Not our crimes - again! BBC this is a man

I think some articles use wrong pronouns- with a photo of the accused to generate outrage and controversy and get clicks.

Horrific incident and pathetic journalism, it’s a fucking MAN!

"Transgender woman" is only a slight improvement on "woman", I think. Men are not women, of any kind or any description. Unless perhaps we say "Pretend woman".

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/25/transgender-woman-71-slashed-partner-death-samura-sword/

Telegraph article from today avoids she/her pronouns but does call the killer a "transgender wife" which is pretty confusing. Rowland-Stuart has been "deemed unfit to plead following a psychiatric assessment".

Rowland-Stuart had claimed self-defence but "the court was told that recovered internet searches from Rowland-Stuart’s phone in the weeks before the death showed 14 results for swords, including replica swords, curved swords, samurai curved swords, Japanese swords and Japanese sword names"

Nice person!

😮

Interesting background here:

gendercriticalwoman.blog/2024/06/02/joanna-stuart-rowland/

Worse, an advisor on domestic violence.

Not relevant to the thread, but a small win. I have managed to bully, cajole, argue Chat GPT into refering to bloody Dr Upton as he/ him/man. It put up a fight though!

‘Ironic’ is a bit of an understatement!
seems like a bit of a recurring feature in some of these orgs,

Ironic that this person had been a director of the LGBTQ Community Safety Forum in Brighton and Hove.

I got the same response to my complaint. Have contacted them again about it, saying that reporters need to report facts, not feelings, and their editorial guidelines are not fit for purpose, plus many readers won’t know what sex someone is if you say they are transgender or a transgender women.

the BBC is an embarrassing, biased pile of crap.

I honestly don’t think it occurred to them, in their eagerness to not misgender anyone and be super-right on and virtuous, that they were attributing a load of very typically male crimes to women and that women as a group might find that bloody insulting. Especially when they are attacks on women and girls of the type we learn to fear all our lives (I know that wasn’t what happened here).

Maybe the BBC chair Samir Shah has something to do with it as he supported Martine Croxall when she corrected “pregnant people” - they might finally be realising how much they are pissing women off.

Anyway it’s great to see though they need to go a step further and make crystal clear that they mean a man. Lots of people think TW means a biological woman with a trans identity (though the pic helps).

Maybe the BBC are finally getting the message! BBC headlines on this matter, copied from Reddit:

28 May 2024 - Woman, 70, arrested on suspicion of murder (No mentions of transgender, first article)

31 May 2024 - Woman, 70, in court over husband's death (No mention of transgender)

3 June 2024 - Woman, 70, in court accused of husband's murder (Again no mention of transgender)

21 July 2025 - Wife killed husband with samurai sword, court told (Single mention in the article, "is transgender")

22 July 2025 - Wife said 'I had no choice' after killing, jury told (Now "identifies as a transgender woman")

24 July 2025 - Transgender woman, 71, killed partner, jury finds (First word in the title, same "identifies" mention in the article, removes marriage, shifts focus to mental health)

Well well. Here is a new article with a different headline!!

“Transgender woman, 71, killed partner, jury finds”

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7842zygvdzo

I don’t suppose this local story will make the lofty heights of the bbc website - I wonder how they’d style it?
the first report was a manhunt for a guy with a ponytail
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/manhunt-underway-to-find-flasher-who-exposed-himself-in-woodland-near-lancashire-play-area/ar-AA1IWprP

which I’m glad to say has led to the charging of a man. Nothing unusual … except for a name reminiscent of floral fabrics.

hmmmmm
https://www.lep.co.uk/news/man-charged-after-allegedly-exposing-himself-near-childrens-play-area-in-lancasters-williamson-park-5236033

I'm sure I read somewhere that their style guide is under review

Of course headlines are often read in isolation, doesn’t everyone use them to decide which articles to read? What else is their purpose? Titles implying a woman has committed an act of violence - in this case exceptional violence - are much rarer and hence liable to capture more interest than yet another male act of violence.

Complained. I don't expect anything sensible back, mind.

I think they've changed their tune since previous complaints.
I swear I was told they could only report on what the courts told them. I'll have a look for it.

What is the point of having editorial guidelines if your style guide then shreds them.

BBC response to my complaint about this article:

”Thank you for getting in touch about the above article “Wife killed husband with samurai sword, court told” (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy5w6rw33yro)

Some readers were concerned about the fact that Joanna Rowland-Stuart is referred to as a woman and by she/her pronouns throughout. They also objected to the headline referring to Rowland-Stuart as a ‘wife’.

The BBCs style guide states that someone who identifies as a trans should typically be referred to by their preferred pronouns. We therefore use she / her and wife and woman in the article to be in line with our guidelines.

In order to aid clarity for the reader the fact that Joanna Rowland-Stuart is trans is included in the article. It says: “Jurors heard that Ms Rowland-Stuart, who is transgender, married Mr Rowland Stuart, known as Andy, in a civil partnership in 2006.”

Headlines are not meant to be read in isolation and therefore we believe that the audience will not be misled about Joanna Rowland-Stuart being transgender as this is clearly stated in the article.

We are grateful you got in touch about this matter and we value knowing what our audience feels about our content. Feedback is circulated widely and shared with senior managers which helps shape our reporting going forward.

We believe that the article is fair, duly accurate and in line with the BBCs editorial guidelines.”

It's the BBC and the police who are at fault. The BBC are sadly merely reporting the duff info given to them by the police / courts.

So, we need to complain to both. As if we don't have enough to do.

And the police will eventually come back and probably say we can't technically complain as the case doesn't affect us personally. It does my head in.

Maybe they think that by pushing the "we care so much about truth" line we'll all think it must be "true" that this is a woman and stop questioning it.

Dream on BBC!

Yeh forget about it. They’re lost on this.

It's been so freeing to shed the wrong sex pronouns.

Well atleast the male are being honest about his sex but they refer to him with she/her pronouns during the entire article 🙄

Trans woman, 71, 'killed husband by slicing him with a samurai sword' https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14926333/Trans-woman-killed-husband-samurai-sword-court-hears.html?ito=native_share_article-nativemenubutton