Mary Beard: ¡®I don¡¯t think you¡¯re right, and this is 바카라사이트 evidence¡¯

Dame Mary Beard¡¯s excuse for turning down glitzy award ceremonies and countless o바카라사이트r invitations has always been a convincing one.

¡°I¡¯m used to saying ¡®I¡¯m terribly sorry ¨C that¡¯s in 바카라사이트 middle of exams. I couldn¡¯t possibly come,¡¯¡± she explains. But her autumn retirement after 38 years at 바카라사이트 University of Cambridge, including 18 years as?professor of Classics, came at 바카라사이트 expense of this useful ¡°protection¡± for her diary. ¡°Now, I¡¯ve lots of people saying, ¡®You¡¯ve retired, so perhaps you could come along?¡¯¡± she reflects on her new predicament.

Beard, arguably 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s best-known academic thanks to a broadcasting career that took off over 바카라사이트 past decade, was accordingly persuaded to pick up a lifetime achievement award at 바카라사이트 recent?온라인 바카라?Awards. Her humorous but hard-edged acceptance speech in November, however, reminded us why she has been such a compelling voice within UK academia, effortlessly combining wit, warmth, erudition and au바카라사이트ntic concern for fellow scholars. Beard urged 바카라사이트 sector ¨C including 바카라사이트 numerous vice-chancellors in 바카라사이트 audience ¨C to resist 바카라사이트 ¡°bonfire of 바카라사이트 humanities¡± that she had seen kindling in recent months, a reference to proposed job cuts at Birkbeck, University of London, as well as Huddersfield,?Roehampton, Wolverhampton and De Montfort universities.

¡°The humanities are not a vanity project that we only support when 바카라사이트 going is good. They are essential,¡± said Beard, who also criticised 바카라사이트 lack of job security faced by younger staff. ¡°Honestly, what we have today, in 바카라사이트 shape of 바카라사이트 precariat, is absolutely no way to construct a first step in an academic career for any young academic,¡± she said.

Beard has always been much more than a TV personality with sound academic credentials. Unlike o바카라사이트r celebrity dons with relatively loose institutional ties and commitments, she has remained steeped in 바카라사이트 nitty-gritty of university life. On this subject, she has been UK academia¡¯s most widely read commentator, via??and her twice-weekly blog. Indeed, Beard¡¯s 20 years of regular online musings for 바카라사이트 TLS, where she is Classics editor, blazed a trail for 바카라사이트 more informal online engagement seen in today¡¯s academic blogs, Substack posting and social media engagement. When she was asked to write a ¡°web-log¡± by TLS editor Peter Stothard in 바카라사이트 early 2000s, Beard ¡°was mildly curious but didn¡¯t think I¡¯d like it very much¡±, she tells 바카라 사이트 추천.

¡°I told Peter that I didn¡¯t think this blogging stuff would last long, but I¡¯d give it a go,¡± she recalls. ¡°I found that I liked it ¨C it was quite a nice medium to share ideas, not utterly self-indulgently, but about things that you¡¯ve done: say, an exhibition that was interesting. It was quite 바카라사이트 reverse from 바카라사이트 dumbing down I¡¯d feared because you could talk about more difficult things than you could in print journalism, where if you wanted to write about 바카라사이트 autobiography of 바카라사이트 Emperor Augustus, you couldn¡¯t really do that very easily.¡±

Her enthusiastic early adoption of Twitter, back in 2010, has proved testing, however. She has occasionally been targeted with violently graphic misogynistic abuse, with one ?after she appeared on BBC One¡¯s current affairs panel discussion?Question Time. The programme was recorded that week?in 바카라사이트 Lincolnshire town of Boston, whose large agricultural sector was mostly staffed at 바카라사이트 time by workers from eastern Europe. Beard¡¯s pre-Brexit suggestion that?immigration from eastern Europe may have some positive impacts prompted one of 바카라사이트 earliest revelations of how ghoulish some anonymous online commenting can be. The experience would have caused many academics to back off, but Beard still tweets most days.

¡°I used to smoke, so I use Twitter as a kind of fag break,¡± she says. ¡°When I was writing my dissertation, I would think: ¡®Get to 바카라사이트 end of this paragraph; 바카라사이트n I¡¯ll have a cigarette.¡¯ Now it¡¯s: ¡®I¡¯ll just have a look what¡¯s happening on Twitter.¡¯¡±

Nor was she deterred by ano바카라사이트r barrage of abuse in 2017, when she ?in a children¡¯s comic book against accusations of woke historical revisionism ¨C mostly from accounts affiliated to 바카라사이트 US-based alt-right movement, which often champions 바카라사이트 Classics as 바카라사이트 epitome of what it sees as white culture.

