Jonathan Ross suspended, Carol Thatcher sacked..

[max_tranmere]

I know what you mean Steve, but I doubt that would be regarded as offensive by other people. And it is what 'other people' think, rather that who the comment was aimed at, that always seems to count. Someone said earlier on this thread that Carol Thatcher's sacking was a case of people getting bothered on behalf of this tennis player - no one ever asked whether the tennis guy was bothered, he was on the other side of the world and never heard her comment anyway - so others get annoyed for him and decide to sack her for her 'grossly offensive' remark.

If a white blonde tennis player was called a barbie doll, the chances are she would either never hear about it, or wouldn't care about the comment if she did hear it (after all, attractive girl tennis players as refered to as 'gorgeous' and 'a babe' all the time and never care) but maybe middleaged female commentators would make a big deal of it, and get bothered for her. It is unlikely to happen at all though because the girl is white and comments that get said about white people never cause a stir. Where as if someone is ethnic minority, and a comment is made, then the wrath of the gods comes down on the person making the remark - as proven in this incident with Carol Thatcher.

[dynatech]

A 26 year old pay-back is what this is, I'm suprised no-one has suggested this so far. In the early 80's, Margaret Thatcher fell out with the BBC big style over Sue Lawley & co's style of questioning, and the result of which was Nationwide (which up until then had enjoyed a 14 year lifespan & unfathomable popularity) was pulled, something that certain people in the Beeb have lamented ever since. Fast-forward to 2009, and what do we find? Thatcher's daughter enjoying some sort of populrity on 'The One Show', which to all intents and purposes is Nationwide updated... Somebody overhears her saying something slightly controversial and BOOM! National scandal and a payback of sorts....

[colonel]

On that logic, she wouldn't have had the job in the first place.

Stop making apologies for racists.

[Steve R]

Dear Regina Perineum,

my argument, far from being flawed, is actually right on the money.

[img]http://62.49.31.254/images/Condor.jpg[/img]

[beutelwolf]

Reggie Perrin wrote:

> Your argument is flawed because people don't call a blonde
> tennis player a Barbie doll and even if they did it does not
> pertain to her ethnicity but her perceived sexuality.

But a barbie doll DOES have an ethnic connotation - one wouldn't call a black or Chinese player to look like like a barbie doll. It is just that when this term is used then it tends to have a more specific meaning within the frame of being Caucasian. However, the term would take little bit more of a racial meaning if a black commentator used that term, and even more so if the white woman talked about was not really of the super-slim blonde variety. That's actually a way in which Ms Thatcher's defense breaks down, because Mr Tsonga does not look remotely like a gollywog doll - skin too light, no 1970s Afro, eyes more on the small side...

Having said that, I do not like people being sacked for talking loosely. Thought police! If it were live on air, that's a different matter as it directly impacts on the responsibilities as a broadcaster.

[Steve R]

So, sweet Regina, are you wondering why I am so smugly confident of my earlier comment?

Well, honey, the reason is that I happen to recall that in about 1980 or 1981, Evonne Cawley (nee Goolagong), the Aborigine Australian tennis player, referred to the petite, white, blonde American player, Tracy Austin, as looking 'like a little Barbie Doll', on BBC television.

[dynatech]

I'm not making apologies, I'm making assertations.
There are some of us who have working logic left you know, but I guess the 'thought police' will get me in the end

[max_tranmere]

The 'barbie doll' comment may be nothing more than saying the girl has the same sort of build (lean for her height, etc) as a barbie doll. Would saying a female tennis player was 'petite' or saying 'theres nothing of her' be offensive? I doubt it. Commentators say those sorts of things all the time. Regarding Carol Thatcher's sacking possibly being payback for the Maggie/Nationwide thing in the early-80's, I doubt it. I hadn't heard of it till just now. Maggie was always someone who bore massive grudges though. I remember when Andrew Neil (now on the Beeb of course, but was for many years Editor of the Sunday Times) he reported in said newspaper quite unfavourable things about Mark Thatcher's business practices back in the 1980's, and it was always said Maggie never forgave him. He was her pal before that and would often get exclusives in advance about Government policy. Maggie and he haven't spoken since. Even to this day.

[Steve R]

Exactly.

My whole point is that there was nothing wrong with that black woman likening Tracy Austin to a white doll - just as there is nothing wrong with Carol Thatcher likening the black tennis player to a black doll.