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What the Leveson Inquiry has shown this week is that we need another inquiry. Misogyny in the media was afforded a mere 81 minutes and four speakers, when the evidence of women's groups could have been pored over for weeks.
At least, though, it is being discussed.
Yesterday, broadcasting minister Ed Vaizey lambasted the BBC for its under-representation of women. But why single out the Beeb? Its duty to demonstrate equality is more marked than other organisations due to the licence fee but shouldn't Vaizey's colleague Jeremy Hunt be simultaneously taking on the tits-aplenty publications - The Sun, the Daily Star and Sunday Sport?
Perhaps Hunt fears that his head will be superimposed on a topless model if he dares to suggest the boob snaps ought to go. It happened to Clare Short, who was subjected to the same bullying tactics now used by internet trolls: The Sun called her "fat" and "jealous".
Page Three has moved on since then: now the models can be viewed in 360 degrees online to up the perv factor. And it isn't even the worst of the sexualised images 30p can buy you - see the "upskirts" other papers delight in. Notably, some of the campaign group Object's submissions to Leveson had to be censored even though they had not been sold on the top shelf.
This objectification of women fuels stereotypes - reducing them to nothing more than their body parts. The Sun's "News in Briefs" offers a double helping of misogyny: after ogling her, we are invited to laugh at her - she couldn't possibly know any Seneca because she's a bimbo with her baps out.
The women's groups made sensible suggestions, such as a "watershed" standard for newspapers - not publishing the type of material that could not be broadcast before 9pm. But it is depressing that this proposal is needed, especially when many women and men who work for these papers must find the sexism demeaning. The Daily Star is edited by a woman, as was The Sun for six years.
The author Ariel Levy dubbed women who pander to sexism to get on "female chauvinist pigs" - journalism seems to have more than its fair share. To prosper in what remains a man's world, they have adopted the boys' rules, thus ensuring women remain the losers.
Watching the inquiry, I made my own resolution: to shout louder about sexism. In the past, I've ignored online comments threatening me (feminist writers often face such attempts to intimidate us into silence), believing it was strong to shrug them off. Now I realise that if I tolerate it, the problem will be perpetuated.
Leveson didn't just show women as victims of sexism, though: it gave a voice to articulate, intelligent campaigners fighting for fairer treatment. It is about time they were listened to.
This Molly's no dolly bird
While sexism still abounds in the media, so too can it give us a fresh feminist paladin. In an interview in last weekend's Observer, Louise Brealey (who plays Molly in Sherlock) joined what I like to think of as the Dorothy Parker Club: the band of witty women who disprove the lazy cliché that feminists can't be funny. Her comments no doubt will have earned her another few proposals to add to the 18 (mostly from young women) she revealed she had already received.
"I think Page 3, Nuts and Zoo are bullshit," Brealey declared. "I don't wax my pubic hair off... And I'm bored of pictures of women in their smalls on buses with f***-me mouths."
Somehow, when the Sun lifted her quotes - seemingly salivating at the thought of all this Sapphic lusting - they missed the part about her loathing its third page.
A betrayal of the dedication of our doctors
IF you want to see how hard medics work watch BBC3's Junior Doctors. It also shows why they deserve the financial rewards they have been promised. Next month, the British Medical Association will ballot members about whether to take industrial action over pension reforms that will require doctors to work until 68 and make far larger contributions.
Of course, most of us would love the pension of a doctor. What we wouldn't love is the huge debts racked up by studying for so many years, being hassled by drunks in A&E and the stress of dealing with the critically ill.
Doctors take their commitment to patients seriously: that is why we won't see a full-scale walkout. But the Government has reneged on its word and is trying to pit private sector workers against public.
It is in all our interests that doctors feel valued. The Government is betraying their dedication, and, in doing so, the nation's health.
I'm exercised over LA Fitness
How LA Fitness's rivals must be smirking. The gym was subjected to a Twitter attack on Tuesday evening after it insisted on enforcing a contract with a heavily pregnant woman whose husband had just lost his job. I normally dislike Twitterstorms but this one had the desired effect: the company backed down.
I am also grateful that attention has fallen on its practices. As a naive 20-year-old, I discovered how hard it is to leave its gyms: even though my contract had expired I needed a lawyer's letter and the backing of my bank to persuade them to stop taking payments (amusingly, the man at NatWest had the same problem). In light of the Twitter backlash, I imagine a few more of its customers are now finding this out.
Reader views (8)
It's good to see there are intelligent men out there who recognise there is still a problem. Yet some out there subscribe to the idea that any woman who bravely tells it like it is, is 'hysterical'. We cannot give up fighting this misogynistic culture, otherwise some men and women will continue to think it's ok. Feminism still has so far to go and more of us need to get behind it.
- Jess, Wimbledon, 28/01/2012 15:43
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"Notably, some of the campaign group Object's submissions to Leveson had to be censored even though they had not been sold on the top shelf."
How ironic that this material was too expliit for members of the enquiry to see and yet the general public is expected to put up with it day after day
- David Brooks, UK, 28/01/2012 11:24
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Clearly, as Ben Hall as shown - sexism still pervades society. As he wouldn't have referred to the brilliant Rosamund as hysterical if she were to be a man! Women are as intelligent as men so why deduce us to quivering, blubbering wrecks?
- Rosanna, Surrey, 27/01/2012 12:54
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Funkg, I don't think Rosamund is writing about a personal grievance here, when she talks about misogyny in the media.
She is writing about something that affects women all around the country, whether they realise it or not.
Rosamund's writing on this topic is much-needed. We need more women (and men) to speak up against misogyny, not fewer.
- JosiePosie, London, 27/01/2012 12:26
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Ben Hall, just because there is a market for something, do we need to supply the market?
Does the existence of a (rife) market for rhino horn and elephant tusk make the supply of these products valid?
No.
Neither does the demand of soft porn, which demeans women, make the supply of it OK.
(And before anyone argues that trading rhino horn etc, unlike porn, is illegal, think about why it is illegal. To protect something that would otherwise be damaged by this market demand.)
- Joe, London, 27/01/2012 12:18
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Crisp, clear and well argued, Rosamund. Leveson should realise that the depiction of half the population in a way that is now illegal in workplaces and before the watershed in broadcasting – and some of which is deemed too offensive for the Leveson Committee to view - is an issue of media ethics.
Predictably your column has prompted the usual abusive comments. One wonders why they feel so threatened by any attempt to reform our dated, Benny-Hill style press?
- Fiona, Lewes, UK, 27/01/2012 10:30
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give it a rest will you! it seems that your
a one trick pony of a reporter. week in week out you bang on about the same topic. if i were to shout ' racism' at every slight or personal grievance life would become just unbearable.
- funkg, london, 26/01/2012 23:27
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Calm down Rosamund, you're being hysterical.
The red-top tabloids publish 'tits-aplenty' as you put it simply because there is a market for it. If the people didn't want it, it wouldn't exist. Does this basic premise of market forces not exist in your imaginary feminist utopia?
People obsessed with 'issues' will always find an issue to rage about, even the supposed sexism that apparently pervades every aspect of our society.
- Ben Hall, London, 26/01/2012 17:44
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