According to Sky One. A list show to go out on Sunday brings us 'TV's 50 hardest men' and they've included Anne, here at number 31. I'm sure it's a harmless enough 'funny' but if I was Anne I wouldn't be terribly amused to be called a man. Apart from anything else, isn't it a bit confusing? Women who act aggressively or in other ways that obviously contradict the 'soft' female stereotype are often labelled mannish. But what's really butch about this frail, aging TV presenter?
She's smart, she's not famous for getting her norks out, and she's a bit sarcastic? Is that really all it takes? Or is it that we're still hung up on language, and there's a perception that women 'with balls' can't be proper women at all? Maybe it's just that the program makers genuinely couldn't come up with 50 hard men. Either way, I can't help feeling we have some work to do if we're to identify and destroy insidious stereotypes... and questioning these little things, even on a silly and cartoonish level of TV personas, is part of that work. Thank you for your time, you can go now.
