Sarah

Driving to work on a Monday morning, 6th March 2017, listening to Radio 1. A female caller gets to choose a song, she’s going to the gym this morning and studying to be an architect. After the song finishes, the male presenter reads out comments from texts and twitter reacting to her choice of song. Among them, a comment from a male that has nothing to do with her choice of song but describes her as a ‘difficult date’. The male presenter laughs. Why is it that an aspiring, ambitious female is a ‘difficult date’ but a male giving the same position would surely be described by both male and female listeners as attractive and going places? Why is a successful female immediately threatening? Why do men immediately feel the need to take her down? The male presenter tried to backtrack by making some comment about her being difficult to date if you were a bus driver and describing her as a ‘role model’ swiftly because he evidently realised how the comment came across. But why read it out at all? You wouldn’t read out a racist comment just for laughs and pretend it wasn’t really as offensive as it was – at least, not in this decade. misogyny is still acceptable though.