31 Jul 2010
Clare Balding took offense to the tone of AA Gills remarks about her while reviewing one of her shows in his TV column in the Sunday Times, and complained to the editor. His response is a lot more offensive than Gill's original review, and she has now lodged a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission.
In his review Gill wrote:
Some time ago, I made a cheap and frankly unnecessary joke about Clare Balding looking like a big lesbian. And afterwards somebody tugged my sleeve to point out that she is a big lesbian, and I felt foolish and guilty. So I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise. Sorry.
Now back to the dyke on a bike, puffing up the nooks and crannies at the bottom end of the nation.
When Balding complained to the paper's editor, his response included:
In my view some members of the gay community need to stop regarding themselves as having a special victim status and behave like any other sensible group that is accepted by society. Not having a privileged status means, of course, one must accept occasionally being the butt of jokes . A person's sexuality should not give them a protected status. Jeremy Clarkson, perhaps the epitome of the heterosexual male, is constantly jeered at for his dress sense (lack of), adolescent mind-set and hair style. He puts up with it as a presenter's lot and in this context I hardly think that AA Gill's remarks were particularly cruel, especially as he ended by so warmly endorsing you as a presenter.
As you might imagine, this provoked an angry response from Balding:
When the day comes that people stop resigning from high office, being disowned by their families, getting beaten up and in some instances committing suicide because of their sexuality, you may have a point.
This is not about me putting up with having the piss taken out of me, something I have been quite able to withstand, it is about you legitimising name calling. ‘Dyke' is not shouted out in school playgrounds (or as I've had it at an airport) as a compliment, believe me.
It may be your job to defend your writer and your editorial team but if you really think that homophobia does not exist and was not demonstrated beyond being ‘the butt of a joke' then we have a problem.
Or as she commented elsewhere:
For God's sake, would he seriously review Stephen Fry presenting QI as a faggot or Evan Davis on Dragons Den as a queer?
Overview HERE, and the Guardian reports HERE.
(Note: Part of Balding's complaint is about Gill's use of the word "dyke" in a derogatory way. Obviously I use the word "dyke" all the time on this blog, but as with all these things, context is everything. I use it because to me, and in my usage, it's strong, and powerful, and used with warmth. In the same way that "homosexual" can often seem too clinical for casual banter amongst ourselves, so too can "lesbian". I like "dyke". It's unapologetic. However, as used by Gill, it's definitely meant to be demeaning. Taken with the tone of his prior remarks, and then following with "puffing up the nooks and crannies at the bottom end of the nation". It's a cheap shot.)
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