Sexism in the media.

smudge7946 said:

At last someone from the government is taking a stand against sexism. The comment made by the tennis commentator were quite simply not acceptable in the 21st century. Its about time everyone started judging women by there achievements and not by how they look.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2367504/Ministers-war-BBC-sexism-Culture-Secretary-demands-action-presenter-John-Inverdales-comments-tennis-star-looker.html

That won't happen in here - just look at the jokes thread, the shard climbing thread, the would ya thread, whose rack etc.

Bet you are fun at parties.

what in particular is wrong with the would ya and whose rack threads ?

remember Claire Balding and her comments on Liam Treadwell's teeth after he had ridden the Grand National winner ?
Arrogance and misplaced comments are not confined to one sex but are usually a result of hubris on the part of a TV 'celebrity' who has got ideas well above his /her station

The media, particularly the newspapers, do have a peculiar view of people they report on though: they never seem to be just an individual in their own right. It's always someone's granny, father or whatever.
Here's some examples from today:
"Mother, 23, married in hospital chapel shortly before she died of cancer..."
"Doctor's son, 19, dies..."
"Revealed: The blonde New York Times journalist who is suing Liam Gallagher..."
Those are from the Mail's web site but they are all just as odd.
Why do they use possessive nouns when in the first two examples above "Woman" and "Man" are all you need? As for "blonde", well, is the colour of her hair really the most important thing we need to know about her?"
Perhaps there's someone on CL with media experience who can explain the rationale for using such strange ways of describing people?

I think it's all to do with the way people makes instance character judgements and the way including these details right at the start can drive the reader towards the conclusions/feelings the author wants.

So starting out with Mother instantly makes the story sadder. It's sad when anybody dies, the fact she was young is sadder still, and the fact she was a mother makes it a tragedy for the children, so by the time you hit the second comma the story is already sadder than "Woman dies of cancer".

Similarly, "Doctor's son" instantly makes us think of middle class respectability, a good upbringing and education. Where mother was used to make the first story more tragic, I imagine this was used to make the story more shocking.

The blonde thing is just because the Mail is vile rag, who on one page will bemoan sexism and the tragedy of celebrity body image issues, whilst on the next call and actress fat because she dares to have the slightest of curves.

While we're on the subject of touchy birds; I was invited, with the missus, to a luncheon at me pals chateau the other Sunday and I was placed next to an Aussie bint (yes they're over here an all!) who told me that when she was recently up the duff she was offended to be called a "yummy mummy" by her sister-in-law on the grounds that it was sexist. Oh by the way, it was her husband who kept knipping upstairs to check on the baby sitter (to my knowledge he weren't dipping it) and who ultimately went to bed early while the sheila got pissed on the vino!

how about all the TV ads which portray men as hopeless idiots who are forever the butt of female laughter and derision ... what IS the world coming to ? .. Inverdale is a smug twat and deserves a metaphorical slap but this political opportunism to get a few more female votes is utterly reprehensible

The way I see it, is that a sexist is basically the male equivalent of a feminist!

smudge7946 said:

BIG_ROB said:

The way I see it, is that a sexist is basically the male equivalent of a feminist!

The male equivalent of a feminist is a poof.

Cooee sailor

iainment said:

So now lets get the homophobic comments going.

Class.

The gay blokes that I know would class themselves as poofs. Its only a jovial term ffs!

and I love my pet dog to bits; doesn't mean he ain't gonna s**t everywhere