"Operation C***", a strategy of social exclusion designed to assert those deploying it as alpha males, was so successful it managed to alienate the audience for the reality TV show on which it appeared (Eden's Valley Boy behaviour is horrifying but it's all too familiar in the real world, Week in perspective, August 13). "Misogynistic stuff goes on," wrote Vicky Allan, "anywhere in which men's bonding is based on a macho hierarchy." Not a great prognosis for female personnel working in the security industry in all its forms, then.

The exodus of women from the show mid-stream was particularly unfortunate given that their role, according to the pre-troglodyte philosophy of "Operation C***", was to "stay at home sewing and waiting to be shagged". One can only hope that a supply of ice-cold waterfalls in Ardnamurchan provided an adequate substitute.

Vicky Allan suggested the motivation behind "Operation C***" was "individualism and self-preservation". More typically, social exclusion is spawned by self-affirmation and sadism. Where people find little in themselves to like, they console themselves with the hatred of others, with Charlottesville being a case in point.

Archie Beaton

Inverness