Selina Stokes a Diversity Debate That Needs Addressing

It will come as a surprise to few but a delight to many that Selina Scott is suing Five over ageism in its refusal to hire her for a maternity cover role and choice of younger presenters instead. It is a delight not because Five is worse than anyone else in this respect, but because it stokes a debate which urgently needs to be taken more seriously. Casual sexism, ageism and racism are the collective dirty secret of the vast majority of media institutions, and they represent as much of an industrial challenge as they do a moral one.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission's Report on Sex and Power, published last week, drew a depressing picture for women in the workplace. In general the progression of women at the highest level in the workplace is pitiful and the media are no exception: only 13.6% of national newspaper editors (including the Herald and Western Mail) are women; only 10% of media FTSE's 350 companies have women at the helm; and at the BBC, which has often been held as an exemplar of diversity, women make up less than 30% of most senior management positions. It puts into context Jeremy Paxman's deranged rant about the white male in television. Ethnic minority representation is even worse.

A couple of weeks ago Pat Younge, former BBC head of sports programmes and planning who left to work for Discovery in the US, caused a stir at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival by saying that diversity targets should be like financial targets - you don't hit them, you get fired. I have to say that as board champion for diversity at Guardian News and Media I would currently be firing myself and most of the board for some missed targets. But Younge is right - because diversity targets are not just a feelgood add-on, they are vital to the health of any media business. The temptation to hire in one's own image for most managers is as irresistible as it is subliminal - which is why there are a lot of opinionated women working in digital management at the Guardian, and why we all need targets to remind us to look beyond the mirror.

On screen, any number of unconventional-looking ageing blokes (Jeremy Clarkson, Jonathan Ross, Chris Moyles, Alan Sugar, Adrian Chiles, Jeremy Paxman, Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan) are paid at a top rate for the talent they possess beyond their appearance. For women it is an altogether different story - appearance and age are clearly factors in choosing female presenters in a way that they aren't for men.

The media should be deeply concerned about this un-diversity - not because it represents moral turpitude on our part, but because it represents bloody awful business sense. What is happening to the UK population at the moment? It is ethnically diversifying, and it is ageing. It is also the case that it is, as of the 2001 Census, marginally more female than it is male. And we live longer - so older women, and non-white potential audiences are on the rise. In London, the major urban conurbation and key market for so many media brands, the population is around 37% ethnically diverse, yet this is nowhere near reflected in the management structures of media companies. Or indeed in their on-screen or in-paper representation.

How though, can you hope to address audiences for which you have no instinctive feel, and towards which you show casual discrimination? We are all in danger of becoming irrelevant to the changing demographics of our target audience at a time when holding any kind of audience is key to survival. If white men are so good at solving business problems - and given that they represent well over 80% of FTSE 100 directors we can speculate that this is a skill they must possess in measure - then I'm surprised they haven't grasped this one already.

Critical Investigation & Linked Production

Critical Investigation
Does contemporary advertising still perpeture. The Beauty Myth?

Linked Production
A series of three linked televvision make-up advertisements targeting the 18-24 female demographic.

'The Beauty Myth'

As most women of a certain age can tell you, men who have The Barbie Syndrome share a common characteristic--interest in young women. By young ... I mean young as in women who are not in their age group, let alone their generation.

JANET, my just-turned-40 Sister-friend, is sipping her second Margarita and talking about the getting-older-thing. Though she has never been age-conscious, suffice it to say that, right now, Girlfriend has a serious attitude.

Janet's less-than-optimal mind-set has a lot to do with a recent blind date she went on. After some promising get-to-know-you chitchat revealed they had numerous common interests, Janet was certain that, not only would there be a second date, but that Boyfriend had real relationship potential. Until, that is, she mentioned her recent birthday. That's when the Brother almost broke a speed record trying to finish his dinner and their date.

"The way he acted, you'd have thought I said I was looking for a man to father my children," Janet says, trying to make light of her date from hell but clearly still stung by being dumped so quickly and cavalierly. "Brother had a bad case of The Barbie Syndrome [TBS]."

As most women of a certain age can tell you, men who have TBS share a common characteristic--interest in young women. By young I don't mean vital and vibrant. I mean young as in women who are not in their age group, let alone their generation. Of course, men involved with younger women is hardly new. But lately it seems the media have made them news. And it's getting on my nerves.

Oh, I know. I shouldn't care about the fawning coverage the media give to men, particularly rich White ones, who are involved in relationships with women half their age. (Think: Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. And my personal favorite, Tony Curtis and Jill Vanden Berg, who at age 30, is not only a stunning 45 years younger than Curtis, but a dozen years younger than his daughter Jamie Lee Curtis.)


Information On The Beauty Myth:
A book produced my Naomi Wolf, which examines how beauty is a demand and judgment upon women. Which is known as ‘How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women’.

The beauty myth is sometimes viewed as succeeding The Feminine Mystique, which relegated women to the position of housewife, as the social guard over women.

What She Looks At:
Modern conceptions of women's beauty impact the spheres of employment, culture, religion, sexuality, eating disorders, and cosmetic surgery.