I am a regular Mail reader, and I just laughed my ass off at that idiot. He's clearly just an old sexist bastard who resents that his male colleagues have to compete with GIRLS!!!

What bothers me, however, is that once again women's interests are being portrayed as frivolous, while men supposedly like hard stuff like math and science. To me, talk shows and makeover shows are just as frivolous as Sports Center and G4. They are all entertaining, but none of them really hold great societal importance. The only difference, of course, is that men typically watch one while women watch the other, and women only like STUPID stuff.

Wow, a monocle, bowtie, and traditional gender roles. I think this one's a lost cause.

We've got to stop letting living caricatures have the spot light every time they want to say something that is retarded.

Patrick Moore is one of those awesome stalwarts of broadcasting who seems to have been around since the dinosaurs. Unfortunately, his politics seem to date from roughly the same era. A shame, cos I'm sure he's done a lot to keep people interested in astronomy and science over the years.

What if he had said that the BBC was ruined by "Black People" or "Anglo-Indians" and that the BBC should be an all white domain? Clearly, there would be even more outrage...if he lived in the US, he'd go to "rehab." This is yet another example where one can say extremely sexist and misogynist things and yet get laughed off as a relic. Old white men are supposed to have learned their lessons on matters of overt racism (obviously systematic racisim is still a bit "too much" for them to be expected to have gotten), yet women's issues, even the most fundamental like the ability to work at all (let alone for equal pay) is still met with a bit of a chuckle.

Not only have we ruined general TV, but women have destroyed sci-fi! You're right Mr. Moore, the mainstream doesn't take sci-fi seriously simply because there have been female captains on Star Trek. I love sci-fi, and definitely think it shouldn't be automatically classified as "silly", but I'd throw that at the feet of the Gor series and Seven of Nine's silver cat suit before I'd blame women in powerful roles.

That must be my lack of monocle talking.

We were talking about this in the pub last night - I'm an astrophysicist, as were the people I was with. Many of us (myself included) got into astro. from reading PM's books as kids, and I always thought he was great. I'm so gutted to find out one of my childhood heroes is a total misogynist. Totally agree with Heather Nan - it would be completely unacceptable if anyone, however old/eccentric made the same comments about Asian people, for instance. But, you know, it's only women, we don't matter. Why is it considered amusing, or mildly endearing if people say this stuff. Can you imagine saying, "I really liked StarTrek until Deep Space 9 when they went all PC and had a black man as commander"? No? Nor can I, and doubtless the BBC would apologise in such a case. And have you looked at the "men's stuff" on TV recently? Semi-pornographic, guns, beating people up, sport and cars. All serious stuff, that. Grrrr. I shall get my supervisor (also female) to have a go at him next time she meets him.

The Onion could reprint that verbatim and it would be pants-peeing funny.

Nobody should be surprised that Moore's something of a bigot. In the late seventies he was the leader of the right-wing anti-immigration United Country Party, and more recently referred to immigration as being "swamped by parasites". He gets away with it all because people look at him and see an eccentric old chap in a monocle and not a skinhead in jackboots.

Though he's done a lot to raise the profile of amateur astronomy in the UK, Moore has a strange ability to hang on as one of the "grand old men" of broadcasting whom everyone treats with kid gloves since they've been around since the year dot, and then get surprised when they express reactionary opinions. I think it's time to end the special treatment, personally.

he not only takes issue with women, but with people who don't speak the queen's english. this is much more than a cute little sexist old man. he is talking about the good old days of the british empire (ie wide spread imperialism).

Isn't it a shame that this guy has lived to be about 135 while someone awesome like Carl Sagan died so young?

Subtle sexism that would be unacceptable if directed toward any other group but women happens so constantly on American TV that I can't even stand to watch TV anymore.

Last night there was a news report on a techie who wants to change the media culture that glorifies uneducated dingbats who don't work. Good, right? Well, his definition of the highest form of intellectualism was robot-building and tech, revealing that he's just as limited by his own biases too. But what was so condescending was the reporters going up to the girls taking part in his competitive TV show and asking them if they could "handle it" and weren't they "intimidated?" I didn't see them going up to any black kids and asking if they felt out of place!

Moxie Hart, it's proof that being made of piss'n vinegar makes you immortal.

I don't know about the BBC in UK, but didn't we just show that white men still dominate TV? Is Rachael Ray or her equivalent on BBC UK really destroying TV by taking away airtime from serious men like Ricky Gervais?

The scariest part of this article, as usual, is the reader comments. They almost all agree with Moore. It reminds me of Digg. Anyone know what the Daily Mail is? Is it the Fox News or National Review of the UK?

