Non binary 12 year old on Today Program

Wow @terryleather - I noticed that. Nick Robinson was definitely making a point there. Good for him.

Wait for the TRA complaints to start pouring in

Beware of rose tinted hindsight. My friends and I successfully campaigned to be allowed to do woodwork/TD/metalwork at secondary in the early eighties. Much to the chagrin of the boys who were suddenly required to study cooking & needlework.

But it was a limited victory. I was excluded from share club and computer programming.

And for all the love of Bowie and Adam Ant, Boy George was routinely referred to by some very in PC names and very few gay actors and pop stars were able to be open about their sexuality.

It was - and still is - hard when children don't fit the approved stereotype. And that shames all of us.

That was really good. Stephanie really knows her stuff. The head bloke did not seem as well informed.

Girls did tech, boys home ec in my day.

But, when it came to PE no football or rugby for girls (which didn't bother me as I hate team sports) yet they made us play mixed hockey!

Nor were girls considered capable of running 400m for some reason. 200m and 800m were deemed OK for girls but not 400m. Never did really understand that one.

☝🏻I do appreciate that even though this was AFN, deepest Scotland, I was luckier than a lot of girls. My big big sister now drives tractors.

I did techy drawing and physics... Girls and boys had to do sewing and woodwork...I never liked footie ( or did my brother) or hockey/netball for that matter (played netball and threw javelin/ran for the school - I got to throw javelin with the boys class. I also studied graphics afterwards.

I was actually a very girly wee girl too! Then I became very Feminist (when it was for the girls)...

I’d prefer to kick against sexism than all this nonsense today to be honest.

Just caught the end of this.

Stephanie came over very well as she always does and got some great points in.

The interviewer asked about pressure groups with an agenda being in schools - I was quite surprised by that what with it being the BBC - however the headteacher present seemed to dismiss that suggestion

Stephanie D-A was fab - respectful but very clear about the difference between sex and gender.

*Angie

Dont kid yourself @LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD They might have let me climb trees but I wasnt allowed play football, or study graphic design, or woodwork (it was textile or parentcraft for girls), and computer club was only for the boys. Meanwhile the choir was girls only, drums were the only instrument boys ever played and any boy who tried to join a ballet or tap class would probably have been kicked to death on the playground.

Arnold same here - the brilliant picture of Bowie & Angeles in the park. Him in a beautiful dress & full face An gie in a beautiful suit. Fuck where'd it all go wrong ?

Hey I’m loitering with a coffee.

SEX SEX SEX not gender hahahahaha hahaha.

Stephanie Davies Arai fantastic on the Today programme at 8:50 am

Even my very macho brother had waist length hair back in the 70s! Dear god my dad even got himself a man bag on France (he thought it was a genius idea)...

We played with action man. We had pogo sticks and robots. We loved meccano and were always climbing trees and making dens one the woods.

Bet he wishes he had that much hair now!!

We didn’t have this new fangled ‘gender’ when I was a kid

Ha! Trans ideologists make me disturbingly nostalgic for the 80s, which were objectively shit.

But, oh my, Adam Ant as a dandy highwayman........I still have a crush near 40 years on.

Ooh they've got Steph Davies-arai on now!

The boy was clearly from his language not a typical “boy” of that age. But the father’s clear insistence on use of “he” and “him” did make me wonder if he buys into it. But then , why let him on TV?

We didn’t have this new fangled ‘gender’ when I was a kid 😉. Bowie wore a dress, every glam band seemed to have a bloke in heels and flounces, and even Dylan wore eyeliner...

My sister was a major league tomboy (and would have been ripe for these barmpots If they’d been around and if my parents had been idiots).

That item made me really cross. I dont blame the child for not identifying as either gender, I always felt like a really crummy girl because I never liked anything that girls were supposed to like (except, later, boys). But I just wish, wish, wish the BBC would distinguish bw gender and sex and structure interviews accordingly.

I am curious as to what the 8:50 slot will be (about to walk into office...)

And before there was someone on (talking about isis captives) about how these people get radicalised as teenagers but grow out of it by mid 20s.

I was half listening but heard this comment.

This habit of using children to push agendas is quite sinister.
Yes.

Interesting timing for Today programme.

It comes just as Cambridge Scholars has managed to overcome the long drawn out legal wrangles and can now publish Heather Brunskell-Evans' new book, Inventing Transgender Children and Young People.

He is a child. He has come across this idea and thinks ‘I don’t fit in with boys*, must be a ‘they’ then’. He is reading this - most likely online, or getting info from charities/lobby groups who seem hell bent on shoving kids into gender boxes.

*I am assuming he is more of a bookworm/computer kid and not football mad, shoot em up gamer (or whatever boys are supposed to like). Of course he isn’t interested in girls (or boys) yet as he is only 12 (although some may, and others will pretend) and as with most kids ‘eeeooowwww I’m never going to have a girlfriend/boyfriend/get married’.

What stood out for me was the father saying "it's easier for us as well" ! FFS NO - be a parent. It's easier to let your child not go into school/ stay out all night/ smoke weed all day/eat shite morning noon & night.

But we try to make sure they do the right thing, because that's it sometimes holding the line because we DO know what's best. I hate that already this little boy want out of the 'man box' cos he sees no place for himself

If the lad is so stunningly mature and brave surely he can handle searching questions.

Could it be that he is not, in fact, mature and brave at all?

This habit of using children to push agendas is quite sinister.