Answer – they have all been axed from television shows amidst allegations of both ageism and sexism.

This is actually part of a wider trend of older female presenters disappearing from our screens, while older male presenters are much more visible – John Craven (70), Jeremy Paxman (60) and Bruce Forsyth (137) are all still very much in the public eye, heading mainstream, primetime shows for example.

So what’s going on here – why are older women getting sacked against their wishes, while older men are allowed to continue in their roles as leading television presenters?

The Feminist take is that this very clear gender imbalance demonstrates that the mainstream media is both giving into social stereotypes about gender and perpetuating them – giving into the ideal of what Naomi Wolfe would call the beauty myth. By sacking older women – the media helps to perpetuate the idea that what is ‘normal’ for women is to be young and beautiful. As a woman, your utility derives from your looks, and once your beauty fades, you have no useful social function, and you hide yourself away, making room for the next generation of dark haired beauties – which of course, is what men want to see! While for male presenters, traditionally associated with authority, knowledge and power, ageing is not such an issue, hence it is older male presenters who are typically used to give ‘serious’ programmes an authoritative edge.

Of course there are those academics that will have spent years analysing representations of gender and age who will tell you that there are a complex array of portrayals of age and sex in our contemporary post-modern media, and indeed there are (John Snow springs to mind – authority figure or mad professor?)  – but, bottom line, the trend in age representation is women with sagging skin get the sack, men with flabby jowls don’t.

Miriam O’Reilly, the ex-presenter of country file is currently involved in a tribunal with BBC, is essentially claiming that she and other older, female presenters, were unfairly dropped from country file because of their age and looks. 

Of course in order to verify her accusations on a more global level, and find out how overt this ageist sexism is, we would need to have access to the backroom discussions (I don’t think they would be so stupid as to memo any of this) of the editors of the programmes in question, and we are never likely to get this, which is a shame, as it would be fascinating to see how sexist ageism actually works its way through micro-level decision making in the media.

It distrsses me that Fiona Bruce (46), who I have never liked, has the following to say about being a news presenter

‘It is a great job. The best. And a bit of sniping and stereotyping here and there is a small price to pay’

This kind of individualised ‘I’m alright’ so a ‘ bit of sexism doesn’t matter’ response  is something I despise – still  if sexist ageism remains on trend – Bruce’s days are numbered  – I give her 7 years max.