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The Misogyny Book Club

The Misogyny Book Club: Episode 2: Sex and Silence

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Episode 2

Episode 2: Sex and Silence

Sex and Silence

BBC Radio 4 - The Misogyny Book Club, Sex and Silence

'Frailty, thy name is woman!' What can Hamlet tell us about attitudes to women today?

Readers discuss Hamlet's attitude to women, in particular their sexuality and women's licence to speak.

Are men afraid of women's sexuality? And if so, why? 

Jo Fidgen and company look for clues in Shakespeare's Hamlet, in the second in a series of programmes exploring misogyny in some of our most read books. When the young prince attacks his mother over starting a new relationship in middle age, he reveals an age-old fear that women have insatiable sexual appetites, and a patriarch's urge to control them. 

Actor Charlotte Cornwell, who played Gertrude in the RSC production of Hamlet, talks about how she identifies with the character and how it felt to be on the receiving end of Hamlet's insults. 

The contributors discuss how women gained a reputation for licentiousness and whether they have ever shaken it off. Their conversation takes in the invisibility of older women in society; the subtle ways in which women are silenced; and the way women police themselves.

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Jo Fidgen and readers take a fresh look at books that contain misogynistic sentiments

Jo Fidgen and a selection of readers take a fresh look at some of our most read books to discover how writers have distilled and influenced the hatred of women over centuries

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Episode 2: Sex and Silence

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