Jamier: yes, pretty similar target market. See its Wikipedia page.

Do we really give two s**ts whether the Penguin waxes nostalgic about how much better things were during Queen Victoria's time?

The Daily Mail was epitomized in the classic Smiths song "The Queen is Dead":

I said Charles, don't you ever crave
To appear on the front of the Daily Mail
Dressed in your Mother's bridal veil ?

I think that's pretty helpful, that. :D

I finally figured out who this guy looks like: the villain in "A View to a Kill".

Not Christopher Walken; I'm talking about the "mad German scientist" who raised him. I think that guy had a monocle, too.

Also, Moxie Hart: I grew up in Ithaca in the 1980s. My dad knew Carl Sagan, and let me assure you that he was not "awesome". For example, there was the time a student invited him for student-faculty dinner night, and he informed the student that his appearance fee was $15,000.

Also, Moxie Hart: I grew up in Ithaca in the 1980s. My dad knew Carl Sagan, and let me assure you that he was not "awesome". For example, there was the time a student invited him for student-faculty dinner night, and he informed the student that his appearance fee was $15,000.
That's called douchebaggery. That doesn't mean that his work shouldn't be highly regarded. The Demon Haunted World is one of my favorite books of all time & should be required reading for the whole country, especially in this era of anti-science. He devoted his live to bringing science to the masses & nuclear disarmament. If I did what he did, I'd have a big ego too.

"http://www.bondmovies.com/henchmen/mortner.jpg">Dr. Carl Mortner, as played by Scottish actor Willoughby Gray.

Patrick Moore plays the xylophone, Pa Pa PaPaPa Patrickkkkk!!!!!

I guess he just misses the old days where he was a disembodied head on Gamesmaster.

I saw this the other day, and I knew it wouldnt go unnoticed. And why should it? It smells of sexist old coot, who cant get his out of the "good old days".

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/patrick+moore/

Beware of the above link. Weirdness ensues.

Beware of the above link. Weirdness ensues.
OmG! How could I have forgotten about Weebl & Bob?!?!?!

Tee Vee is wasteland.

The chromosomes of whoever is in charge of it won't change that.

Mushroom Mushroom???

Or is it....

Badger Badger Badger Badger....

The Daily Mail has an excellent line in consistent and surreal misogyny... Oh what I could write about it here, but I'll spare you.
All I will say, is that if you aspire to write for womens' glossies in the UK, the editors will advise you to read the Daily Mail, because 'that's what women read'. Swear to God. And the longer you read the Mail and the Mail readers' comments, the more depressed you will grow...

What!? That monocle kicks ass! His claims were probably pretty substantiated, saying what he did about women.

He probably was behind a female driver on the way to work. Thats enough to piss anyone off.

I agree that he's a sexist old dinosaur, but let's not fall prey to ad hominem attacks. There are legitimate reasons for wearing a monocle. I had a friend who, to avoid the discomfort of a monocle (although I think that she would have enjoyed the effect it would have had on others), wore a pair of glasses with one corrective lens and one of plain glass.

I actually have "monocular vision" (i.e. one eye for near vision and one for far vision) and wear two drastically different prescriptions to correct my sight.

Maybe he's from the past. That would explain his bass-ackwards thinking, slash, Uncle Moneybags, slash, Mr. Peanut (?) getup.

He's an astronomer, right? It's plausible that he stuck himself in a vortex of Dumbassnissity and was transported to England.

LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAINNNNN

Sincerely,

Mr. Jesus

Sorry for that last comment. I was inspired by his senile jargon that I decided to write some of my own.

And to think I almost accepted an invitation from this guy to go clubbing. He can forget that.

I love(d) Patrick Moore, it is such a disappointment when people you admire come out with shout like this; you can allow a bit of old person racism/misogyny - different generations and all that - it just gives you a chance to prove them wrong, but that is too too far.

At least it makes me want to do well in my physics degree should I ever need to confront the old guard.

Daily Mail = Hate Mail, wouldn't wipe my arse on it

just found this too - puntastic:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2007/05/punorama_32.shtml

Since the BBC refuses to approve feminist views on "Have Your Say," I thought I'd make it known here: "Dear British public: Could there be a more sexist comment? As if women care about cooking, puzzles, and soap operas. And even if this is all that's on TV, be thankful you don't have the constant degrading, soft-core porn and relentless objectification of women everywhere that dominates American media. We basically endorse the degradation, humiliation, and sexualization of women on our male-run TV stations and male-dominated entertainment industry, and this imagary chips away at our society's ability to respect women. I'd take boring cooking shows over that any day."