...to think that if Comic Relief are going to do a "Woman Wednesday" blog about "inspirational female figures", it should have an inspirational female figure in it?

[ArcheryAnnie]

Comic Relief are doing a new weekly blog, about inspirational women.

"Women Wednesday’s is our new weekly column for Gender Justice month here at Comic Relief, where we will be giving the spotlight to one inspirational female figure per week. We focus on women who have created change and spearheaded movements for other women, and stood up against discrimination against gender and sexuality."

Fantastic, right? They've got links to all kinds of amazing women, working in very challenging conditions across the world, who are helping to create a better world for everyone, not just themselves. What a brilliant blog theme! What brilliant, inspirational woman are we all going to learn about today, I wonder?

Well. Here's who they picked as their "inspirational female figure": www.comicrelief.com/news/women-wednesdays-heres-why-lili-elbe-our-inspirational-figure-week

Women deserve better, Comic Relief. You've really screwed up on this one.

Ok then any trans men in the public eye who tell us what it is to be a man? Rather than trans men who are successful and have a voice about the thing they do e.g. business, music, art etc, rather than being them.

I'm also not saying that trans women should not be celebrated but it seems really odd that the first woman that Comic Relief choose to celebrate in this way was born a man and is celebrated for transitioning.

But a man transitioning is far more inspirational than anything a woman can do, silly!

YANBU OP. I am angry and insulted by their choice of Lili Elbe whose story is a cautionary tale for transpeople rather than one of an inspirational woman.

This choice, their rather bizarre defense and the statement about self identifying age, makes me think that they did this to provoke a reaction that was not donating, and they have no idea about the discrimination of women and girls.

So I've had the generic reply to my complaint as PP. How does it in any way address what we were angry about?

Now I'm even MORE angry.

Also, Lili was 2 months off their 49th birthday when they attempted a uterus transplant with the hope of periods and conceiving a child we'd imagine?

Women entering their 50s attempting to defy 'nature' and have biological children are usually seen as delusional and selfish aren't they?

Why inspirational when it's a TW?

Uterus IMPLANT sorry.

All this praise for this poor man who had obvious issues and yet not one word about WHERE the womb came from. Oh yes, of course, it only came from an actual female. Where’s her story, Comic belief. That’s not a spellcheck, they’re just a fucking joke.

No more money to comic relief

Tweeting Jason manford as this is pure comic relief

'm afraid you typing into Google is just the same as me doing it

You made a claim, Rat, and I am waiting for you to back it up with evidence. Which you can't.

Complained to Comic relief

This was the reply they sent me:
Thank you for your email.
Comic Relief works with a range of groups to promote our vision of a just world free from poverty. We have been funding programmes tackling gender-based violence and supporting women and girl’s empowerment since we began in 1985. It is also our firm belief that every individual has the right to be who they are and to define their identity.
Kind regards
The Comic Relief team

Incensed, I replied this back on their complaints section:

You are also working with charities that are fighting to keep women safe and to keep certain spaces for women only. For you to choose a make born person as your first inspirational "woman" spits in the face of that.

If you wish to highlight trans issues then you are free to do so, but to conflate trans issues with women's issues is, in my opinion, simply unacceptable. They are not the same. Trans women, in my opinion, are not women.

By choosing a male born person as your very first inspirational "woman" you are essentially saying that women can't be inspirational unless they were born a man. This is another way in which women who were born as women are being sidelined, erased from society, silenced and, most importantly, losing rights that we have spent the last 2 centuries fighting so hard to win.

Frankly, I'm disgusted and insulted by this choice. As I stated in my original complaint, I shall not be donating to your charity and will instead give my money to those who are fighting specifically for women's rights.

What an absolute crap reply from them!

I like 'Comic Belief'

I got the exact same reply to my complaint.

Comic Belief indeed.

Copy and paste copy and paste.

I got this too:

*Thank you for your email.

Comic Relief works with a range of groups to promote our vision of a just world free from poverty. We have been funding programmes tackling gender-based violence and supporting women and girl’s empowerment since we began in 1985. It is also our firm belief that every individual has the right to be who they are and to define their identity.

Kind regards,

The Comic Relief team*

I wrote back thanks for taking the time to consider my complaint and address the issue as I though you might just send an empty platitude ... Oh wait.

I then said I was logging a complaint about the fact that they hadn't addressed my complaint.

I have complained to Comic Relief and will no longer be donating to them in the future which is a double win because I will also be helping the environment by not buying the red noses. What are they even made out of anyway? It's like some extraterrestrial material that will melt in the heat and burn through a table.

There were paragraphs!

aw, good note TheWickedWitchofWestYorkshire, you forgot to ask them what exactly Lili did for humanity to make them suitable to inspire 50+% of the population.

Someone is going to get a repetitive stress injury cutting and pasting their response.

I sent my complaint within the last 5 minutes and just got this:

Comic Relief works with a range of groups to promote our vision of a just world free from poverty. We have been funding programmes tackling gender-based violence and supporting women and girl’s empowerment since we began in 1985. It is also our firm belief that every individual has the right to be who they are and to define their identity.

Ask them about sex based violence and inequality. I dares ya.

There is now speculation as to whether this person had some ovaries implanted into them in the previous operation. According to timelines, organs were not taken from dead people at that time, so they would have been taken from a live woman.

Coupled with the fact that the surgeon subsequently undertook sterilisation operations on unwilling victims, the BBC and comic relief should have done a little bit more digging.

Claiming that this is inspiring to women, is ludicrous.

It looks like their LGBT arm are those responsible. So, as a previous poster said, leaving this entire issue down to your LGBT team appears to be unwise.

Too many people with too obvious an agenda, jumping the shark all over the place.

From a live donor? I wonder if they knew or were even aware of what was going to be taken from her.

I've got word for word the sa reply as Silken

I also replied asking them to answer me

So in fighting gender based violence I assume they mean FGM? Can safely say that’s not something transwomen have had to worry about.
The way they’ve linked inspirational women, discrimination and ‘gender’ in one sentence makes me think there’s a huge agenda here.

Reply from Comic Relief, completely missing the point:

Dear Mandala,

Thank you for your email.

Comic Relief works with a range of groups to promote our vision of a just world free from poverty. We have been funding programmes tackling gender-based violence and supporting women and girl’s empowerment since we began in 1985. It is also our firm belief that every individual has the right to be who they are and to define their identity.

Kind regards,

The Comic Relief team