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Original poster

to find CBBC's 'Just a Girl' programme re a transgender child inappropriate?

234 replies

PatButchersEarring · 10/09/2016 09:15

..totally prepared to be told I am being U on this one, but...

My 7 year old daughter is currently watching 'Just a Girl' on CBBC. This seems to be a dramatisation about a pre-teen, transgender girl- so born a born, but living as a girl. Also either currently or looking into taking hormone blockers.

AIBU to think this is an inappropriate topic for a young age group?

OP posts:
merrymouse · 10/09/2016 13:32

They view programmes of children acquiring magical powers and don't really believe this will happen to them.

This is presented as a real life story though, not fantasy.

HermioneWeasley · 10/09/2016 13:45

OP, are you going to complain to the BBC?

JustDanceAddict · 10/09/2016 13:57

yes, Bombadier, but it's not on Smart TV/iplayer, just on the cbbc website. I've just watched it as I was interested and it's very simplistic. The girl in it is saying she 'liked to play with Barbies' as a young boy therefore she is trans. Really she should've said 'I always felt like a girl and wondered why I had a boy's body', then it would've made sense. Blimey, my DD was never into Barbie, so did that make her want to be a boy? No (although at one point I did wonder if she was happy being a girl or whether she'd be gay). She's gone through puberty now & is quite happy being a girl (loves her body - how many girls say that - she has got an amazing figure though). She did have a trans kid at her school who subsequently left as obviously it doesn't always work out for the best, but DD was quite friendly towards them when they were there.

JustDanceAddict · 10/09/2016 14:01

Is that true re Science museum? I can't believe that! What a load of cock.

BombadierFritz · 10/09/2016 14:04

ah I have seen this then and it was on our normal tv a while back. the barbies comment kind of sticks in your mind! whoever told that kid that girls like barbies/boys dont is an idiot.

HermioneWeasley · 10/09/2016 14:04

Unfortunately just dance the "science" museum are indeed promoting the idea of male and female brains. The male ones being the ones that are good at maths and science, and the female ones being all nurturing, obviously.

It's horrendous

Kit30 · 10/09/2016 14:10

What Prawn said and I'd like to add that I'm a bit sick of 'aunty beeb' and her pc agenda normalising that which is not normal in the correct sense of that word and its amazing ability to rewrite historical fact if it doesn't suit its agenda. Especially when it comes to 'informacial' programming like this when it displays a startlingly blinkered view. This is all generalisation but will now watch this and look at it in context.
Expecting flames now

JustDanceAddict · 10/09/2016 14:20

i actually thought the prog was really boring. There was a 'my life' prog on cbbc on real trans kids that I watched with my DD a couple of years ago (age 12?) and it was very interesting/we had a discussion. I didn't watch it with my then 10 year old son as I felt he was too immature to understand it. At least they were real children who were saying how they felt ie, always felt the opposite sex.

NowtSalamander · 10/09/2016 14:32

www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complain-online/

For people who would like to complain about this programme. I already have, as I have about the other two programmes about trans identity that they've put on CBBC. They all follow the same dangerous narrative about womanbrain and manbrain and "born in the wrong body". This is pseudoscience and should not be presented as factually accurate.

It's utterly, utterly different from gay people on TV and the equivalence should never be made. In fact this narrative is incredibly dangerous for gay people as many children who say they feel like the opposite sex when they are younger end up gay. Some end up straight, of course. A tiny percentage will remain trans as adults - estimates vary between 5 and 20%. This statistic has never been mentioned by the BBC, despite its stated principle of education on this topic.

Greypuddle · 10/09/2016 14:40

HaloSad

NothingIsOK · 10/09/2016 14:48

Hermione " I'm horrified how a generation of children are being sacrificed. Late transitioning cross dressers need the "born in the wrong body" narrative to show they're brave and victims rather than misogynist fetishists - for this they have to recruit children to their "cause". These children are lied to and sterilised for the agenda of these men"

What a horrible transphobic post. I'm really saddened by the levuel of bigotry and ignorance on this thread about the real experiences of trans people, but Hermione's post is the worst of it - it brings to mind the dark times when gay men were frequently accused of recruiting children to their cause.

Twunk · 10/09/2016 14:52

When I reached my late thirties I suddenly became aware about how gender expectations had stopped me doing what I wanted in my life. I somehow convinced myself of all sorts of things that limited my own choices. I am happy with my life, but now I am aware of the restrictions I gave myself. My parents didn't do this, no-one explicitly did - it was just the path of least resistance.

And now I'm a grown-up I can see just how damaging the gender-agenda is. Especially to girls. And here is something, going completely unchallenged, that suggests that "you can be whatever gender you want to be" rather than "gender is bollocks - be what you want to be; do what you want to do. Be free".

