I have long been a fan of the fabulous Mary Beard (I wrote a blog about her Pompeii book
back in 2008), but I have never met her before. I was pretty disgusted by the reaction that she received from various idiots for daring to go on TV with grey hair. She is a fantastic broadcaster and writer who brings her subjects alive in an informative and humorous way, which is all her job requires. Anus Arsehole Gill led the charge against her, which is much more pathetic than the stupid trolls who mocked her for daring to be herself rather than conforming to their idea of what a woman on TV should look like. That a supposed intelligent man could think that this was in any way relevant is rather concerning. Admittedly the man isn't actually intelligent and thinks that shooting primates would give you an idea of what shooting a person would be like and doesn't even have the mental agility to work out what shooting a person would be like anyway. But it's very concerning that we've arrived at a place where people (usually women, but it's starting to creep in for men too, but not to the same degree) on TV have to be "sexy" or "attractive" or that is something laughable. Partly because this definition of "sexy" and "attractive" is very specific and narrow and not universal and partly because even though we all like looking at good looking people every now and again, it shouldn't be a job requirement for all broadcasters. But also that TV kind of attractiveness is false and manufactured anyway.
I also think that Mary is a very good-looking woman in any case. But that's by the by. It shouldn't even be an issue. If you see documentaries and discussion shows from the 70s the contributors do look shockingly ordinary and un-madeover and it does make you laugh for a second sometimes because it seems so weird. But then, if you've got any humanity, you feel a bit disgusted and sick that things have changed so much. That in just a few decades our outlook has changed so much without us noticing.
Most people are pretty ugly by the standards of modern TV so it's weird that this hideous majority go along with all of this. The good looking have enough breaks already. I wonder how attractive those internet trolls were who criticised Mary. Why are they sucking up to the "good-looking" people. Do they think the beautiful people might be so impressed that they let down their standards and have sex with an ugly person? Cos they won't.
Get more unconventionally attractive people on TV. We have to make it more challenging to masturbate to all programmes.
And I say all this even though I am obviously one of the great looking people and might be doing myself out of work.
Anyway, all this is obvious and been said better by other people than me and Mary doesn't need me to defend her as she did a fantastic job of that when she was mocked for her appearance on Question Time. I am so used to the unpleasant side of the internet that I thought her attempts to stick up for herself might be misguided, but I was wrong. Like the trolls who accept the "fact" that women on TV can't have grey hair, I had accepted the "fact" that we had to put up with this kind of behaviour. And we don't. Impoliteness will always exist, but it's worth challenging it when it occurs.
As a result of our Twitter friendship I got invited along to the launch for Mary's
latest book and so I got to meet her in the flesh and she didn't disappoint. Aside from the comedian Tony Law who had also backed Mary during the recent Twitter storm the room was full of classicists and academics, but although that was a little intimidating at first, we all got lightly pissed on white wine and had a lot of fun. Mary was as funny and friendly as you'd expect her to be. I had been too cool for school to get my photo taken with Bryan Cranston the other month, but I decided I couldn't miss the opportunity this time. She's the best!
