Woman's Hour

[Lawrence Jones]

I’ve been listening to Woman’s Hour since the days of the late Marjorie Anderson – a most comforting surrogate grandmother figure. I’ve often wondered over recent years what it is within the lives of the females associated with the programme that causes such hatred for men. An example occurred several years ago when Ms. Murray interviewed the woman who’d caught her husband viewing pornography on his PC. The male was permanently demonized and I think most listeners concluded they were witnessing the dying embers of a marriage. This clearly didn’t bother either Ms. Murray, the producer or editor of the programme - otherwise they wouldn’t have broadcast the interview.

Yet another example this weekend – and in the same style – we heard the interview with the female who’d discovered that her husband had been visiting Working Girls for the last 15 years. Did anyone else listen to this? I was highly suspicious of the interview. Why, for example, did the woman make a reference to catching ‘the Crabs’ and not an STD? The interviewee stated that she loved her husband even more after this episode within her marriage. If this was the case, then why did she go running to WH? She made constant references to ‘rehab.’ during the interview. I think most intelligent listeners would have wanted to know what the rehab. procedure is for a married man who’s apparently addicted to visiting working girls – yet nothing.

Richard Tovey used to place regular posting on the WH board calling for the termination of WH and I’m beginning to think that he could be right. Hasn’t anyone within the WH team ever done anything wrong within their own lives?

[rosalie]

hmm, yes I felt that interview was an uncomfortable listen. I dunno, it just felt disloyal somehow to make such a huge interview out of the distress both of them obviously had. Those intimate faults within a marriage, or a relationship don't sit well on a public broadcast.

[Lawrence Jones]

rosalie said:

hmm, yes I felt that interview was an uncomfortable listen. I dunno, it just felt disloyal somehow to make such a huge interview out of the distress both of them obviously had. Those intimate faults within a marriage, or a relationship don't sit well on a public broadcast.

I agree with all your comments and I’d like to know how much checking out they did in respect of this woman’s story before broadcasting it. I look forward to the day when an R4 presenter/producer/editor takes a stand and refuses to take part in an interview such as this and suffers financially as a consequence. Earning one’s living directly as a result of someone else’s misery or unhappiness strikes me as morally unpleasant. I’d also like to know what happened to the interview fee.

A quick check on the WH board revealed postings from women (have to accept their stories at face value) who’d also experienced this and some wanted to form a specific group. I’ve been a single person all my life, but it strikes me that men visit working girls for two reasons: unfulfilled sexual appetite 2) deeply unhappy and loveless marriages. I detail the second reason because I was looking at one of the working girl review sites about a year ago and several of the ‘contributors’ spoke about ‘the girl friend experience’ which I found quite illuminating, because it was clear that sexual contact wasn’t really of any importance to these individuals. I think I’d be interested to know why many men do suffer from such intense loneliness.