Why are women so nasty to each other?

An age old question, that.

I have been mulling over the savaging of Selina Scott last week by the harpies who have columns in the nationals.

Selina has, quite rightly, been challenging sex discrimination by broadcasters over the last few years. In 2008 she successfully sued Channel 5 who dropped her and replaced her with a younger broadcaster.

Selina was widely quoted discussing the ageism issue and the harpies turned on her, with one scathingly saying that Selina herself had been nothing more than an "autocutie" when she was a news reader a few years ago, implying that Selina had been hired for her looks and dropped when she started to lose them.

Except that she hasn't lost her looks. She is still a stunning woman and her age is irrelevent. I'm not going to give her age I get annoyed at the way the papers always give a woman's age no matter what the story, as if it enables us to form some sort of judgment. Kim Cattrall always get furious when people say she looks good "for her age". She just looks good.

I doubt if Selina ever considered she was hired for her looks. And by accusing her of that, the harpies imply that attractive women can't have other qualities, namely intelligence, wit, charisma.

I applaud Selina's efforts to highlight this issue. I am fed up with seeing grizzled male broadcasters when most women are bounced by the age of 40.  There of plenty of mature women still broadcasting in the US - Diane Sawyer, Connie Chung, Jane Pauley and Barbara Walters.


And as Gen Y is the majority now - there are more of us watching TV than young people - our views should count for something.