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Dare you dress to be different? Reacting to cancer diagnosis

Dare you dress to stand out from the crowd? A British Heart Foundation survey reveals that a third of women secretly wish they had the confidence to wear red. With Jenni Murray.

Dare you dress to stand out from the crowd? A survey by the British Heart Foundation reveals that a third of women secretly wish they had the confidence to wear red. So what's holding many of us back, from being sartorially more daring?

Being told you have cancer is probably one of the toughest things any of us have to hear, but while a couple might sit in front of the same oncologist and hear the same news, the way they understand and interpret the diagnosis can be very different. Next Monday is World Cancer Day and its theme this year is all about busting the myths ..We hear from Christine and her husband Ian who both interpreted the news of Christine's cancer in very different ways.

The new Super League season is kicking off, but only one top flight rugby league club has a woman on its board of directors. Award winning business woman and entrepreneur Kate Hardcastle joined the board of the Bradford Bulls in January. She's a lifelong fan of the club, watching them for the first time aged just two years old, and she's the first female director they've employed in the their history.

Scandinavian women are praising the way that TV heroines like the fictional Danish prime minister in Borgen and the Swedish detective Saga Noren (as well as Sarah Lund of course) have put an end to the old blonde stereotype of the sexy, scantily dressed, up-for-anything Scandinavian woman.

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58 minutes

Clip

Chapters

  • Being Told You Have Cancer

    Husband and wife Christine and Ian Treanor, and Lesley Howells, Maggie’s lead psychologist

    Duration: 12:37

  • The Stereotype Of The Scandinavian Woman

    Daily Telegraph columnist Cristina Odone, and political editor Eva Cooper

    Duration: 10:00

  • Kate Hardcastle

    Kate Hardcastle – the only woman on the board of a top flight rugby league club

    Duration: 08:27

  • Dare You Dress To Be Different?

    Professor Emma Tarlo of Goldsmiths University & image consultant Pat Henshaw

    Duration: 09:55

Dare You Dress To Be Different?

The British Heart Foundation are encouraging us all to this Friday, as part of National Heart Month. But that might be a big ask for some. While 28% of women said that red made them feel more confident, 37% also admitted to secretly wishing they were brave enough to wear the colour that’s associated with romance and power. It seems that when it comes to our clothes, both men and women prefer to blend in, rather than stand out. To discuss the art and attitude of dressing to be different, Jenni is joined by Emma Tarlo, Professor of Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London and by image consultant Pat Henshaw.

Kate Hardcastle

The new Super League season kicks off this weekend, but only one top flight rugby league club has a woman on its board of directors. Award winning business woman and entrepreneur joined the board of the Bradford Bulls in January. She’s a lifelong fan of the club and joins Jenni to discuss her ambitions for its future.

Being Told You Have Cancer

Being told you have cancer is probably one of the toughest things any of us have to hear, but while a couple might sit in front of the same oncologist and hear the same news, the way they understand and interpret the diagnosis can be very different. Next Monday is World Cancer Day and the aim is to demystify cancer. To coincide with the event, Maggie’s, a charity which helps people with the illness, is releasing information they have gathered about how people deal with the news and how to cope in that situation.  We hear from Christine and her husband Ian Treanor who both interpreted the news of Christine’s cancer in very different ways and from  Lesley Howells, the lead pyschologist at  Maggie’s .

The Stereotype of the Scandinavian Women

This weekend will see the current series of Borgen come to an end on 91Èȱ¬ Four. It features Birgitte Nyborg as the fictional Danish prime minister and her character is the latest in a burgeoning number of tv programmes and books that are helping to overturn the image of the stereotypical Scandinavian woman. For decades, they've been pigeonholed as blonde, sexually promiscuous good-time girls with little in the way of intelligence. So, have the likes of Sarah Lund and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo finally put to rest the old stereotype? Jenni is joined by Daily Telegraph columnist Cristina Odone, who for years has been reticent to admit to her Swedish heritage and by political editor Eva Cooper, who thought that the stereotype was a joke, until she left her homeland of Sweden.

Broadcast

  • Fri 1 Feb 2013 10:00

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