Women’s Hour - Transwoman Talking About Misogyny WTAF?

Well. The post sent to the Feedback programme was extremely direct and disapproving. Woman's Hour was invited to send one of their team onto Feedback to respond but they declined, instead sending a statement, which was effectively:

We covered the Supreme Court issue in the past. We don't have to cover the same ground again. The transwoman is such as expert we can't see why people are moaning.

This is currently one of the points of discussion on Feedback on Radio 4.

Woman’s Hour just now was talking about Jenni Murray. They mentioned how she stood up for women. They did not mention that she very bravely stood up for women when she pointed out that (51% of the population) women have inimitable characteristics and lives that are distinct from those of transwomen (males) - and was traduced and villified by the BBC for it.

That was Jenni Murray being brave and standing up for women. Why didn’t they mention this.

Someone Feldman last weekend mentioned it but it was as a blip in an otherwise outstanding career. False. It was an outstanding moment in her career.

My daughter wanted to be a pilot in primary school (still a dream job) the boys said she couldn't because she was a girl. I told her next time they said that to ask them "Why, do you fly a plane with your penis?" They never made that comment again! So proud of her!

My daughter is in primary 6 and has had this numerous times in school about girls not playing being able to play football and other games because girls aren't fast. My daughter called them out for their sexism once only for a teacher to say it wasn't sexist.

Thankfully she came home feeling indignant rather than feeling chastised. This stuff is so normalised. Misogyny is about who it is directed at, not who perpetuates it. It's not one or two experiences over a lifetime that can be condensed into convenient soundbites.

Apologies I have now listened again to the Today programme. The WH producer was Sally Feldman who had nothing but good things to say about Jenni. It was Nick Robinson who raised the "trans" issue with Harriet Harman who was dismissive.

Fuck's sake. Their accusations are admissions, like all narcissists.

By not acknowledging what it did to JM, the BBC is sort of doing a second, post-mortem, cancellation. That's truly shit behaviour.

I heard that too. It was shameful. She made it sound as though that were a blip in an otherwise leading light of advanced feminist thought.

Shame, shame, shame on them yet again. They cannot even report the outrage of what happened to her at the hands of the BBC.

I’d like a FOI done on just how many women wrote to the BBC to say the opposite, to back her up and to complain.
I would not trust them to have kept the evidence though.

The item on Jenni Murray's death in the Today programme this morning had an interview with a WH producer who managed to rather disparagingly imply that Jenni went off the rails with her stance on "trans" matters.

When Jenni Murray's death was announced on the 7 o'clock news last night on Radio 4, did I hear correctly that they said "A former presenter ..."? It seemed to impersonal, so deliberately distancing, surely the norm would be "The former presenter ...".

I took got this feedback - follow up submitted now.

Agreed: there’s a Ted talk by a trans woman (no trans man AFAIAA - unsurprisingly) called Paula Stone Williams which was something of an eye opener for me when I first came across it, about how men talk over or down to her (him) in a way that never happened to him as a man.

I suspect that men’s reaction to a trans man would not be as “accepting” of their new identity as their male “equal” - but I could well be wrong. I’d really love to know.

Jenni 💐💐💐💐💐

I just saw that 💐
Very sad.

@GreyskyblueskyIm sorry to report that Jenni Murray has died - it's been announced just now.

I am surprised by the ‘Professor Emerita’.

That seems the equivalent of ‘actress’, ‘poetess’, or ‘waitress’. Are female professors described this way?

Thanks for contacting us with your concerns about Woman’s Hour broadcast on 17 March.

We’ve shared these with the programme team and senior managers at Radio 4.

Raewyn Connell, Professor Emerita at the University of Sydney, was invited to contribute to the item on misogyny, on the basis of her academic work as a renowned sociologist studying the social theory of masculinity.

Professor Connell shared her academic expertise in this discussion exploring themes raised by the Louis Theroux documentary, Inside the Manosphere, also acknowledging her personal experience as a trans-woman.

Woman's Hour regularly covers the topic of misogyny and includes a range of voices and perspectives.

Professor Sarah Hawkes from the gender equality think tank Global 50/50 also contributed to the discussion.

Thanks for your feedback.

What a lot of words for "we don't give a shit"

Although, quelle horreur! Naughty BBC have put a "-" in between the word trans and woman. Don't they know the rules 🤪

How about took a representational slot that should have been given to a female expert and not a male person who is effectively mansplaining about misogyny, all the while bringing in behaviour towards male people from other male people under the definition of a word that female people need to describe their own oppression?

That this professor exists is not the issue. That a show called 'Woman's Hour' platformed him, when he is himself, guilty of misogynistic behaviour through describing himself as a woman, for a segment on misogyny is a significant issue.

I've reported it for deletion.

Yes, sorry - I thought it was Anthony Halliday A.K.A. Steph Hayden!

Womans Hour and its woke handmaiden presenters disgusts me.

Me too. They could have got Jenni Murray on to talk about it! I wonder why they didn't...

Yes! There's so much scope here for a genuinely interesting piece, so many angles that could have been explored. But the BBC simply reaches for its trans Rolodex and thinks that's its job done 🙄

The transmen input would have been fascinating
They could have got an 80+ woman (as opposed to an 80+ man) on to talk about how misogyny has changed over her lifetime
A second-wave feminist, a Greenham Common activist, a woman at the top of any male-dominated industry you care to mention

All would have been 100 times more interesting and worthwhile than the pontifications of this man.

“Existing while trans” is not the same as mansplaining misogyny to women while putting on a ‘lady’ voice.

Although on second thoughts..

Well done for your brilliant achievement! I bet that was an amazing trip.

Womans Hour and its woke handmaiden presenters disgusts me.