Clare Balding Quotes

If it's a woman, it's caustic; if it's a man, it's authoritative.

Would they call me a diva if I were a guy?

Female-driven shows have to be every single thing and are constantly criticized in a way that male-driven shows are not.

Often, women as little girls are sent off on a track for them to live a perfect life and be a perfect woman. Not for boys, who can be themselves with their mood and their temper.

Two phrases I hate in reference to female characters are 'strong' and 'feisty.' They really annoy me. It's the most condescending thing. You say that about a three-year-old. It infantilises women.

What works for a man, still does not work for a woman - both in terms of how they see themselves and how we see them.

Why is it men are permitted to be obsessed about their work, but women are only permitted to be obsessed about men?

Housework is the only activity at which men are allowed to be consistently inept because they are thought to be so competent at everything else.

It is rare that one can see in a little boy the promise of a man, but one can almost always see in a little girl the threat of a woman.

Men are allowed to have passion and commitment for their work... a woman is allowed that feeling for a man, but not her work.

I'm not denyin' the women are foolish. God Almighty made 'em to match the men.

Men are allowed to get older and women are not.

I think where men are credited for being strong, women are divas. I just think it's such a cop out.

Too often, women are portrayed in two ways: as prizes to be won by men or as damsels in distress.

Men treat men differently than they would a woman.

How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.

Why are women always described as 'desperate,' while men are just... irrational?

It can be frustrating when you're put in a category with others. Women do get lumped together in this reductive grouping, and you think, 'Gosh, that rarely happens with the boys.' I'm sure people don't say to Eddie Redmayne, 'How do you feel about Andrew Garfield?'

There's a tendency among some male writers to make the women in their stories weak and needing of rescue so that their hero looks like a manly man.

When women do take on traditionally male subjects, certain male colleagues can seem affronted that a woman has dared to trespass on their subject. I could given you dozens of examples, but here's one: Max Hastings's review in the 'Sunday Times' in 2009 of Miranda Carter's book 'The Three Emperors'.

So many women characters are extensions of male fantasy.

Our distorted media culture sees men as subjects and women as objects; in films, Woody Allen gets older and older and still dates 20-year-old babes; movies about women are called 'chick flicks,' and men make fun of them.

The way my body is viewed in the world is different than a male body. People are going to write about the performance, but they're probably also going to be writing about what I was wearing or my hair, which just doesn't happen to men.

Patriarchy doesn't just make men out to be ogres. Women buy into the patriarchy as well, and women make those comments as well, like, 'Boys will be boys.' Women have to undo that stuff, too.

Where a man is forceful, a woman is shrill.