Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be angry that Scarlet Blake is being called a woman.

795 replies

ArabellaScott · 23/02/2024 15:42

Scarlet Blake has been found guilty of murder. He also tortured and killed a cat.

He is not a woman.

This shouldn't be reported as a woman's crime.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-68360122

Scarlet Blake

Cat killer Scarlet Blake found guilty of murdering Jorge Martin Carreno

Jorge Martin Carreno was pulled from a river after being killed by Scarlet Blake in 2021.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-68360122

OP posts:
Thread gallery
34
TheKeatingFive · 23/02/2024 16:12

PonyPatter44 · 23/02/2024 16:09

Scarlet has been on remand in a men's prison, and will serve his sentence in the men's estate. This won't be up for debate. Prison guidelines changed last year, and violent male offenders are not considered for the female estate at all.

Yet Scarlet's crimes will be recorded as a woman's crime.

Which is factually wrong as everyone knows. So why is it happening?

Version4needsabitofwork · 23/02/2024 16:14

I clicked on this story on the Guardian and couldn't believe this murderer was referred to throughout as a woman!

Scarlet is a transwoman, i.e. a male. Scarlet is a man.

This matters. It matters to the family and friends of the poor man he murdered, it matters for the statistics and it matters because it's the truth.

GrandDuchessOfBillericay · 23/02/2024 16:17

PonyPatter44 · 23/02/2024 16:09

Scarlet has been on remand in a men's prison, and will serve his sentence in the men's estate. This won't be up for debate. Prison guidelines changed last year, and violent male offenders are not considered for the female estate at all.

Convicted violent men. Let's not pretend that every man who is violent or guilty of sa gets caught or changed or convicted.

Also were the words 'case by case' not employed. I read 'violent crime here as 'when the public is aware as the pr is bad'.

ArabellaScott · 23/02/2024 16:18

Totallymessed · 23/02/2024 16:12

I have complained to the BBC, and also had a look on the Ofcom website- apparently you have to have gone through the entire BBC complaints process before you can complain to them. So I'll just have to see how the BBC respond, I guess.

Oh, that's interesting, thank you. I've had shit responses from the BBC to complaints before, I didn't realise one could escalate. Good to know.

OP posts:
Userxyd · 23/02/2024 16:18

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

ArabellaScott · 23/02/2024 16:23

Froodwithatowel · 23/02/2024 16:12

Let's face it, everyone reads about the arrest and the alleged crime and automatically goes 'that'll be a bloke'. The picture these days just confirms it.

I thought it was supposed to be all 'gender' over sex and men are women because of woman gender. Almost no women do this kind of crime . This is a very very man gendered male.

This (everyone assuming the media is lying) also matters. It causes confusion, and as I said upthread, undermines trust in our public broadcaster and institutions and ultimately society itself.

'The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lie will now be accepted as truth and truth be defamed as a lie, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world—and the category of truth versus falsehood is among the mental means to this end—is being destroyed.

https://www.openculture.com/2017/01/hannah-arendt-explains-how-propaganda-uses-lies-to-erode-all-truth-morality.html

Hannah Arendt Explains How Propaganda Uses Lies to Erode All Truth & Morality: Insights from The Origins of Totalitarianism

Hannah Arendt wrote in The Origins of Totalitarianism in 1951: The masses had reached the point where they would believe everything and nothing....

https://www.openculture.com/2017/01/hannah-arendt-explains-how-propaganda-uses-lies-to-erode-all-truth-morality.html

OP posts:
Notamum12345577 · 23/02/2024 16:26

Well, the person is legally a woman (whatever our personal opinions are on that fact) so complaining to the BBC is not going to change anything.

ArabellaScott · 23/02/2024 16:27

How do you know?

OP posts:
MenopauseSucks · 23/02/2024 16:27

The Telegraph has referred to Blake as 'she' throughout their article, used 'transgender cat killer' as well but at no point did they mention him being a woman.

HOWEVER they quoted Judge Chamberlain from his summing up on Thursday:
'You know the defendant is a transgender woman - in other words someone who was identified as male at birth and then transitioned to live as a woman.
The fact she is trans on its own has no particular relevance to this case. It doesn't make it any more or less likely that she is guilty of the offence with which she is charged.
He added that jurors were however allowed to consider her 'stature' and whether they believe she was 'physically able' to carry out the attack on Mr Carreno'

Reasonable journalism - ok the use of 'she' is annoying - but they published information that fully explained that Scarlet Black was indeed male & didn't describe him as a woman either.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/23/scarlet-blake-cat-killing-guilty-jorge-martin-carreno/

(Try it in archive.ph!)

LittleBrenda · 23/02/2024 16:28

Notamum12345577 · 23/02/2024 16:26

Well, the person is legally a woman (whatever our personal opinions are on that fact) so complaining to the BBC is not going to change anything.

Why is he going to a men's prison then?

TempName247 · 23/02/2024 16:28

When I first heard the story I was surprised that a woman had attacked and killed a man in this way, it all makes sense now

ArabellaScott · 23/02/2024 16:29

TempName247 · 23/02/2024 16:28

When I first heard the story I was surprised that a woman had attacked and killed a man in this way, it all makes sense now

Yes. Which is why so many people questioned the accuracy of the reporting.

