25.03.02
Alison
Graham: "Northern stereotypes get right up my Bacardi Breezer!"
The
TV editor of Radio Times has launched an attack on producers who
portray every Northern woman as a "loud-mouthed, cheery slapper
who gets brain-meltingly drunk when she's out with her similarly
tarty friends".
Alison
Graham, who is Northern and proud of it, says she is sick of sentimental
stereotypes and is appealing to programme makers to "start
addressing a significant constituency of women viewers for whom
the salt of the earth is just something they scatter over their
rocket salad".
In
the magazine's new Rant! column, she writes: "Fat Friends,
Bob and Rose, Clocking Off, Playing the Field, Linda Green, the
forthcoming Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ1 drama Cutting It, are all packed with brash, bellowing
northern women of a single, smutty type, marinated in Bacardi Breezers.
"Look
at any episode and it is obvious that television thinks there is
but one personality among Northern women - the loud-mouthed, cheery
slapper who gets brain-meltingly drunk when she's out with her similarly
tarty friends.
"She
will go for a kebab, perhaps even a curry if she is celebrating
something really special, then she will sing at the top of her voice
in the street before vomiting, crying and moaning about the rotten
fellas who have ruined her life.
"None
of which stops her from having regular, unsatisfactory sexual encounters
with these rotten fellas, all of whom will be knuckle-dragging sociopaths
who think foreplay is something that happens before a football match.
"The
biggest insult of all is to be told that these dramas and their
female characters are 'warm-hearted'. This does not flatter or appease.
We all know that 'warm-hearted' is just a polite way of saying 'common'.
"So,
television, take note. Ditch these sentimental stereotypes and start
addressing a significant constituency of women viewers for whom
the salt of the earth is just something they scatter over their
rocket salad."
This article is taken from the 30 March - 5 April issue of Radio
Times, on sale on Tuesday 26 March.
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