Having left for work a bit later this morning I sat in the bath listening to Radio 5 Live's phone in. Today's topic was age discrimination at the BBC prompted by the case of Miriam O'Reilly who was sacked from her job as presenter of Country File. For the full story follow the link:
What struck me was that amongst the normal banter including one man's view that Sue Barker is no longer sexy (when did that happen) someone came up with a very good comment: Aren't television presenters performers? Put another way is it a genuine occupational requirement that a presenter is 'easy on the eye' or is there more to it than that? Are we entering a new era where each time a presenter is replaced by a younger model the cry goes up discrimination? Some people might say that this is in fact a case of an ageing presenter having her cake and eating it. May be what we are in fact seeing is a sea change in how society views age in much the same way as British society began to embrace the problems of sex and race discrimination in the mid-70s?
I just have a feeling that this will be a very busy year in age discrimination.
Peter D
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