The BBC has ‘given way to transphobic rhetoric’, according to US activist Erin Reed. Erstwhile celebrity India Willoughby says a new editorial policy is ‘dehumanising’ trans people. Their indignation is reflected across gender activist social media.
Erin and India, in their current iteration at the BBC, are ‘biological males who identify as women’. Earlier this year they would have been trans women. Last year they would have been women.
This in a nutshell is the reason for the anger. Perhaps next year Erin and India will simply be he/hims in BBC copy.
Erin’s piece last week, and India’s latest car protest video, were prompted by the BBC describing Sophia Brooks, who accused Graham Linehan of harassment (he was cleared), as a biological male who identifies as a woman, and using neutral ‘they’ pronouns.
Shock horror as news outlet tells the truth about the sex of an aggressive misogynist man.
But there is a new BBC policy to move towards accuracy. It was shared with us last week that the new informal policy is to use ‘biological male who identifies as a woman’ in every story ‘where it helps the audience understand’.
Golly, helping the audience understand what the hell the story is saying: what a concept!
On the other hand: some teams think facts need a trigger warning (we wrote to them about this), the BBC does still use ‘trans women’ and always qualifies the word male, it still substitutes ‘trans’ for ‘male’ in key stories, its reporting is still patchy (for example its coverage of the puberty blocker trial has been a thin version of what’s needed), drag still holds sway and its regional reporting is still pretty well sunk in a bog of affirmation.
The camel’s nose is under the tent; now let’s move the whole camel in. And since camels are awfully large for most tents, that might move the she/him/they shibboleth out.
The camel’s nose is under the tent; now let’s move the whole camel in. And since camels are awfully large for most tents, that might move the she/him/they shibboleth out.