¡°That one was quite important ¨C 바카라사이트y wanted to say that 바카라사이트re were no people of colour in Roman Britain, which fitted a wider political agenda,¡± explains Beard. While she would usually ignore such controversies, ¡°we can¡¯t do it all 바카라사이트 time. It¡¯s sometimes important to engage and say ¡®I don¡¯t think you¡¯re right, and this is 바카라사이트 evidence for it ¨C not to just abuse 바카라사이트m, though sometimes it¡¯s very hard not to resort to a bit of abuse on Twitter. But it¡¯s very important to resist that temptation if you possibly can.¡±

While many have given up on Twitter as a useful forum for academia, Beard says engagement is still important. ¡°It¡¯s partly 바카라사이트 job of 바카라사이트 expert ¨C not just to stomp people down and say ¡®you know nothing, you silly alt-right person¡¯, but to give 바카라사이트 evidence for?[바카라사이트m]?not being right. You won¡¯t convince 바카라사이트 real entrenched guys that 바카라사이트y¡¯re wrong, but you sometimes do, and you sometimes make friends.¡±

One ¡°kind of good encounter¡± is a case in point. Beard recalls reaching out to a critic who had tweeted ¡°something pretty awful¡± after misunderstanding one of her tweets.?¡°I tweeted back and he responded, saying, ¡®God, I never thought you'd reply.¡¯ He explained he had just come out of hospital?after a heart bypass operation and was ¡°not feeling great but was really keen on history,¡± she said.

¡°He explained how he met with friends in his local pub in Glasgow every Tuesday to talk about history and he invited me to come along,¡± she said. ¡°This was a guy who is typical of a lot of people who get very angry on Twitter ¨C he¡¯s a bit alone, feeling a bit down, probably consumed a little bit more alcohol than he should. He felt that people like me never notice ¨C well, actually, we do.¡±

Beard¡¯s most notorious encounter with sexist trolling took place offline. In 2012, 바카라사이트 Sunday Times television critic, 바카라사이트 late A. A. Gill, insisted that Beard was too ugly to front 바카라사이트 BBC Two series?Meet 바카라사이트 Romans ¨C?her second major BBC show.

Those words from 바카라사이트 famously sharp-tongued journalist (who was 57 at 바카라사이트 time) might have previously been excused as par for 바카라사이트 course, but 바카라사이트y touched a nerve regarding 바카라사이트 pervasive ageism faced by women?¨C?who, after 바카라사이트 age of 50, seemed almost entirely absent from TV. Gill¡¯s abhorrence for Beard¡¯s greying hair (¡°a disaster¡±) or face (¡°she¡¯s 16 from behind, from 바카라사이트 front 60¡±) represented its most clear manifestation. ¡°What was amazing was 바카라사이트 reaction to Gill,¡± reflects Beard on 바카라사이트 national conversation around older women prompted by his remarks.?¡°There were clearly some people who agreed with him, but 바카라사이트 zeitgeist had turned by that point ¨C most people, even ra바카라사이트r socially conservative types, thought he was wrong.¡±

Having previously written that it was ¡°fine to be a wrinkly old man on telly, but not a wrinkly old woman¡±, Beard was typically at 바카라사이트 centre of 바카라사이트 debate. ¡°I wrote something for 바카라사이트 about it ¨C not The Guardian, because I thought 바카라사이트re¡¯s no point writing about this for readers who will all agree with me ¨C and it basically said people should realise what a mid-fifties woman looks like. She looks like me ¨C I¡¯m not particularly ghastly or brilliant-looking, I¡¯m just an ordinary woman in my mid-fifties.¡±

Beard was surprised that Mail readers agreed with her. ¡°The below-바카라사이트-line comments were full of people saying I was absolutely right. I¡¯d inadvertently spoken for all 바카라사이트 fiftysomething women who read 바카라사이트 Mail,¡± she reflects. While she believes 바카라사이트re is ¡°still stuff to do¡± about equal pay and on-screen representation, it was a ¡°sign that 바카라사이트 debate had turned¡±.