OP posts:
Pirelli · 23/02/2024 16:33

Referring to a man as 'she' doesn't make any sense. I would have thought a judge would have been aware of the meaning of 'she'!
Meaning is being divorced from words, it really is!

PonyPatter44 · 23/02/2024 16:42

GrandDuchessOfBillericay · 23/02/2024 16:17

Convicted violent men. Let's not pretend that every man who is violent or guilty of sa gets caught or changed or convicted.

Also were the words 'case by case' not employed. I read 'violent crime here as 'when the public is aware as the pr is bad'.

Scarlet Blake was on remand (i.e. not convicted) in a mens prison.

I completely agree with you that only a tiny minority of offending men are ever charged or convicted. However, the ones that are remanded will go to male prisons. The prison service may use their preferred names and even pronouns, and let them buy lipstick on the canteen, but they won't be going to womens jails.

Notourcrime · 23/02/2024 16:45

I read the bbc article and was suprised a woman would commit that crime. Then I listened to the recording and it became clear it wasn't a woman. HE is a man. Not our crime! I am so sick of the reporting on these cases.

ArabellaScott · 23/02/2024 16:46

PonyPatter44 · 23/02/2024 16:42

Scarlet Blake was on remand (i.e. not convicted) in a mens prison.

I completely agree with you that only a tiny minority of offending men are ever charged or convicted. However, the ones that are remanded will go to male prisons. The prison service may use their preferred names and even pronouns, and let them buy lipstick on the canteen, but they won't be going to womens jails.

https://kpssinfo.org/prisons-in-england/

'The presumption is that all male prisoners who identify as women with intact male genitalia, or who have a current or previous conviction for any violent or sexual offence (not just against women or girls) should not be held in the general women’s estate. This applies equally to those with and without a GRC: those without a GRC will be held in the male estate; those with a GRC may be held in E Wing at HMP Downview.
Exemptions to this can only be considered on recommendation of a Complex Case Board where there is a high level of confidence that the individual poses a low level of harm to women in prison. Recommendations must be referred to the HMPPS Director General of Operations for consideration and to the Secretary of State for Justice for a final decision.
The policy is retrospective meaning that for all male prisoners currently held in the female estate new allocation decisions will be made.
This policy is not perfect and still allows for male prisoners to be held alongside women. However, it is a considerable improvement and should see a significant reduction in the number of male prisoners in the female estate. It is noteworthy that the policy cuts across GRC status and places far greater emphasis on the risk to women in prison than in previous versions.'

OP posts:
Cheesehound · 23/02/2024 16:52

Could not agree more, in fact I was just about to post this myself. He is a man. Statistics matter. Women matter.

LibbyLemoncake · 23/02/2024 16:52

Well what a bloody surprise. I was on a thread the other week and we all guessed ‘she’ was a man but we weren’t allowed to talk about it and it got deleted 🤐

So fed up with this shit 🤬

Fairyliz · 23/02/2024 16:52

TempName247 · 23/02/2024 16:28

When I first heard the story I was surprised that a woman had attacked and killed a man in this way, it all makes sense now

Yes me too. I thought it was very strange that a woman would kill a man she didn’t know. I also wondered how she had the strength to overpower a man.

Pollyannamex · 23/02/2024 16:53

Melroses · 23/02/2024 15:51

Definitely not a woman.

And a very unusual crime for a woman.

This is exactly what I thought when I skim read it, and now it all makes sense

Cheesehound · 23/02/2024 16:54

Pollyannamex · 23/02/2024 16:53

This is exactly what I thought when I skim read it, and now it all makes sense

Ditto.

NotTerfNorCis · 23/02/2024 16:55

Said this on another thread.

Males who identify as women make up a tiny percentage of 'women'. But when a horrible crime like this is committed, many people instantly start wondering if it's a male 'woman'. And they're usually right. What does that tell us?

LibbyLemoncake · 23/02/2024 16:58

So can we have the original thread reinstated @mumsnet, now we were proven right? 🙄

To be angry that Scarlet Blake is being called a woman.
popebishop · 23/02/2024 17:00

Notamum12345577 · 23/02/2024 16:26

Well, the person is legally a woman (whatever our personal opinions are on that fact) so complaining to the BBC is not going to change anything.

Are they legally a woman, or legally female, both, or neither?

popebishop · 23/02/2024 17:03

EdinGirl · 23/02/2024 16:09

The statistics being messed with is a HUGE issue.

Because we (historically) could see how disproportionately men attack women (sexually or physically) and how women usually aren't carrying out these kinds of crimes.

If they start saying that trans women are women and include them as such in the stats, it will start to even up the gap.

This then will begin to suppress and silence the truth and give everyone from a dickhead in the pub, to our government, the right to say "pish posh" about what women face and start to turn women into the villains also.

It's just fuel for the red pill incels to say "Women Do It Too" 🤢

Exactly. Assessing risk is essential in so many parts of life. If we use flawed data, the decisions made informed by assessments of those risks will be flawed.