Congratulations, men! Or should I say con-MAN-ulations! At long last, men are finally getting the recognition they deserve for all the hard work they do as men on all-male panels.
You gals may complain about a lack of representation in the competitive being-on-all-male-panels industry, but when have you ever seen a woman on an all-male panel? Never, that’s when! Statistics show that men do a full 100% of the work in the field of all-male panels.
Besides, you ladies are just too flighty and emotional to handle the pressure of being on all-male panels. And who wants to put one of you on an all-male panel only to have you get pregnant half-way through the panel and leave to raise your kids?
Ladies, you know we love ya, but we just don’t want to ever hear anything you have to say.
I’d noticed that and it certainly seemed deliberate; that’s really great to hear. (Would have been nice if Fry had been doing it voluntarily, but I’ll take what I can get.) I also thought their Ladies and Gents episode seemed a bit like a saving throw after the abysmal Girls and Boys episode.
Oh mercy, the girls and boys episode. Another one of those, “I love you, Mr. Fry, but egads…” moments.
I want to love Stephen Fry so much and I usually do but every so often he says something that makes that VERY difficult.
(male comedian) Dara O’Brien came out against the BBC ruling with something like “I wish they’d put more effort into get female coders instead of worrying about panel shows.” Errr no. It’s only by getting more women onto both serious and silly panels that people see women’s presence in other places both necessary and unremarkable.
This morning I went to a VERY male dominated panel discussion and conference. There was a woman chair (who I personally have issues with, but mainly because she doesn’t pay enough attention to me or my colleagues) who did a very good job. The only female panelist was clearly there because they were desperate for a female panelist. She was too young and inexperienced to make much traction. In a way that’s even worse. I don’t know if it was deliberate or if there really aren’t many women in this area with sufficient gravitas. (I can’t think of any…so maybe) Clearly a niche for me to explore. 🙂
In a few minutes, I’m about to facilitate a workshop on a topic I know little about. I hope this isn’t female tokenism. I’m sort of used to doing that so not too worried, but at the same time I suspect this may be a male dominated field.
To clarify, I wasn’t trying to lessen scalyllama’s comments about past series by saying it’s better now, more hoping to point out that highlighting the problems was working. I understand saying ‘but it’s better now’ is often used as a dismissive tactic and apologise for not being as clear in my comment as I could have been.
@Bakunin
No problem! I understood exactly what you meant 🙂
I’ll have to dig out and update my analysis. IIRC, to correct the imbalance they would have needed to do all-female shows for quite some time. I remember being quite shocked.
It’s not the only show with that problem, however, and other broadcasters don’t have that sort of restriction. In Australia it’s a massive problem.
What surprises me is that considering Britain’s rather sizable South and South West Asian population, why so few of them have made it on QI. The only PoC I can think of is Reginald D. Hunter, who was hilarious, but only on two or three times. They recently added two or three new regulars from Australia, but no PoC in years? Don’t tell me the U. K. has no talented Asian performers.
Oooh! I just found this:
http://www.owen.org/pledge
It’s a page where men can pledge as follows:
“At a public conference I won’t serve on a panel of two people or more unless there is at least one woman on the panel, not including the Chair.”
Oh yeah, Trevor Noah was on once. First place I saw him actually.
I am so full of our politicians but I cannot escape. The jytky is here
This has recently come up again in regard to British chat shows. Traditionally, the female presenter is seated to the left so that the male is given precedence, even if the woman is the senior broadcaster. The exception is Richard and Judy, where Judy often seats on the right, but they are a married couple.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/piers-morgan-sexism-media-row_uk_56e94a8de4b096ed3adc9acf