The leftward and other blatherings of Span (now with Snaps!)

Friday, July 09, 2004

sexism still alive and well on national tv *sigh*

i am, of course, referring to that fine purveyor of women's rights, mr matthew ridge

i don't know why i expected better of him, but for my sins i am a celeb treas isle addict and he is the smelly fish carcass on the beach that always washes back into the beach no matter how many times you throw it out to sea (solution: bury it, miles from camp, deep deep down)

his scathing comments of "silly silly little girls" and his general sneering at anything the women do just makes me want to throw something at our lovely big telly. brent todd and josh kronfeld were pretty bad to start with, but now he just gives them a licence to treat the women like crap.

this stuff is NOT ok - he is NOT an acceptable role model for ANYONE'S children. when are people going to realise that it is not PC nonsense to just want to be treated as equals and not dismissed as lesser beings.

yes i do know i can just change the channel. freedom of expression blah blah blah. but what happened to my right to exist, as a woman, without being treated like a piece of property and patronised as a result of ridge's actions on tv, which normalise this kind of knuckle-dragging behaviour?

grrrrrr

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Spanner - the programme is set up to divide on the basis of gender and provoke acrimony between the men and women. So why surprised when Ridge and co perform as expected?

The women hassle the men also, and in fact I have to say Lana rocks at the way she psychs the men out.

I doubt anyone would claim Ridge is a role model. He is merely a TV celebrity.

DPF

Span said...

yes they are divided on the basis of sex, but that doesn't mean they need to be sexist, surely?

unfortunately i think matthew ridge is something of a role model, and not just for little boys either :-( maybe not for people like you and me, but for those young (and not so young) men who watch sports cafe and game of two halves, i imagine ridge and ellis are heroes of a sort.

Anonymous said...

Spanner, Lana is the nastiest character on that island. If any of the men acted the way she is you would go ape.
Mark

Span said...

i thought she was pretty OTT at the start, but she calmed down - i haven't noticed her being sexist though, controlling yes, but actually sexist towards the male team? nope. maybe you could give some examples? (and not be anonymous...)