Miriam Margolyes in the nude helps expose hypocrisy about sex, sexiness and female empowerment – Kate Copstick

Women who appear in any form of media linked to sex are regarded as anything from victims to airheaded narcissists

Female empowerment in the Western world is a funny old thing. We have come a long, long way since the Pankhurst's Suffragettes risked life and liberty to get us the vote. Much has changed since Germaine Greer led all thinking women to sacrifice the pertness of their decolletage upon the flaming pyres of female emancipation.

These were passionate, angry, powerful days. Big battles fought and won (ish). The law has bent to the will of women who battled for their rights consistorial, parental, financial, political, religious and even gynaecological and obstetrical. But legal rights, while essential, are not everything for all women. Not where 'empowerment' and respect are concerned.

I was delighted, thrilled and awestruck to see, in the latest Vogue, looking mightily happy to be there, the human treasure which is Miriam Margolyes. Not just Miriam, but the naked Miriamettes. Semi-obscured by patisserie, but untrammelled by any of the generally expected coverings of the octogenarian boobery.

The response from women everywhere and of every colour on every spectrum has been sheer delight and enthusiastic admiration. Even respect. Words like “powerful”, “brave”, and “inspiring” were lavished on both Miriam and Vogue. Body positivity made flesh. I am not disagreeing, but then, truth be told, Miriam could be posed chopping the head off a baby rabbit and I would still love her.

We have already enthusiastically feted the cast of Calendar Girls, and decided that this was A Paean of Praise to womanly flesh, past the first flush of youth and into the many flushes of menopause. Empowering. Currently, Miriam aside, our interest is being piqued into a good-natured frenzy by the sequel to The Full Monty. With the same cast. Just the same flesh flashing, just 26 years older. Brave chaps. And adorable in their bravery.

But surely nudity for money is frowned upon, in an empowered world? Especially where women are concerned? So how can any of this be praiseworthy? Maybe it is about equality of pay? Who can forget the thrill of journalist Sarah Montague's win for BBC women with a massive payout for having been underpaid, for years, in relation to male journalists. Equality of pay is still not a given… even amongst the entertainment elite. Female stars in Hollywood, according to recent research, are paid, on average, a million dollars less, per film, than their male co-stars. Not very empowering…

However – stand by for a shock – there is an industry where women have pretty much always been paid more than men. In the mainstream of this industry, women are paid twice as much as men. They can also, unlike Hollywood, decide what the rules are in terms of what they will do and what they will not do and with whom. Impressive, huh? The adult film industry. Yes. Porn. Still impressed? I thought not.

I have never heard, nor read, any social or political commentator, feminist or otherwise, come anywhere near opining that women in the adult industry are, in any way, empowered. Bear with me… I have a theory.

While Miriam and the Calendar Girls, Lizzo and the rest of the myriad older/plus size/differently abled ladies, who currently appear, in various media, in anything from scanties to nothing, are lauded as being body positive and powerful, brave and taboo-busting, the one thing they are not, generally, described as, is sexy. Or their déshabillé even regarded as in any way sexual. It occurs to me, the more I look at it, that the concept of female 'sexiness' and empowerment are regarded as antithetical.

Women who appear in any form of media linked, primarily, to sex are regarded as anything from victims to airheaded narcissists. The word pornography itself means ‘writing about prostitutes'. Value judgment, much?

When we look at 'female empowerment' in all its flowerings, I have to say I find one thing quite striking. No woman who has achieved that empowerment in a sex-related industry is really respected for it. And that is deeply unfair. And hypocritical.

To be honest, Jacqueline Gold, of Ann Summers’ fame, and Hungarian-Italian politician and former porn star La Cicciolina might not come across as the most obvious role model but are we so genophobic as a society that we judge such women because we disapprove of the nature of their power base? Whatever judgment you may want to make on that industry itself, it does seem unfair. Especially when powerful women in other industries can be so utterly appalling.

At the risk of alienating half the readers of The Scotsman… look at many high-achieving women in politics. Priti Patel and Suella Braverman, anyone? (I imagine my editor may now be breathing a sigh of relief at my careful avoidance of the Nicola situation). I am sure the Pankhursts will be birling in their graves to see what some women are doing with the power they fought so hard to get them. But they are not dismissed, they are not belittled. Loathed maybe. But not belittled.

Yet again, dear readers of the Hootsman, I have digressed. Anyway. I was and am and always will be delighted with Miriam as a cover girl. A visual symphony of iced bun and bap with humour and intelligence. In an era which seems obsessed with the new and the young, she is everything we women should be proud of, and hope for more of. Albeit I hold out little expectation of Gen Z maturing into anything as glorious as a Margolyes.