I complained to the BBC for not accurately reporting on the Zoe Watts case. This is the response I received:
"We note your concerns about the way we refer to Zoe Watts in this article.
We give a lot of consideration to issues where the editorial choices we make may attract differences of opinion. We include guidance for preferred terms in our published style guide - this is for transparency and to promote consistency across our output. The guidance for how to refer to trans people is as follows:
“Transgender, or trans, is a good umbrella term for a person whose gender identity differs from their sex at birth. A person born male who lives as a female, would typically be described as a “transgender woman” and would take the pronoun “she”. And vice versa. Use the term and pronoun preferred by the person in question. If that’s unknown – apply that which fits with the way the person lives publicly. If reporting on someone who is making their transition public, it may be appropriate to refer to their previous identity to help audience understanding. It may also be appropriate to refer to a transition to make sense of some stories.”
We hope this provides some clarity and assistance. We would also like to stress that we do value the points that you have raised. All complaints are sent to senior management and your points were included in our overnight reports, which are among the most widely read in the BBC. Feedback helps inform our decisions about current and future content, and our style guide is kept under regular review.
Thank you again for taking the time to write in."
I'm concerned about this line A person born male who lives as a female - First of all, what does living as a female mean? Because they obviously don't mean experencing all of the sex-based misogyny that comes with being born female. I'm also intruiged at their decision to refer to sex here instead of gender, usually it's the other way round.
Has anyone else complained to the BBC and recieved a more useful response?
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Feminism: Sex & gender discussions
Response from the BBC on innacurate reporting complaint
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pollypocketlover · 22/07/2021 20:32
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