A decade of progress
I was quietly tutting at the seemingly inevitable misogynistic slant to coverage of a bright young woman doing well at University Challenge. (Even in this relatively balanced story the choice not to include Lauren Schwartzman in the photo speaks volumes.) And I was struck by déjà vu:
Sarah Fitzpatrick, the captain of Magdalen College, Oxford’s University Challenge team, attracts a small but discerning fan club. ‘I’ve had a lot of mail – there are a lot of peculiar people out there,’ she says. University Challenge isn’t usually a showcase of glamour, but 23-year-old Miss Fitzpatrick gladdens the eye of its mordant presenter, Jeremy Paxman. ‘He’s extremely nice – a perfect gentleman,’ Sarah discloses. —Daily Mail, March 6, 1998
Difficult to ignore at the centre of the Magdalen team is the beautiful and horrifyingly clever Ms Fitzpatrick, a team captain who can make the phrase ‘We don’t know’ sound like an invitation to a Mensa pyjama party. Even Paxman falls in her sway, exhibiting moments of unsurpassed sensitivity and gentleness. Fitzpatrick’s right-hand man is a maths genius called Jones. It is to be hoped that this shiny couple don’t ever involve themselves in unprotected sexual congress; the prospect of a strawberry-blonde intellectual master race is too much to countenance at this juncture. —Observer, April 19, 1998
Forget the Spice Girls. Now Britain has an idol with brains. One shining talent blazed through last night’s final of University Challenge when Magdalen College, Oxford, saw off Birkbeck, London in a tense final. Magdalen captain Sarah Fitzpatrick answered a barrage of questions with a charming smile and the awesome rapidity of a Gatling gun. … Her appearances in the series have brought sacks of fan mail. ‘It’s been very nice, nothing peculiar. Most of them have been lovely and flattering.’ —Evening Standard, April 22, 1998
That [Birkbeck] narrowly failed to win was due entirely to the sparkling leadership of Sarah Fitzpatrick, beauteous captain of Magdalen, Oxford. Her unashamed and aggressive flirting achieved what no one in history – not even John Redwood at his most coquettish – had done before: she pierced Jeremy Paxman’s titanium shell to the point at which, even after prolonged Magdalen dithering, the words ‘come on, come on’ seemed to die in his throat. —Evening Standard, April 23, 1998
Magdalen Fitzpatrick looked like a debutante who fronted an indie band in her spare time. The coquettish way in which she mewed ‘I don’t know’ and ‘We don’t understand’ even had Paxman turning pink with pleasure. Her sidekick De Jongh dozed through most of the contest, rousing himself only at a French film question, flicking away his fringe, yelping ‘Catherine Deneuve’ and leering aristocratically. —Scotland on Sunday, April 26, 1998
I can’t decide what irritates me more: that ‘clever girl exists’ is still news, or that in nearly eleven years it’s got no better.
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