Gender issues
Irony anyone?
Bring on the token boys
Pictures of pretty girls leaping in the air on A-level results day are an unforgivable cliché that no self-respecting national newspaper should dare allow on the front page. Editors who on 99 days out of 100 demand attractive women for the cover suddenly banish them and cry instead: "Bring me boys!" A quick tally of pupils features in the A-level coverage however, showed 80 pictures of girls - exactly twice as many as there are of boys. 
Maloney baloney:
Kellie faces the world The Sunday Mirror scoop sent the boxing world into a spin, prompted numerous messages of support and earned the paper praise for its sensitive and positive treatment. But not everyone was so impressed. In a special guest blog Katherine O'Donnell questions whether it should have been a story at all, and offers journalists a few simple pointers when reporting on trans people. 
Doris Lessing, Helen Mirren
and silly sexist tokenism There is a place in most newspapers for frippery to balance the gloom. But papers that consider themselves purveyors of serious journalism need to keep these trifles in their place. Is yet another picture of a glammed-up Helen Mirren always preferable to one of a laughing nonogenarian? The Independent decided it wasn't and went against the tide to run this charming front page photograph of Nobel laureate Doris Lessing to mark her death. 
You think cheerleading is girly and flouncy? Think again
These women are cheerleaders, right? Wrong. They are sideline dancers holding pom-poms. SubScribe knows this thanks to an articulate young woman who was so affronted by media representation of her sport that she stood up in front of 200 of the country's leading doers and thinkers to put them right. When time and space is limited the press often falls back on misconceptions of sports, and overlooks the participants' hard work and achievements. 
Women in trouble
- for 'getting ahead' For a nation that, rightly, lauded Malala Yousafzai's courage in standing up for girls' right to an education in Pakistan, we are extraordinarily dismissive of girls' academic aspirations at home. The Telegraph and the i choose the same splash - and it's instructive to compare the headings. In the Telegraph boys are being left behind at university; in the i, women are racing ahead. In fact, neither is the case. |
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