Tune in to Woman’s Hour of need
RIS there anything Twitter won’t get its knickers in a twist about? On Wednesday it was announced that American actress Kristen Stewart (the star of Twilight) will play Diana, Princess of Wales, in a film set over the weekend her marriage to Charles hit the rocks. Within minutes of the news breaking, Twitter was awash with complaints. “She’s not English.” “Doesn’t look anything like Di.” “Totally miscast.” Heads up, moaners. Kristen’s a professional actor – they’re generally quite good at pretending to be someone else.
RI LIKE listening to Woman’s Hour on Radio 4. Not because I’m a right-on north London metrosexual, but because it’s usually a damn good programme covering interesting and important subjects.
It has a strong journalistic CV too –Woman’s Hour has broken a lot of stories over the years and can be fearless. It plunges unflinchingly into pornography, paid-for-sex, bullying at work and domestic violence.You often learn more in 10 minutes ofWoman’s Hour than in a TV documentary or (dreaded words) Newsnight Special.
I made an appointment to listen on Tuesday because my friend Susie Dent (who I’ve sat alongside many times in Countdown’s Dictionary Corner) was on, and wordsmith Susie’s always good for a listen.
On this occasion she was fascinating about expressions we think of as classic Americanisms, but which actually originated here. Did you know that “fall” is how the English once described the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, until the Normans arrived and forced “l’automne” on us?
I wonder what words Susie would have chosen to describe the item that preceded hers: a strangely delayedWoman’s Hour reaction to JK Rowling’s essay arguing that “sex is real” and that “single-sex spaces” should offer women and girls protection and privacy. The backlash – a real mixed bag of threats, sexual insults and a public disowning by Harry Potter actors
Jwho owe their wealth and careers to Rowling – was something I expected the programme to have covered days earlier.
I can think of a few words myself. Tentative. Uncertain. Cautious. Timid.All very non-Woman’s Hour.
THE SHOPS are open but a fashion spree holds no appeal for me. However at least the vast queues at Primark haven’t lost their senses. Right on cue, the style pages are now in full flow, advising us to take advantage of the “massive” discounts at the designer end of the market. A silk frock reduced from £1,455 to £727.
A cotton feather “pouch” down from £855 to £428. And a satin shirt-dress from £1,495 to £747.
Good grief. Has the world gone mad? Can you really beat the Covid blues by remortgaging your house? Astonishingly, for a select few, so it seems.
The host was the excellent Jane Garvey, who sounded as if she was being forced to juggle with live hand grenades.
No surprise Garvey was given the suicide-pass: her colleague Jenni Murray received a JK Rowling-style blitzkrieg on social media after writing a newspaper article in 2017 emphasising the existence of biological sex. I haven’t heard her talk about trans issues onWoman’s Hour since.
Garvey first interviewed Helen Belcher, a trans woman so upset by Rowling that she claimed she was thinking of claiming asylum in Ireland.Then Garvey spoke to veteran feminist Joan Smith. She’d wanted to debate directly with Belcher, but the former Lib Dem wannabe MP declined, saying she “felt unable to”.Why? Smith is a perfectly civilised, essentially pro-trans person who just happens to agree with some of Rowling’s views.Why refuse to engage with her?
The item felt festooned in safety-harnesses. Smith admitted she had agonised about taking part at all and I don’t blame her. Debate on trans issues has degenerated into the equivalent of a full-on bar-room brawl.Why would you want to go into a pub where everyone is trying to knock each other’s teeth out?
Open discussion on the subject has become almost impossible.As one radio reviewer remarked: “How bizarre that we seem to have found the one topicWoman’s Hour is afraid of: being a woman.”