Outrage as BBC chooses panda as 2011 female face

LONDON, (Reuters) – The BBC has ignited its  second sexism spat in the space of a month by choosing a panda  as one of its 12 female faces of the year.
Last week, it was criticised for choosing its annual BBC  Sports Personality of the Year from an enirely male shortlist.
The decision to include the face of Tian Tian (Sweetie), a  female panda whose arrival at Edinburgh Zoo on loan from China  generated huge publicity earlier this month, has provoked a  storm of angry tweets, including one from former deputy Prime  Minister John Prescott.
“So the BBC couldn’t find a woman for Sports Personality  of the Year, but they could find a panda for a female face of  2011,” he wrote.
Labor MP Stella Creasy also tweeted: “No offence to Sweetie  — sure a lovely panda and best in the class etc — but clue is  in the title ‘women’ not ‘female of the species’ of the year.”
The corporation has also been criticised because a quarter  of the female faces this year were chosen for their involvement  in marriages.
They include Prince William’s new sister-in-law Pippa  Middleton, South African Charlene Wittstock who married Prince  Albert of Monaco and Spanish billionaire the Duchess of Alba,  85, who tied the knot with a civil servant 24 years her junior.
Among the BBC’s male faces of year were “King’s Speech”  actor Colin Firth, Tunisian Mohammed Bouazizi whose suicide  sparked the Arab Spring revolutions and golfer Rory McIlroy who  became the youngest player to win the U.S. Open.
Bob Chaundy, the freelance journalist who wrote the piece  for the BBC, responded on Twitter: “I didn’t choose the BBC  women faces of the year subjects — just wrote them. Two black  eyes from wife though. Pandamonium!”
The BBC pointed out this was not the first time an animal  had appeared in its Faces of the Year lists.
“Including Sweetie (Tian Tian) as one of the annual  headline makers was a light-hearted addition to the list, and  this isn’t the first time it has featured a non-human,” it said  in a statement.
“In 2009, Benson the Carp, a much-caught giant fish, was  August’s entry on the male list and last year Peppa the Pig was  on the female list for April.”