KATY HARRINGTON

Headline writers at the Daily Fail strike again

On Tuesday, ‘newspaper of the year’ the Daily Mail (or Daily Fail as some prefer) ran a front page with a picture of British Prime Minister Theresa May with Scottish First Minister, and everyone’s favourite SNP terrier, Nicola Sturgeon. The two political leaders met to discuss the monumental fallout from the Brexit vote. The meeting was described as ‘tense’, largely due to the fact Sturgeon refuses to back down on her demands for a second independence referendum for Scotland while May wishes she would just hush up about the whole thing ’cause she has enough on her plate. Anyway, the actual details of what was said between the two political stalwarts are of no concern because hey, they were women dressed in skirts that exposed their legs so the Mail ran with a headline declaring “Never mind Brexit, who won Legs-it!” I don’t have time to get into what a woeful pun that is here, but it is important to call the Mail out on this in-your-face-sexism. Because really, we deserve better puns and better papers than ones that are willing to run a front page shouting: “To all the clever, determined women out there, we promise that even when you manage to defy the odds and shatter glass ceilings, breaking through to the highest level of an industry or profession that has been completely male-dominated for hundreds of years, we will still reduce you to nothing more than something to be leered at just for the heck of it.” The equally offensive and bird-brained sub-head began “It wasn’t quite stilettos at dawn...” (because gals really do love their shoes!) and, inside, columnist Sarah Vine stated that by merely crossing her legs Sturgeon was making an attempt to be ‘seductive’. I personally think Sturgeon should be able to use her legs to kick Vine up the arse for wasting our time with such nonsense.