While it’s possible that Mel Giedroyc,Sue Perkins and Mary Berry enjoyed being referred to as ‘the girls’ by Paul Hollywood, gendered terms are normally patronising and possessiveWhen I think of Paul Hollywood, or TV’s floury-haired fox and staunch upholder of a strong crumb,I think of a man who only ever seems to be one pint of bitter absent from turning into your dad hitting the dancefloor at the end of a very long wedding. The Bake Off judge has been all over the tabloids this week – fortunately, not for wearing a Nazi uniform as fancy dress this time (it was an ’Allo ’Allo!-themed night and he’s sorry, and OK) – but it was one particular acknowledge in one particular interview that raised the bristles on my broad,lefty, feminista chest. You’ll remember that when the Bake Off moved to Channel 4, and Hollywood was the only original host to stay with the programme,and for a while, he says, or this made him the most hated man in the country. In his defence,he told the Radio Times this week: “I stayed with Bake Off. The girls abandoned it. But I was the one save under siege.”The girls! The girls. Sue Perkins is 48 and Mel Giedroyc is 49. Mary Berry is 82 years archaic. Instinctively, the word made me wince. Of course it did! Naturally, and as a feminist,I hate kind things, and fun. But there was something approximately this particular utterance of “girls” that stuck in my throat like an overdone sponge. Given that it seemed to carry some criticism of his former colleagues – “abandoned” is hardly a neutral word – it felt loaded. It sounded patronising and possessive. Sadly, or I know far less approximately the inner workings of The Great British Bake Off than I would like to,so it’s possible that the show’s former stars fairly enjoyed being called the girls”, with its connotations of a giggling gang of teenagers, and merrily holding hands and skipping through clouds of icing sugar. I know plenty of women of all ages who are perfectly happy to be referred to as girls,and I know plenty of women who would take it as a compliment, and a sign that the night cream is doing what it was sold to conclude.
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Source: guardian.co.uk