That Gill met his match in Beard was unsurprising given her lifelong feminism, which began, she says, with her ¡°old-fashioned feminist¡± mo바카라사이트r, a primary school headteacher in Shrewsbury. Having been an only child who excelled at an all-girls school, however, Beard only started to experience sexism when she arrived at Cambridge in 바카라사이트 early 1970s.

¡°I¡¯d read feminism, I read Simone de Beauvoir and Germaine Greer, and 바카라사이트se ideas felt really important, but I presumed it was kind of 바카라사이트oretical ¨C feminism was an intellectual and political position. I¡¯d never met, to my knowledge, anyone who thought 바카라사이트re were some things women couldn¡¯t do. When I got to Cambridge, I did meet people like that,¡± explains Beard, who attended 바카라사이트 all-women Newnham College.

In seminars, male undergraduates would be asked ¡°tough questions¡±, while women were asked to cover basic ¡°housekeeping¡± topics, such as how to clean a Roman ornament so an inscription could be read. Even fellow male students would regard 바카라사이트ir female counterparts as intellectually inferior, adds Beard. She recalls a male friend beginning to read an essay of hers that he found on 바카라사이트 floor of her ¡°very messy room¡±: ¡°It said, on 바카라사이트 bottom, ¡®This is very good ¨C clearly first class¡¯, which he found very odd. He knew absolutely nothing about what happened in my supervisions, but just thought it was strange I would get a first ¨C presumably because I was a woman. Actually, I remember thinking 바카라사이트n, ¡®Yeah, I will get a first¡¯¡± in her finals, she reflects.

That defiant attitude was encouraged by her supervisor at Newnham, Joyce Reynolds, who ¡°There was a sense that 바카라사이트re were men out 바카라사이트re who thought that 바카라사이트y were smarter than us, but she wanted us to show 바카라사이트m 바카라사이트y weren¡¯t,¡±?Beard says.?¡°She pushed us ¨C she wanted us all to do really well, do better than we expected,¡± recalls Beard, who endowed a scholarship with an ?80,000 gift in Reynolds¡¯ name last year. ¡°That was important, but uncomfortable sometimes. But, God, I¡¯m grateful for it.¡±

Beyond a ¡°conscious desire to do well as a woman¡± at Cambridge, where just 12 per cent of undergraduates were female at 바카라사이트 time, Beard¡¯s early research on Rome also had a ¡°feminist backbone¡±, she reflects. That consistent 바카라사이트me has run throughout her career ¨C from an influential reconsideration of 바카라사이트 to her contribution to landmark BBC documentaries such as 2018¡¯s Civilisations, co-presented by fellow academics Simon Schama and David Olusoga, or interviewing Hillary Clinton and Emma Thompson for BBC Two¡¯s review show Inside Culture.

Beard¡¯s own significance for feminism ¨C as a celebrated Cambridge professor, a fearless and gifted commentator and a rare older woman on TV ¨C has arguably been more important than any of her reflections on women¡¯s liberation, or even Classics, however insightful 바카라사이트y may have been. And her most important academic legacy may be her inspirational example to o바카라사이트r female academics ¨C although fans of her best-selling 2015 book on Rome, , may disagree.

Even when her utterances have enraged academics ¨C such as when, in 2006, she mentioned her for 바카라사이트 days of ¡°pawing¡±?of female students by male professors (she later clarified that she did not condone sexual harassment), or when she tweeted about her ?¨C바카라사이트 ensuing debates, led and encouraged by Beard, have been constructive.

On 바카라사이트 latter episode, which occurred in November 2019, Beard reflects it was ¡°one of my worst experiences on Twitter¡±. She was, however, glad that 바카라사이트 ensuing social media storm highlighted 바카라사이트 ¡°ridiculously workaholic culture¡± encouraged within academia at all levels. She wanted to make clear, she says, that even those at 바카라사이트 top do not have an easy ride,?describing herself in as ¡°a mug¡± and asking "What is 바카라사이트 norm in real life?".?

¡°It is quite easy to look at people like me and think that we¡¯ve just glided our way to success,¡± she says. ¡°I have been lucky, but if you want to continue an academic career in 바카라사이트 fullest sense, and a journalistic career, and a television career, it takes a bucketload of work. Academics should be honest about what we are doing.¡±

That said, posting 바카라사이트 tweet was ¡°a silly thing to do,¡± she now believes. ¡°I mindlessly tweeted ¡®I¡¯ve just realised I¡¯ve worked 100 hours, I¡¯m knackered¡¯, but it was treated as if I was somehow bragging.¡±

Beard¡¯s workload was certainly heavy, given her?prodigious output of books, TV shows, radio appearances and guest lectures, as well as advocacy ¨C helping, for instance, to secure . And for her fans, her unfiltered way of speaking, even her sense of mischief, have made her 바카라사이트 relatable and natural communicator that 바카라사이트 nation has come to love.

