BBC Bitesize is teaching children being a lesbian is about gender

Just updating this with the reply I just received to my second complaint.

Thank you for contacting us again about our Learning for Life and Work content.

The BBC Bitesize team consulted again with the BBC Diversity and Inclusion team and taken advice on the wording used in the Bitesize Learning for Life and Work content and made changes.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

The only change they seem to have made is to add "gender non binary" to "transgender".

When we feel this way, we may be transgender or gender non binary.

Being transgender or gender non binary, however, is natural.

Gender non binary is not the same as gender non conforming. But this distinction seems to be too difficult for them. Not sure where to go next with this.

I've rewritten the gender section for them. I think I'll send this with my follow-up complaint.

Gender
Our sex, which is physical – male or female – is distinct from our gender, which is how society expects us to behave because of our sex. This is sometimes referred to as gender stereotyping.

What this means is that some of us are uncomfortable with the way some people expect us to behave because of our sex.

We may be male, but feel happier wearing feminine clothing and behaving in ways that society thinks are feminine.

We may be female, but feel happier wearing masculine clothing and behaving in ways that society thinks are masculine.

When we feel this way, we are gender non-conforming.

This can be confusing, especially when some members of society expect us to act a certain way based on our sex.

Being gender non-conforming, however, is natural.

Gendered stereotypes are outdated, and many people are trying to remove these expectations so that everyone can be who they really are, without the need for labels.

And just to be clear, that is from their own internal report.

I see Adele Patrick, co-founder of Glasgow Women's Library is on the BBC new Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group.

www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2019/bbc-diversity-inclusion-advisory-group

Glasgow Women's Library does not allow female-only events to take place there.

That is considerably higher than the prevalence of trans people in the general population.

It seems like the way to get on at the BBC is to identify as transgender. Who needs talent?

BBC Diversity Report 2018

2.5% of all staff identify as transgender at the BBC. That rises to 2.8% of senior management roles.

And a hefty 4.1% in the Commissioning Department identify as transgender.

Around 1% of BBC staff identify as lesbian. And obviously that could include some men.

The problem is, by being too polite, it's sometimes hard to get across your message forcefully enough and you can end up skirting round the issues rather than addressing them properly. But maybe that's something I need to work on

Short. Brief. Sentences. To the point. Clear. Firm.

What percentage of BBC employees did that one survey find identifying as trans? I'm curious as to what the tipping point is for capturing control of policy, numbers wise.

A reminder of BBC bias. Will add this latest example:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3296433-BBC-Bias-Collecting-Examples-here

Wow! As an ex-teacher this is gob-smackingly, shockingly, in your face propaganda that is being peddled to vulnerable young people, by adults with an agenda rather than a young person's best interests at heart.

What young people should be told is that it is perfectly fine to behave in ways, and enjoy all manner of things, mo matter what your sex.

The BBC has not learnt from its past mistakes, and has instead been taken over by a rampant narcissistic culture bent on enforcing its ideology.

I'm so angry that they are spouting this mythology to children.

Yes, I'm going to do the same as their arrogance/ignorance is astounding.

OldCrone - that's why I'm not satisfied with the corrections. The transgender/ rigid gender roles crap is still there. I'm going to complain again.

But ‘thinking of yourself as female’ is a fantasy, just as ‘thinking of yourself as a puppy’ or ‘thinking of yourself as... a character in your favourite book’. I don’t think it requires any understanding of what it actually is to be female/a dog/an elf. Though for many ‘more comfortable’ would be better described as ‘sexually aroused’, or for some transmen ‘safer from sexual attention’.

It's a start, and it's good to see that they corrected the sexuality section, but the gender section still needs rewriting.

They're telling children that "We may be male, but feel more comfortable thinking of ourselves as a female." That 'female' is a feeling that anyone, male or female might experience, and that if a male person 'feels female' they are transgender.

And they're still telling children that it's OK that society expects different behaviours from males and females, and if they don't like the way they're treated because of their sex, they can identify as the other sex.

Good that they took out the stuff about outlooks and social norms, but it's not enough.

Well done for getting it corrected. It's a start.

Old Crone, my complaint was similar to yours.

What concerns me is that they were confident because they worked with 'the experts'!

Maybe this includes the same experts who work with Stonewall, including Challenor Jr?

For children, yes I think it is a a bad description. But for adults I am in two minds. It is clear what sex they are and remain and that it is just about how someone feels. Just because someone feels more comfortable thinking of themselves in one way doesn’t mean I need to do anything. I feel more comfortable thinking of them as their sex so presumably my comfort matters too?

Response from the BBC (have NC)

**We were sorry to hear you were unhappy with some of the wording.

We would like to assure you we worked with teachers, CCEA and curriculum experts so we felt confident in publishing the content; however as a result of user feedback like yours, we have now made some corrections.**

Better than before where Lesbisns are people who sometimes like a bit of dick

I'm not happy with the changes either.

I just got the same response as Birdsfoottrefoil.

I complained about the whole 'transgender' explanation, but they've still left most of it as it is. I questioned the sentence "We may be male, but feel more comfortable thinking of ourselves as a female."

This is what I said.

Why would a male person think of himself as a female? He would have to be extremely confused if he thought this: children learn very early in life what sex they are. Perhaps you meant to say that he was more comfortable expressing himself in a feminine way? Female is a biological state and it makes no more sense for a man to feel comfortable thinking of himself as female than it does to say he feels comfortable thinking of himself as a horse.

As I said before, I also questioned the sentence “Society expects us to act a certain way based on our sex.”

I said: In what way? If society expects that, maybe society needs to change. I thought it had, but maybe not at the BBC.

So the BBC is still showing its sexism, since it thinks it's perfectly OK for society to "expect" different behaviours from men and women. And they also think it's "natural" for someone to think that they are something they are not. I'll have to write in again.

Well that’s a result. I’m quite pleased actually, maybe more things can be corrected lol

Wow. Well done women of FWR!

How long until the TRA pile on persuades them to change it back?