his reactions in that situation. In Eric, I saw an open minded approach to a very different lifestyle. In Kaysar I saw only hatred for that lifestyle.
The difference between Eric and Michael's lewd comments to certain women is that Eric's were welcomed by Maggie, Ivette and April and Michael's were not. Unwelcome touching to the breasts and crotch is a sexual assault. Unwelcome sexual gestures and comments are harassment. Welcomed touching to the breasts and crotch are fairly common in friendly relationships and welcomed sexual banter is even more common in friendships. I'm okay with a woman making a choice that one man is allowed to touch her or discuss sex with her, but another is not. Eric was welcomed and Michael was not, I don;t care why. April has every right to make that decision on her own, for whatever reason she wants. So yeah, I feel Eric was "real honorable."
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