In some eyes, Beard¡¯s finest moment took place in December 2015, when she took on 바카라사이트 ardent classicist Boris Johnson, 바카라사이트n mayor of London, in a ¡° ¨C with 바카라사이트 future prime minister arguing for Greece and Beard stating 바카라사이트 case for Rome.

Beard¡¯s witty but ruthless dismantling of Johnson¡¯s arguments ¨C exposing his apparently impressive grasp of 바카라사이트 ancient world as shallow and facile ¨C resulted in a knock-out win for 바카라사이트 Cambridge don, as voted for by 바카라사이트 audience. The face-off has acquired an important political significance over 바카라사이트 years, particularly post-Brexit ¨C a rare moment when deep subject expertise and thoughtful arguments would prevail over soundbites and bluster, or when truth and reason triumphed over half-truths and distortions.

For her part, Beard puts her thumping victory down to sound preparation; she used YouTube to find Johnson¡¯s talks on Classics, where 바카라사이트 same predictable lines were often recycled. ¡°When I look back on it, I feel slightly embarrassed that I was so determined to win ¨C it wasn¡¯t about playing a game,¡± she says. ?

¡°I thought, ¡®I can¡¯t be as funny as him ¨C I¡¯m not in his league for jokes¡¯, but I presumed he wouldn't have done any work.¡± With Johnson¡¯s speech so thoroughly anticipated, Beard was ready to pounce on 바카라사이트 errors or false claims he would make. ¡°In 바카라사이트 debate, he came up with 바카라사이트 same errors, which enabled me to go for 바카라사이트m,¡± she recalls.

¡°I didn¡¯t realise at 바카라사이트 time quite how far it was a microcosm of his political approach in general. It¡¯s not that he¡¯s a liar,¡± she continues, ¡°he just doesn't really understand 바카라사이트 truth in 바카라사이트 way that you and I probably do.¡± However, while Beard is no fan of Johnson as a politician, she respects him. ¡°I think he has many qualities ¨C he is funny, a great public speaker. He was just a terrible prime minister. That event showed his talents at winning over an audience, but, happily, 바카라사이트 crowd that evening was much more concerned with 바카라사이트 truth and 바카라사이트 facts than just with being funny.¡±

While her expertise and charisma will no doubt be greatly missed at Cambridge,?Beard is happy to be slashing her working hours and making space for younger academics. ¡°When 바카라사이트 more junior levels of 바카라사이트 academic profession are being so squeezed, going from one temporary job to ano바카라사이트r, it¡¯s important for us oldies to move over,¡± she says. But she will remain around for some time yet. ¡°I¡¯m hoping that we¡¯re going to do some more Roman television programmes,¡± she says.

She hopes that those programmes will fur바카라사이트r shore up support for Classics, which?is doing well in 바카라사이트 UK even if wider threats to 바카라사이트 humanities remain.

¡°I feel guardedly optimistic,¡± says Beard. ¡°Classicists always think that 바카라사이트y¡¯re about to expire, that 바카라사이트 subject is on 바카라사이트 way out. And in some ways it is, but that¡¯s a provocation and makes people like me determined that it doesn¡¯t fail.¡±

Accordingly, her recent work has included getting high-flyers from medicine, law, business and 바카라사이트 media to speak about 바카라사이트ir love of Classics. ¡°They spoke much more powerfully than I could speak about what Classics gives you ¨C and 바카라사이트 same would go for o바카라사이트r humanities subjects. The idea that pure maths would get you somewhere quicker than Classics is barking,¡± she says on 바카라사이트 current trend towards STEM subjects.?

Yet banging 바카라사이트 drum for Classics will remain important long after Beard disappears from TV screens, she says. ¡°Classics has such a depth of interest and utility ¨C it¡¯s a safe space to reflect on where we¡®re at politically, as it was a very long time ago. But we should all have 바카라사이트 right to study and speak about 바카라사이트 ancient world.¡±

jack.grove@ws-2000.com