Like Rebecca Nicholson (True crime looks great on TV. Murder victims don’t, 7 August), I too am tired of “seeing women’s battered corpses on screen”. But I’m also tired of unnecessary newspaper captions like that under the picture of Chloe Ayling (Report, 7 August): “When I woke up I was in a car boot with my wrists and ankles tied.” Kidnap and people trafficking are serious crimes which should be reported, but the amount of detail is unnecessary.
Given the number of reports of misogyny in the same edition – Google’s anti-diversity manifesto; the abuse of Professor Mary Beard; the V&A showing breasts on statues while ordering a mother feeding her child to cover up; the misleading headline that a 4% majority of female magistrates (while the number of female high court judges remains under a third) is the leading factor for the low numbers from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds (when employment, issues over the ability of younger people to commit their time, reaching out to different cultures, improving disabled access and lengthy recruitment procedures have also been identified as factors) – I would have hoped that the Guardian would think carefully before printing gratuitous detail when the sense of unease about being female can be burdensome enough already.
Libby Ruffle
Woodbridge, Suffolk
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