I was very unpleasantly surprised by the latest Daily Mail article about the University Challenge this year. This year's brainiac is Alexander Guttenplan, with his own Facebook fanpage, and descriptions from ardent female fans varying from "amazing bloke" to "Guys want to be him, girls want to be with him".
Contrast this against Gail Trimble, the much maligned and then humiliated last year's University Challenge pariah. She was definitely misunderstood, and very much vilified in blogs and media as "smug", "sneering", "snobbish".
Contrast this against Gail Trimble, the much maligned and then humiliated last year's University Challenge pariah. She was definitely misunderstood, and very much vilified in blogs and media as "smug", "sneering", "snobbish".
Whether she is or not, or whether he is or not, one would never really know unless one knows them. I doubt that you can measure a person's quality through a TV screen, and I think the extreme double standards is very unfair. Trimble's own statement in 2009 that "...I very much think this would not be happening if I was a man" has been much proven today, judging from the sharp difference in public opinion towards Guttenplan today.
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