The day that Humphrys,74 ‘mansplained’ fashion to ex Vogue editor!
‘Women want to be skinny as a rake’
AS a veteran presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, John Humphrys is an expert on all things political.
But it seems he fancies himself as an authority on fashion as well.
When he interviewed former British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman about her industry yesterday, listeners might have expected him to defer to her superior knowledge.
However, the 74-year-old broadcaster was in no mood to let her lead the discussion.
Miss Shulman, who has just stepped down from the magazine after 25 years, was invited on to the show to talk about changing fashion over the last 60 years.
But in an awkward encounter, the 59-year- old journalist faced constant interruptions and even had to pull herself away from a debate about Theresa May’s leather trousers.
Listeners said the forthright interviewer was ‘mansplaining’ – slang used for when a man explains something in a patronising way to a woman.
As they opened the debate, Humphrys told Miss Shulman he thought she would say the idea of beauty had changed dramatically over the past few decades, with women now wanting to be ‘skinny as a rake’.
But she pointed to celebrities who did not fit that stereotype, saying: ‘I don’t think that’s entirely true. If you look at the heroines of our time, like Rihanna, Beyonce and Kim Kardashian, they are famous for their looks. Skinny is not how people want to look.’ Humphrys also insisted that Vogue influenced young girls with ‘skinny’ models on its covers. But the mother of one said it ‘had a mix of people on the fronts,’ adding: ‘Under my editorship, we have had quite a range, we’ve had the Duchess of Cambridge, Adele, we have a number of not particularly skinny women in the next few months.’
He also asked Miss Shulman if the Prime Minister had been ‘mak- ing a statement’ when she posed in the leather trousers for a Vogue interview earlier this year.
Miss Shulman replied: ‘I think Theresa May has far more to worry about than what she is telling young women.
‘I think she really is interested in clothes and hopefully by being one of the most high profile women in society she can be both powerful and interested in fashion.’
Listeners went online to berate Humphrys, with Hanna Flint tweeting: ‘Listening to John Humphrys mansplain fashion and make sexist comments about the PM’s leather trousers.’ Steve Bloomfield said: ‘ Humphrys mansplaining fashion to the former editor of Vogue, plus a sexist sideswipe at Theresa May.’
Veronica Kelsey asked: ‘Why do BBC R4 Today bother getting an expert when John Humphrys apparently knows everything there is to know about fashion?’
Although Miss Shulman has not commented, she has shared several messages on Twitter praising her handling of the debate, including one claiming Humphrys had ‘zero idea’ about fashion today.
The BBC did not respond to a request for comment.
Oh Sarah, will you never learn? The Duchess of York is in mourning over the death of her pal Sir David Tang, whom she called ‘Tangito’ and knew for 30 years. I sympathise with her bereavement — but wonder if she really had to gush like a sherbet fountain about her dear chum?
‘We laughed, we cried and we lived every moment. he made castles in the sky for my girls and I, we travelled the world together — he was my brother Sun and I was sister Moon,’ she wrote in tribute to the multimillionaire businessman. Wait. She is not finished. ‘In addition,’ she blathered on, ‘he has changed my life. Every time he played the piano or recited a poem, I cried with sheer admiration at such a brilliant mind. Go in peace now Tangito, and thank you for our castles in the sky.’
One understands how distressing and unhingeing it must be, mourning the loss of a very, very dear friend. But sometimes, don’t you think, a little decorum around death would not go amiss?