Of Fluffy Females and Split Infinitives

July 3, 2009

pink-legs

Seasoned media observers have noted the tendency of the Mail, every now and then and only when strictly necessary, to visit lashings of negative PR on the poor old impoverished BBC. This story fails to scotch this belief, with the Mail eagerly picking up on claims made by the Fawcett Society (who they? Ed.) that the BBC is stuck in a ’1950s mindset’ in which women are portrayed in passive or ‘fluffy pink’ roles. A Ms Rake of the Fawcett Society says that children’s programmes are the worst exemplars of this trend, for, as the Mail has it, “the young girls watching are exposed to too many examples of weak women”.

Interestingly, the Mail refuses to designate Ms Rake as ‘Ms’, preferring the quaint and gender-bound ‘Miss’. Linguists, whether feminist or not, will also be horrified by this sentence:  “Equal opportunity activists claim the corporation has failed to properly implement legislation aimed at driving out inequality from the workplace.”

We look forward to further examples of campaigning feminism from the Mail – and hope that its journalists mind their split infinitives in the future.  Meanwhile, here is a Revolutionary picture of a Mail journalist’s legs.


 

Comments

Please submit comments to Swordplay below.

Supreme Court on Twitter

February 6, 2012

Something remarkable happened today. Yes, the Supreme Court launched its Twitter feed. It even has a Twitter policy, one of caveats, disclaimers and little by way of illumination but regardless: who would have thought that the successor body to the House of Lords would stoop to engage with the world of tweets, hashtags and retweets?

We look forward to the day when court business will be conducted via Twitter. Meantime, check out this link for an excellent blog on the Supreme Court.

Not so right said Fred

February 2, 2012
fred hat

So Farewell, then, Sir Fred Goodwin.

Now you are just Fred.

Not Right Said Fred, but plain Fred.

The Forfeiture Committee did for you.

No one had heard of it before,

But Dave said it had to act, and it did.

Trouble is that no one knows what to think.

Is it ‘Alas, poor Fred‘,

Or ‘Hurray! Sir Fred is dead!’?

We don’t know.

Do you?

By A. Mob, aged 1,378 and a half.

London Goes AWOL

January 31, 2012
CNN

STOP PRESS:

Fed up with being stuck on the Thames in south-east England, London yesterday decided to move. In a dramatic gesture which augurs ill for the Olympics, the city upped sticks and relocated to East Anglia.

Lawyers were not consulted about the move, and the city’s precise motivation remains unclear. However, financiers fear that London’s decision is a sign that it wishes to downsize. Moreover, a source from London said: “We no longer want to be Britain’s seat of power. If the Scots can deregulate, why can’t we? East Anglia is a nice place where nothing happens. It’s time for a quiet life. Please respect our right to privacy.”

Elsewhere, Birmingham did not do anything, but Manchester was seen to be packing its bags. “There’s an opportunity for us,” said Manchester. “We can become London.”

East Anglia said: “We don’t mind. It’ll be refreshing to be associated with something other than fens and flatness.”

A cartologist at CNN, which broke the extraordinary news, was later fired.