Historian and popular BBC TV presenter Mary Beard has been rubbished by internet trolls after appearing on Question Time the other week.
Her long grey hair and lack of make-up, combined with teeth as characterful as my own, spawned a torrent of abuse.
Mary’s opinions added fuel to the fire — she dared to say that sometimes immigration can be beneficial to an area. Hardly controversial, unless voiced by an intelligent woman whose priorities are what’s inside her head rather than what’s painted on the outside.
Appearing regularly on Question Time, I’ve been trashed by menopausal male critics like Rod Liddle and Adrian Gill, but regard that as a badge of honour.
As for internet abuse, trolls can email away all they like, I shan’t be logging on to get upset — like a trusty non-stick pan, nasty stuff slides right off me.
Mary should stop complaining and realise that she has scored a propaganda coup with massive press coverage, and the message we feisty old crows send out to women is Live Life On Your Own Terms.
More from Janet Street Porter... JANET STREET-PORTER: I despise the nanny state - but it's the only cure for Fat Slob UK 02/06/13 Wrinklies, rise up! Attacked for stealing the young's jobs and patronised by politicians. We oldies, says JANET STREET-PORTER, unveiling her Grey Power Manifesto, need to fight back... 31/05/13 JANET STREET-PORTER: Watch out... soon GPs will ban patients altogether! 27/05/13 Janet Street-Porter: 'Experts say I'm common but I'm just not bovvered! It hasn't held back David Beckham or Adele' 19/05/13 'Yes, I'm a Nimby. And proud of it!': JANET STREET-PORTER cheers on the Not In My Backyard brigade and snubs wind farms 13/05/13 Janet Street-Poter: We'll all have to cough up for Dave's betrayal on booze 'n' fags 05/05/13 How many of us ever thank those who shaped our lives? In these witty yet surprisingly tender letters, JANET STREET PORTER says: Thank you for making me the nation's favourite big mouth 03/05/13 JANET STREET-PORTER: Hand back our bus passes and TV licences?! You must be joking, Iain Duncan Smith 28/04/13 As Sharon Osbourne leaves Ozzy behind, Janet Street-Porter says there are four words a wife should never trust: 'I promise I'll change' 21/04/13 VIEW FULL ARCHIVEMary offers a better example than another old crow (albeit a super-glam one), Joanna Lumley, who used a Marks & Spencer press launch last week to offer advice to girls — urging them not to ‘look like trash, don’t get drunk.
'Don’t be sick down your front’ because ‘somebody will take advantage of you, either they’ll rape you, or they’ll knock you on the head, or they’ll rob you’.
Advice from a woman who has made a fortune by portraying a drug-taking alcoholic on screen for more than a decade is always dubious, although I do think Patsy — sorry Joanna — meant well.
Now, a Tory MP (male, middle-class and of a certain age) has jumped on the bandwagon, announcing that women who wear shorts skirts and high heels are placing themselves at risk of rape.
Richard Graham was a successful banker before he became MP for Gloucester in 2010 — he’s got three daughters, so I can understand his concern as a parent. But harping on about the clothing you wear ‘making it harder to get away from a predator’ is blatant scaremongering.
The vast majority of rape victims in the UK — over 80 per cent — know their attacker, so what they are wearing is immaterial.
Joanna Lumley and Mr Graham are mistakenly addressing young women as if they are somehow wanton and stupid, which is just not true.
The truth is, a huge number of young women (myself included) have always dressed in a way that will annoy their parents and older generations.
As a 15-year-old I used to travel across London to clubs in tiny mini-dresses. I started my first job on this newspaper at the age of 21 wearing a pair of knitted shorts and huge platform soles — travelling by public transport in the rush hour, continuing after work to pubs and clubs.
My outfits were outrageous, but I didn’t give out the ‘take me I’m a potential victim’ vibe.
Today’s young women are the same — the vast majority are sensible, going for a night out in groups.
We have not bred a generation of female drunks, no matter what the pictures of puking girls in the gutter that get trotted out every New Year’s Eve suggest.
In 2012, I wrote a manifesto for young women — and suggested only showing flesh if you can deal with the attention and always going out for a drink with a mate who can get you home.
Telling girls to cover up and behave like ‘ladies’ is patronising and doomed to failure. Young women are a valuable asset, the leaders and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
Addressing them as if they’re tarts at heart harms their self-esteem and ignores their potential.
Bring up Benedict’s body, please
I’ve had a weekend’s rest from reading Hilary Mantel’s sequel to Wolf Hall, Bring Up The Bodies.
Maybe I’m mentally flabby after reading Baltic detective sagas, but prolonged exposure to the court of Henry VIII is like a long session of hot yoga — taxing to the max. Brilliant story-telling but at a snail’s pace.
Thrilling news, though — they are to be adapted for the stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon.
The look of Cromwell? Spacey, Bonneville and CumberbatchWho should play Thomas Cromwell, the King’s closest confidante, who ages from a boy to a 50-year-old statesman? Kevin Spacey stars in a remake of House Of Cards, but would he convince in a doublet? Hugh Bonneville — fine as chunky Cromwell in his 40s, but over-exposed?
Benedict Cumberbatch, who has dyed his hair blonde to play Julian Assange, must be a contender.
How does Helen do it all without a Hitch?Not one, but two new films about the legendary director Alfred Hitchcock examine his tortured relationship with the women in his life — his wife and glamorous leading ladies.
Astonishing: Hopkins and Mirren in the film HitchcockThere was criticism of The Girl, shown on the BBC recently, in which Sienna Miller played star of The Birds, Tippi Hedren.
Julian Lloyd Webber described it as ‘a hatchet job . . . how easy it is to malign those who can’t answer back’.
Helen Mirren dons a dowdy wig and sensible tweedy suits and twin sets to play Hitch’s long-suffering wife, Alma, in Hitchcock, which opens on February 8.
It’s surprising that neither Mirren nor Anthony Hopkins, who takes the lead, have Oscar nominations, because they turn in astonishing performances.
The film focuses on the few months in the director’s life when he was making Psycho, and although Hitch is revealed as an obsessive with a serious eating disorder, a voyeur and a bully, the film is generally sympathetic.
More interesting for female audiences is the depiction of life at home, showing how Alma, married to the director for 54 years, was his key collaborator.
Helen Mirren is such a versatile actress — she’s playing the Queen on stage this spring and has been shooting a TV movie of the Phil Spector trial, starring as his lawyer.
Al Pacino as Phil Spector? I can’t wait.
Typical men: frosty and always vanishing!My favourite spoof twitter account @pippatips, tells me ‘snowmen aren’t really men, but fun people-like sculptures made from snow’.
Some snowmen are a bit spooky, sitting outside in your garden all night like relatives you no longer speak to. A wit at the Environment Agency suggested that building snowmen would delay flooding when the big thaw set in — which turned out to be complete drivel.
The snow was so powdery around my home, I could only create a mini-man, with coal for eyes and shells for ears (right). Last night, he was just a couple of sticks and a damp patch — like most chaps he looked great, but had no staying power.
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On BBC1’s Room 101 recently, I dared to criticise local news coverage, saying it seemed to have a small agenda, constantly harping on about parking and one-way systems.
A pushy female rang up and demanded what I would put in her paper, my local rag. After I refused because I was too busy to do her job, she wrote a piece attacking me on the front page as if it were news — proving they have a very weird set of priorities.
Meanwhile, a friend sent me this billboard spotted in Faversham, Kent. I rest my case.
