Skip to main content

LIZ JONES: You need more to be a TV role model than bad clothes, Clare

0 shares 171

View comments

When Clare Balding was honoured recently in the Women in Film and Television Awards for her work on the Olympics and Paralympics, she accepted the prize by saying: ‘I think it’s important for young girls who are, I hope, watching us and thinking, “That’s a job I want to do”, to know that warmth, humour, intelligence, doing your homework – that’s what matters. I’m not getting this award because of what I look like or my dress sense. We all know that.’

Like most older women on TV or in the public eye, and most women who aren’t glamour pusses, the knee-jerk reaction, the catch-all, is to say they are being discriminated against because of the way they look and have had to rise above adversity. It’s as annoying as pretty women moaning about how they are not taken seriously.

There is a sense of superiority in Balding’s statement: that the rest of us who bother to shop in Prada and have facelifts cannot possibly be as ‘good’ as she is, nor be as nice or as worthy.

Woman winner: Clare Balding with Mark Foster after winning the achievement of the year at the Women in Film and Television Awards

Bad dress sense: Clare Balding, pictured with her partner Alice Arnold, said she knew she wasn't getting the award because of the way she looked or hoe she dressed

She uses the old feminist argument, too: oh, I don’t get the big-money contracts because I have a womb! Well, I don’t see the kudos in being given a gong when your only competition is Gabby Logan.

I don’t dislike Balding because of her sexuality or her looks or her bad dress sense. I don’t like her because she stands on the turf at Aintree or Goodwood in her cheap hat and shoes, wielding her microphone, and she does not criticise the use of the whip by jockeys, or collapse in tears and rage when yet another horse has broken its neck.

I do not care when she was born or who she shops at DFS with – I dislike her because she promotes, without question, a sport that is intrinsically barbaric. Incidentally, critics reviewing the wonderful new book Animal Encounters: Human And Animal Interaction In Britain From The Norman Conquest To World War One, by Arthur MacGregor, have gasped over the ancient sport of whipping a blinded bear, but have failed to point out that we are little better today.

Recognition: Clare Balding was given the award for her work presenting the Olympics and then the Paralympics

Racing presenter: Clare Balding presenting Channel 4 Racing at Nicky Henderson's Seven Barrows Stables in Lambourn, England, on January 1st

I was asked to interview Ms Balding last month. She said she had very little time, so I was to meet her in a first-class carriage and join her for her train journey to Manchester. That is fine, I said. That weekend, I read her autobiography, My Animals And Other Family.

In the book, Ms Balding, the daughter of a racehorse trainer, seemed to have a cavalier (ha ha) attitude towards horses, discarding ponies as she outgrew them, and even beating one of them. Nowhere did she question the sport of kings and queens.

Race supporter: Clare Balding has never spoken out against the treatment of race horses

In the same way that many swimmers do not reach an Olympic final, so many horses do not pass the winning post in first place. I have a friend who has just rescued a three-year-old thoroughbred who was going to be shot – just because he came last in a race.

No one culled swimmer Rebecca Adlington, who is another woman who bemoans being criticised for her appearance – yet, had she won a couple of gold medals at the London Games, no one would have given a second thought to what she looks like.

Achievement and ethics are all, not your gender or your beauty. Yes, warmth and humour are both vital in a woman, but how about possessing some compassion? Where is the morality in doing a job that pays lots of money when you don’t ever report on the darker, grubbier side of what happens?

Anyhow, I set off to interview La Balding, having read her wretched tome. However, on the way to meet her I was informed that she had banned me from doing the interview because I had once criticised her in print over an item she presented on The One Show about horses that served in the First World War.

‘Even in the face of inhumanity, man can still maintain a dignity, and a relationship, still be kind,’ she said, slobber on her high-street woolly. ‘That is the greatest gift the horse has given us. We can be better people.’

‘No word, then,’ I wrote afterwards, ‘on the number of beatings given to Grand National winner Ballabriggs in the final stretch, or the fact he had to be given oxygen.’

Forget discrimination. That is so last century. There is a bigger, better fight to be waged,  a war to be won. It is not for more rights for women with bad dress sense, it’s a battle for animal rights, and human rights in general.

And let’s not award a prize to a  high-profile woman who wants to silence her critics, censor them, avoid awkward questions: what sort of role model for young women is that?






Popular posts from this blog

Study Abroad USA, College of Charleston, Popular Courses, Alumni

Thinking for Study Abroad USA. School of Charleston, the wonderful grounds is situated in the actual middle of a verifiable city - Charleston. Get snatched up by the wonderful and customary engineering, beautiful pathways, or look at the advanced steel and glass building which houses the School of Business. The grounds additionally gives students simple admittance to a few major tech organizations like Amazon's CreateSpace, Google, TwitPic, and so on. The school offers students nearby as well as off-grounds convenience going from completely outfitted home lobbies to memorable homes. It is prepared to offer different types of assistance and facilities like clubs, associations, sporting exercises, support administrations, etc. To put it plainly, the school grounds is rising with energy and there will never be a dull second for students at the College of Charleston. Concentrate on Abroad USA is improving and remunerating for your future. The energetic grounds likewise houses various

Best MBA Online Colleges in the USA

“Opportunities never open, instead we create them for us”. Beginning with this amazing saying, let’s unbox today’s knowledge. Love Business and marketing? Want to make a high-paid career in business administration? Well, if yes, then mate, we have got you something amazing to do!   We all imagine an effortless future with a cozy house and a laptop. Well, well! You can make this happen. Today, with this guide, we will be exploring some of the top-notch online MBA universities and institutes in the USA. Let’s get started! Why learn Online MBA from the USA? Access to More Options This online era has given a second chance to children who want to reflect on their careers while managing their hectic schedules. In this, the internet has played a very crucial in rejuvenating schools, institutes, and colleges to give the best education to students across the globe. Graduating with Less Debt Regular classes from high reputed institutes often charge heavy tuition fees. However onl

Sickening moment maskless 'Karen' COUGHS in the face of grocery store customer, then claims she doesn't have to wear a mask because she 'isn't sick'

A woman was captured on camera following a customer through a supermarket as she coughs on her after claiming she does not need a mask because she is not sick.  Video of the incident, which has garnered hundreds of thousands of views on Twitter alone, allegedly took place in a Su per Saver in Lincoln, Nebraska according to Twitter user @davenewworld_2. In it, an unidentified woman was captured dramatically coughing as she smiles saying 'Excuse me! I'm coming through' in the direction of the customer recording her. Scroll down for video An unidentified woman was captured dramatically coughing as she smiles saying 'Excuse me! I'm coming through' in the direction of a woman recording her A woman was captured on camera following a customer as she coughs on her in a supermarket without a mask on claiming she does not need one because she is not sick @chaiteabugz #karen #covid #karens #karensgonewild #karensalert #masks we were just wearing a mask at the store. ¿ o