Britain has a new feminist hero. She’s a diminutive, eye-rolling force of nature. A BS-deflecting defender of the right and ability of women to get stuck into public life as well as any man can. A warrior against the neo-Victorian view of the female sex as fragile and unable to deal with the amorous advances of tragic blokes. It’s Ann Widdecombe, former Tory MP, Catholic convert, borderline national treasure, and now contestant on Celebrity Big Brother.
But this is no ordinary Celebrity Big Brother. It’s a feminist one, a Suffragette one. Yes, the Channel 5 show has gone political, giving a nod to the hundredth anniversary of women in Britain winning the vote (well, women over 30) by making the CBB house an all-female one. (For now. Men will be introduced gradually, like a strange tribe being slowly brought into civilisation.) There’s Widdy, Rachel Johnson, actress Amanda Barrie — 82 and as beautiful as ever — India Willoughby, a trans TV presenter, Maggie Oliver, the Manchester detective who smashed the Rochdale child-grooming ring (how deliciously bonkers that she’s a celeb now), and some younger women I’ve never heard of but who I’m sure are wonderful people.
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