The modern malaise

The legendary Astronomer Patrick Moore has recently caused a stir by claiming “television is rubbish, and it’s the fault of women”.

That’s summarising his point dreadfully, but I think he meant that a lot of the television market is now, more than ever, aimed at women. Mr Moore, or is it Sir Moore or Lord Moore, suggests that “banal television” such as Cookery shows, the Soaps and Make-over programmes are dumbing down the standards of British tv to a point when men don’t need to watch the box at all.

This prompted a little light-hearted conversation amongst my colleagues, about the impact of females on our society which rapidly developed into an argument over “who’s the stupidest, men or women?”. Real mature, eh?

Patrick Moore’s comments have been dismissed by the higher Exec’s at the BBC (probably all women) as being the thoughts of a man who refuses to acknowledge that times have changed. However, at the risk of exposing myself as a sexist misogynist, I kind of see his point, and lot of it comes down to the following questions.

When did style replace substance? Why are politics and television now aimed at the lowest common denominator?

The ideal women’s night of television seems to be thus - sitting for an entire evening watching Northerners sit in a pub and moan, then switch over to watch a bunch of Cockneys do the same, before letting two obnoxious women tell me what to wear just before a scary old woman looks through some poo.

I will hold my hands up and say that, like most red blooded males, my first loves are Sky Sports and Sky Movies. But credit where its due, watching these channels will require an attention span of over 2 hours sometimes. 2 whole hours!!!

Female-based television is aimed at viewers with short attention spans who want to see quick programmes about celebrities in shiny colours. Big Brother is addictive, because it doesn’t require any viewer involvement. We can just sit there and gawp at a bunch of nobodies doing nothing. It’s like going to the zoo, but with less interaction.

It’s not just television that is letting us down. Music as a commercial industry has been going strong for around fifty years, and yet we already seem to have run out of ideas. Most dance tracks on Radio 1 are purely samples of 1980 disco classics. The health of the Movie industry is judged more and more on the strength of the “summer blockbusters” which 9 times out of 10 will be the second or third sequel in an already successful brand. So nothing new, no risks, no minds being opened.

Our local radio newsreader, Amy Garner, steadfastly refuses to pronounce her words properly, because it’s “cool”. So “getting” becomes gettin’ and “going to” becomes “gonna”. She went for an interview, got through auditions and got the job. Her bosses must hear her broadcasts every day, and yet she is still there every morning. So somebody thinks that for a newsreader to lack basic pronunciation skills is perfectly acceptable, because anything else would seem “stuffy”. The lowest common denominator wins again.

These factors have created a state of apathy throughout Britain, a slumber from which we shall struggle to awake.

I’m not sure how all these threads blend together. But writing this is good therapy and my soul feels lighter already.