And for this I apparently must belong to the group of regressives like the American conservative right. I reject that label. I am a progressive.

I don't reject people - I reject the ethos that underlies the whole transgender movement.

GreatFuckability · 10/09/2016 15:01

nothingisok i completely agree, i'm actually staggered by some of the things said on this thread.

I DO believe that being trans is normal. totally normal.

whether this particular programme a good representation of being trans is a different subject entirely and as I haven't seen it, one I can't make judgement on, but it IS normal.

merrymouse · 10/09/2016 15:03

NothingusOK, at present there is no clear scientific evidence that gender exists objectively, outside social constructs.

However, assumptions about gender and lady brains have been used to justify millennia of bigotry and suffering.

Nobody is suggesting that struggling with gender issues is wrong. They are objecting to the idea that they can be solved by changing somebody's sex (not possible) and changes to legislation without scientific justification.

This has nothing whatsoever to do with gay people, male, or otherwise who clearly exist.

merrymouse · 10/09/2016 15:03

I DO believe that being trans is normal. totally normal.

Why?

glenthebattleostrich · 10/09/2016 15:18

Nothing, I suggest you read some of the posts on here from women who's partners have transitioned, who are clearly autogenophiles and who use the transition to further abuse their partners aides and abetted by the medical profession.

If a body is functional it is not 'wrong'. What is wrong is the hypergenderised society which dictates the rediculous confines of the hyper feminism and masculism we are expected to conform to. What is wrong is promoting this idea you can change sex. Chromosomes are fixed. Sex is a biological fact.

GreatFuckability · 10/09/2016 15:52

merrymouse why not?! I dont really understand the question. why is not normal? plenty of people experiece being transexual, its not new, its not harmful to anyone. whats the issue?

HermioneWeasley · 10/09/2016 15:57

nothing if you spend any time on trans sites, it is clear that there is a subset of trans women who are late transitioning and are hugely motivated by cross dressing and erotic thoughts of themselves as women.

Tanith · 10/09/2016 16:07

I do think the BBC need an extra channel for children: one that shows the older child programmes on CBeebies and the younger child ones from CBBC. Maybe a designated Teen channel?

Probably cost too much, though.

CaptainBrickbeard · 10/09/2016 16:26

A show which suggests that a boy playing with Barbies must actually be a girl isn't ok for any age group. That representation of trans is abhorrent.

Ratley · 10/09/2016 16:42

A show which suggests that a boy playing with Barbies must actually be a girl isn't ok for any age group.
Absolutely. It encourages those a bit different from the norm to want to change themselves. To be honest though I believe that trans hype/hysteria/activism will turn out to be a fad. When I was a teenager the fad was to be gay, we all (my friendship group about 12 of us) tried it, big dramatic coming outs etc ensued. 15 plus years later it turned out 1 of us was gay the others put it down to experimenting and got on with life.
That's a bit harder to do if you have transitioned.
We don't want this constantly in the media, it doesn't need to be, the small percentage of people who truly need help with gender issues will find help the same way they always have done.

titchy · 10/09/2016 16:53

Greatfuck - anorexia doesn't harm anyone else, clinical depression doesn't harm anyone else, body dysmorphia such that you want your right leg cut off doesn't harm anyone. Are they normal too then?

QueenLaBeefah · 10/09/2016 16:58

I haven't seen the programme but I can't imagine any teenagers (I have 2) would watch CBBC and the BBC more than likely know that it is really only the under 11s that do. Seems like that the BBC have an agenda with regards to this.

CoteDAzur · 10/09/2016 17:18

YANBU. Completely inappropriate.

merrymouse · 10/09/2016 17:24

merrymouse why not?! I dont really understand the question. why is not normal? plenty of people experiece being transexual, its not new, its not harmful to anyone. whats the issue?

It is harmful to both women and men to expect them to conform to an abstract idea of gender - this is what has led to centuries and centuries of sexism.

It's debatable to say that being transsexual isn't new. In previous eras gender expectations were so restrictive that some people had no choice to conform to gender expectations or pretend to be the opposite sex.

Societal gender expectations are still restrictive, but 20 years ago it seemed that things were improving. Now we seem to be moving backwards.

It is sometimes necessary to classify people according to biological sex - this includes correctly identifying a very small number of people as intersex. It is not possible to change sex.

Women are still discriminated against for reasons that have everything to do with having two x chromosomes and nothing to do with being 'feminine'. Including trans women in the definition of woman prioritises some undefined idea of 'being a woman' (or worse, 'girl') over concrete reality, and excludes women who don't conform.

On an individual level people struggling with gender issues are just trying to get through their lives, just like everyone else.

On a societal level the idea that 'gender' is more important than biology is very harmful indeed.
Nobody should have to present as anything except a member of the human race.