BBC bans all male panel shows

Dravokivich wrote: »

There's Sabine Schmitz who's been involved in a few shows with Top Gear.

Qualitymark wrote: »

Thing is, that's the same argument that used to be made about women suitable to be newsreaders, about women sub-editors, women in the police, women doctors, etc. Cometh the hour, cometh the woman.

But that answer ignores the bureaucratic realities. The record shows that the military does not and will not enforce gender-neutral standards.


The record shows that the military does not and will not enforce gender-neutral standards.[A]t the time of enlistment, a seventeen-year-old female is expected to do thirteen push-ups, compared to thirty-five for males, while for forty-one-year-olds, the numbers are six and twenty-four, respectively. A seventeen year-old girl is expected to run two miles in nineteen minutes, forty-two seconds or less, which is twelve seconds more than a forty-one year old man gets. A forty-one-year-old woman has to "run" two miles in twenty-four minus and six seconds, almost five minutes more than a man receives. Only in combat, it seems, will demands on the sexes be equal ….

(LOC 399-403)

The military executes missions, and the generals and admirals understand that one of their most important missions - from the point of view of their personal advancement - is to recruit sufficient numbers of women to please their political masters. The only way to achieve that mission is to operate very unequal standards. Browne again:

The probability that a randomly selected man will have greater upper-body strength than a randomly selected woman is well over 95 percent.

(LOC 432)

The army's standard fragmentation grenade has a blast radius of 15 meters. Infantrymen are required to demonstrate the ability to throw a grenade 35 meters; military women, only 25 meters. In practice, many military women cannot throw even that far.

geeky wrote: »

I'm normally opposed to gender quotas, indeed affirmative action of any kind.

But for me, a lot of the all male shows like Mock The Week are really samey and testosterone-filled. They're missing a trick by not tapping female talent. HIGNFY and The News Quiz do it really well, so why can't other shows?

That's not to say that there's no place for single-gender shows, or at least ones very heavily influenced by one gender - Top Gear works well and feels naturally weighted, for example. But on something as broad as current affairs comedy, both genders have something to add.

As for people who claim that they can't find any funny female comics, try:
Sandi Toksvig
Susan Calman
Jo Brand
Sarah Millican

And that's just off the top of my head.


Personally, I think the problems lie deeper than gender for both shows. QI is the smuggest show on earth, while Mock The Week lost the only asset setting it aside from HIGNFY when Frankie Boyle left.

Lyaiera wrote: »

So far we've had periods, boyfriends, shoes and women aren't funny. There's nothing less funny than neckbeards talking about women in stand up.