Katherine Ryan - Are Mothers REALLY Unaccountable For Breaking Workplace Rules, Or Is That Just A Lame Excuse?

Katherine Ryan, the Canadian born comedian who has become a recognisable face on British television over the past few years owing to her crude humour, extreme plastic surgery, and strong feminist ideals (or – at least – her interpretation of modern feminism),

has found herself in hot water in the past week after an enquiry into her recent presenting stint on the popular BBC news satire show, Have I Got News For You, where a crude and rather unkind joke about Victoria Beckham was determined to have broken strict editorial codes. And while I normally come down on the side of free speech and artistic licence – particularly in comedy which I personally feel should be largely uncensored, being one of our last bastilles of free expression – this particular controversy has become quite interesting, not for the joke itself, but for the dubious excuse publicly offered by Ryan as to why she apparently sees herself unaccountable for the remarks she chose to make. The joke itself? In short, she took a shot at Victoria Beckham, and suggested that she was a “c*nt”.

Was it kind? No. Was it necessary? No. But did it warrant an official complaint and

an enquiry? In my opinion, no, but nonetheless, it did, and the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (known as the ECU) have upheld the complaint about the “gratuitously offensive” remark broadcast on BBC One (viewers also called in to complain after the broadcast), and concluded that there was no editorial justification for Miss Ryan’s insult. So what’s next? A simple apology, an acknowledgement of the misjudged remark, Katherine learns a simple lesson about editorial codes, and we all move on with our lives? Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? Well, apparently not! Because here’s where it becomes interesting; Ryan has since posted a video of herself on her social media page where she declared that the blame actually doesn’t lie with her, but the fact that she’s a MOTHER!

“I was suffering from a condition called Matrescene”, she insincerely posterised, referencing a largely self-diagnosed condition that relates to women’s hormone fluctuations and loss of grey matter after giving birth. “Should I have left the house?” she pondered, before concluding, “This is gonna (sic) be a tough one for the feminists, because I was a woman going to work, but I did call a woman a c**t”.

What on Earth was she thinking when she said this? Was she even thinking, or was this more “matrescene” from a confused woman who can’t be answerable for the things she says? Rather than simply accept responsibility for the remarks that she chose to make, she’s decided to make a very misguided and contradictory point about womanhood, in a seemingly ill-judged attempt at dodging accountability for her own choice.

For if we’re to take her at her word – that a new mother (there’s no ‘end date’ as to what constitutes as a new mother, by the way) is incapable of adhering to workplace rules, cannot be responsible for the things that she chooses to say and do, and can and will break editorial code without one iota of personal restraint, then what is the solution? What exactly is her point?

Should the BBC stop hiring mothers altogether? Does she even realise that this is what she seems to be suggesting? 

It is worth noting that as recently as 2014, high-profile tribunals and lawsuits led to the BBC’s then-director of television, Danny Cohen, announcing a strict internal policy banning men from being hired exclusively for panel and talk shows, even if they were there on merit. In short, women fought so that the BBC has to hire women, whether popular with viewers or not, to take part in every panel show created and screened by the broadcaster.

They won that controversial decision, and now we have women like Katherine Ryan publicly suggesting that mothers aren’t responsible for breaking editorial codes and broadcasting ethics.

What kind of contradictory message is that!? What is that going to do for the hiring chances of other women in the industry? Was it really so difficult for her to just accept that she chose to break the rules, and simply apologise?

Unsurprisingly, Katherine Ryan’s dubious accountability dodging by virtue of her womanhood has made an unremarkable television moment turn into a viral controversy, and the public’s reaction has been brutal.

My question for Miss Ryan is – can you really call yourself a “feminist” role model, and declare that a woman’s hormones can render her incapable of following simple workplace rules, or is that just a lame, self-serving excuse that is as hypocritical as it is disingenuous?