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Original poster

Miriam O'Reilly has won on age discrimination but not on sex discrimination

62 replies

sethstarkaddersmum · 11/01/2011 12:19

completely unbiased BBC link here

surely age discriminating against women but not men is sex discrimination?!

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Original poster
sethstarkaddersmum · 11/01/2011 19:18

not just at Adrian Chiles I mean - whenever any old/ugly/overweight/badly dressed man comes on, which is quite a lot of the time.

not that I care in the least how they look if they have something interesting to say, it would just be nice if there wasn't a double standard.

One of the dimmer comments on the DM story said basically 'well women like a bit of beefcake too and there's nothing wrong with that' which completely misses the point that men on tv are hardly ever chosen for their looks.

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Original poster
sethstarkaddersmum · 11/01/2011 19:13

yes indeed, I am frequently to be heard muttering at the tv 'They'd NEVER have let him on tv if he was a woman!'

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dittany · 11/01/2011 18:34

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HowAnnoying · 11/01/2011 17:56

It's not just age though is it? Nearly all female presenters are slim and attractive, but alot of the men are overweight and ugly. It really winds me up.

Quite suprised and disgusted that this also happens behind the camera, is this just a media thing or do older women get cast aside in other industries to?

scallopsrgreat · 11/01/2011 17:48

Esther Rantzen has just been on the BBC news with regards this case and was asked whether she thought it was a gender issue. She smiled and agreed that there seemed to be a remarkable coincidence that ageism seems to happen to women rather than men and that she couldn't actually think of a grey-haired mainstream female television presenter. She also mentioned the fact that it isn't just in front of the screen that this discrimination occurs but behind the camera too.

dittany · 11/01/2011 14:42

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MissHellToe · 11/01/2011 14:29

The Guardian 's take on it doesn't question the failure of the tribunal to recognise that this is a sex discrimination issue either, sadly.

Feminism is important part 173947352:

At the moment I am youthful and gorgeous (sort of, relatively) and am able to use this to my advantage in the workplace. In the future, I will have young whippersnappers use their wiles against me, or at least against men who will then pay less attention to me.

Original poster
sethstarkaddersmum · 11/01/2011 14:01

it would be marvellous if it opened the floodgates, wouldn't it?

I'm amazed she's only getting a 250k payout. Surely her career was worth more than that?

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ElephantsAndMiasmas · 11/01/2011 13:44

I just heard them talking about this on the radio. It sounded like they acknowledged that it was mainly a problem faced by women, not men. But the specific instance they were talking about couldn't be proven to be related to her sex rather than her age. I guess if all four women had filed together the tribunal would have been able to see a pattern and found sexism as well?

V good news though, and will hopefully change things. And make others braver about coming forward.

Original poster
sethstarkaddersmum · 11/01/2011 13:36

this DM comment is sobering:

'Excellent new and about time. The only women that have a "secure" job at the BBC are the secretaries. Those of us with degrees who were producers and made the great programmes all find their one year contracts unrenewed due to lack or work when you get to an age where you have any obligations. This has been going on for years. Try googling the fabulous women producers from any series of the 1990's and see how many got sloughed off in favour of older retirement aged men. I'm not bitter - I still work but I don't see this story being told anywhere. The BBC should take a good look at itself. When we have the time, the women of the Natural History Unit will revolt. Print this if you dare - or maybe find a real story and investgigate it yourself?'

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Original poster
sethstarkaddersmum · 11/01/2011 13:25

when people say things like 'it's natural that men want to look at a young pretty face on tv, it's just the way the world works' that is pretty much what they are saying.

I am fantasising about big demos against the BBC, 70s-Miss-World-protest style BUT involving lots of middle aged and elderly Disgusted-Of-Tunbridge-Wells type as well as us hairy legged feminists.

It's quite amusing reading the Daily Mail comments on this one - your typical DM reader is wholly pro-Miriam so they are green-arrowing all the 'Misogynists!' type comments.

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dittany · 11/01/2011 12:24

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