Female opinion columnists cop it from readers

The original story, as reported in today's Media section of The Australian, tells of the vitriolic hate mail that female columnists often recieve from readers.
A special characteristic of this mail is the fact that readers often rip into the columnists' appearance or percieved sexuality, rather than restricting their bile to the topic at hand (gay marriage, women's rights, politics). Apparently, men seem to be less likely to cop insults about their looks than women (there's that in-built misogyny again).
It reminds me of when Germaine Greer (bless her heart) said that the stingray was probably just getting its revenge on Steve Irwin. News sites' comment pages were packed full of nasty little people swearing themselves blue at her: criticising her right to speak, the fact that she lives in the UK (relevance?), her looks, the fact that she is over fifty, and my personal favourite, questioning what she'd ever done for anyone. "Steve Irwin has done more for the world that you ever will, you old hag". (Quote is unreferenced, but totally accurate...)

It appears then that women writers have to justify not only what they write about, but the very fact that they have a public voice. Personal attacks befall those who write on a controversial topic, and things will be a lot worse if they don't look cute in their byline photographs. Seems that the old misogynist and sexist beliefs are still with us, ingrained in our society.