Presenter Piers Morgan could not help taking the bait as he ranted about a ‘fisherperson’ job title on GMB today.
The TV host seethed about gender neutral job titles on the ITV breakfast show earlier today (Tuesday, November 17).
He was incensed by a reference to ‘fisherpeople’ rather than ‘fishermen’ during a BBC Radio 4 item about Brexit.
And that set off a diatribe about gendered titles that recurred throughout this morning’s show.
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Piers even pulled the conversation back to the subject as Dr Hilary Jones was discussing potential vaccines.
“By the way, who delivers babies. Hilary? Mid-what?” Piers asked out of nowhere.
It is getting ridiculous isn’t it?
“Midwives,” Dr Hilary responded.
But Piers was in the mood to let rip. He replied: “Oh no, not anymore. We can’t be having midwives, they’ve got to go. It is going to have to be ‘midspouses’.
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“Sorry, I’m protesting. I’m furious, I’m enraged. It is disgraceful.”
He moaned: “We’re going to have to change them. Every midwife will have to change their name to ‘midspouse’. That’s how all this works.”
Dr Hilary Jones makes his point
Dr Hilary then got involved. He asked: “Shall we take the ‘broad’ out of British Broadcasting Company? It is getting ridiculous isn’t it?”
Piers continued with the sarcastic tone.
“You can’t have ‘broad’ in broadcasting,” he agreed.
“It’s sexist. [It should be called] the British Dude-casting Company. You can have a broad, you got to have a dude.’”
Dr Hilary protested: “I’m just making a point.”
Susanna Reid looked incredulous
Fellow host Susanna Reid spent several minutes with a fixed grin on her face, as well as other incredulous expressions.
She also seemed exasperated with the discussion on several occasions.
“That’s making it ridiculous,” she reacted to Piers and Dr Hilary at one point.
At 7am Susanna was able to move the subject on by introducing a competition with Andi Peters.
But she was unable to extinguish the discussion entirely – and it popped up again just an hour later.
Indeed, Good Morning Britain production staff managed to source a female fisherperson in real life for the hosts to chat with.
Following the debate about changing the word fisherman to the generic alternative word fisherpeople, @piersmorgan put a call out for a female working on a trawler fishing boat.
Introducing Ashley Mullenger the female fisherman who has no issues with the word fisherman. pic.twitter.com/fkxAsyWrY4
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) November 17, 2020
Susanna reasoned there aren’t many women in trawling so agreed that ‘fishermen’ would still be an appropriate reference.
But trawler Ashley Mullenger from Norfolk said she had no problem with the masculine term applying to her.
“I love it. I don’t see the issue with being called a fisherman when you’re female,” she said.
Ashley also noted she could only think of about six other female fishers in the UK. She added they probably wouldn’t be bothered about gendered job titles.
“There’s really not many,” Ashley said.
“I’ve not asked them [about it] because I don’t think it is that relevant.”
– Good Morning Britain airs on ITV, weekdays, from 6am.
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