We have been watching Jeremy Paxman's Sunday night programme on Victorian Art but we have recorded it and are a bit behind.
Last night we watched the one broadcast on Sunday 22nd Feb. It was about women in Victorian Britain and Victorian art. Anyone else see it?
What I objected to is that on several occasions the word "prostitute" in the voice over (and once the word "vice") was accompany by film footage of modern women, filmed from the waist down, doing ordinary things like walking down the high street with shopping or waiting for a bus. Except that they were wearing short skirts and high heels. You could tell they were not actresses, just ordinary people, and possibly not aware they were being filmed.
Now I know that there is nothing wrong with being a prostitute if that is your career choice (assuming it ever really is). However, the voice over was all about the Victorian view of prostitution, the phrase "lack of morals" was mentioned several times.
I have often winced when I see news articles on the obesity crisis featuring headless shots of obese people. I think - I would be heartbroken if that was me, I would definitely recognise myself. But at least they are fat. But to film a woman from the waist down and use her image to illustrate the term "prostitute" because of what she is wearing is appalling surely? DH agreed with me.
I would have thought Paxman would be scathing about such poor, lazy, insulting, judgemental journalism should it feature in anyone else's work.
The programme was by and large highly sympathetic to women and critical of the Victorian perception of them. The above scenes changed all that for me . . . at the end of the programme Paxman described how women began to be accepted into universities - cut to a modern scene of women exiting a university building. Paxman was sitting on a bench, watching and smiled an approving, avuncular smile. DH and I burst out laughing, and the words "old perv" were uttered. We would not have taken that scene in that way were it not for the previous ones.
So AIBU to feel like complaining? Please tell me I am, I really can't be bothered. Glad to have got it all off my chest.