Mastermind and a question of sexism
MASTERMIND is being accused of gender bias after it emerged most of its questions last week were about men. A debate has broken out among fans of the BBC2 quiz show after some said it does not reflect the contribution women have made to society.
During the first episode of the latest series, screened last Friday, host John Humphrys asked 81 general knowledge questions to the four contestants.
Of those, only five were about real or f i ctional women, 38 were about men and the rest were about things. The imbalance quickly attracted the ire of some viewers on the BBC’s own Points of View Messageboard, an online forum on which diehard fans air their views.
One posted: ‘ Was it j ust tonight or do Mastermind questions always overwhelmingly refer to men or things but rarely women?’
To which another replied: ‘Yes, the questions are com- piled by phallocrats, even the title is sexist.’ That was followed by another exasperated viewer who wrote: ‘Well, everyone knows the world is run by, and for, men!!!!’
In contrast another accused the complainers of peddling ‘PC nonsense’ while another added: ‘It’s just fact. The BBC can’t make up questions about women just for the sake of it to even up the numbers.
‘It’s a fact throughout history that men have done more and had more impact on society. I’m not saying that’s a good or bad thing...it just is.’
But that only inflamed the debate with another viewer posting: ‘I am saddened to find such a gender imbalance subtly inherent in a BBC quiz as popular as Mastermind.
‘But I am even more saddened to come across attitudes here that think this is rightly so.
‘You should take a look at the works of Christina Ros- setti, Emily Dickinson and the Brontë sisters if poetry is your thing, and just to get you started.’
A BBC spokesman said: ‘It is ludicrous to make sweeping claims based on one set of questions asked on one programme.
‘Viewers can be assured that the selections made are based on subject matters such as history, science, art and that is what is uppermost in mind.’