BFI Responds Re: Monroe Bergdorf 'Woman' with a camera

[mancheeze]

The response is
www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/announcements/statement-munroe-bergdorf-bfi-southbank-16-june-2018

It's basically gaslighting and seems to suggest they like slapping women in the face for publicity's sake.

''For our keynote speaker we expressly wanted a voice outside of filmmaking that could widen the lens''

Chinny Reckon you did.

What a load of bollocks.

Basically we'll keep taking women's spaces and places and handing them to people who claim some inner essence of woman for 5 minutes, not women who have had to work their arses off against the tide and get no where near the fast track to adulation bestowed upon the truly stunning and brave.

Just one more brick in the wall thrown at women..

I actually feel like I have lost the will to live.
Clearly trans women are better than us. At EVERYTHING.

Well won’t be watching anything in BFI player again.

Actually all this stuff is great for saving money. No more Labour Party membership, no more shopping at certain shops etc.

Suppose I’ll just have to accept my gendered toke so I’ll sit at home in my frilly dress, putting make on, hoping that some day I am lucky enough that a man finds me attractive and I can fulfil all his sexual fantasies. Oh yes I’ll knit too. And clean and do the washing and cry a lot.

Kill me noooooow.

Lots of time and money saved.

I might widen the lens of #TimesUp because time is bloody well up on this fucking gaslighting bollocks.

we hope it will help further the gender debate in a positive and constructive way and encourage audiences to recognise and acknowledge the quality and value of difference, which we believe is a benefit to our industry and to our wider society

BFI.. seriously...this is infuriating. Your response is pious sermonising at women to shut up and budge up for the ‘transactivist’.

-What does BFI even think that word means?
-What does Munroe Bergdorf know or do professionally that’s in any way relevant at a ‘women in filmmaking’ event??
-Why is it even slightly in the BFI ‘women in filmmaking’ remit to seek a debate about trans issues, since that is what they seem to be saying their invitation of MB amounts to?

-have BFI booked a gender critical (actual) woman to have the debate then? Strangely they haven’t named any such booking as part of this ‘debate’ they want to have.... Looks a very one-sided ‘debate’.

How about BFI just sticks to addressing the actual issue of systemic sexism in the film industry at every bloody level, that this tokenistic load of bollocks event is supposed to be covering?

At their other events, do they invite speakers to talk about other random issues with irrelevant speakers that they think the audience should be forced to hear about? Or do they just save that for ‘women’s’ events?

Because clearly women’s issues aren’t important or interesting enough to fill the agenda for a whole event..

Ugh. The whole thing stinks so badly.

There are gazilions of other, interesting, engaging, public speakers from 'outside of filmmaking' that the BFI could have invited.

I visit the bfi a lot and this has seriously questioned whether I will bother in the future there is a petition

www.ipetitions.com/petition/open-letter-to-the-bfi#.WyIOXNSLxV4.twitter

Well they've done it simply for the publicity, I suppose, cynically given the uptick in MB's public profile recently.

My very very charitable interpretation of their press release behind the scenes:

"Shit, there's a petition and everything. I think we might have fucked up, what do we do?"

"I don't know! Say we were doing it for women's sake. To help them."

"How?!"

"You know, defying stereotypes. Like, defying expectations, asking 'what is art', what is gender? Really make people think."

"Won't they just think we're pretentious pricks?"

"Yes, but intentional ones Bob."

"Genius, thanks mate.."

(The real discussion: "ugh, philistines")

Thanks for the link Processed to the petition, let's keep it going. I wish I could re-sign it! I am even more pissed off now I have seen their awful, patronising response. What kind of self satisfied bubble are they living in?

There’s some good posts on the other thread too: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3276914-BFI-appoint-Munroe-Bergdorf-as-keynote-speaker-for-womanwithacamera-summit?watched=1&msgid=78690921#78690921

ProcessedPea thanks for the link

C'mon you guys. They are welcoming 'over 35 women'. That's, like, literally all the women in the film industry.

How many is 'over 35'? Surely it must therefore be 'under 40'? These guys are at the top of the communications game sho'nuff.

The thing is, I don't think Munroe Bergdorf even qualifies as a transactivist. Munroe Bergdorf as just a Munroeactivist.

MsBeee Darling, don’t worry there is gin and valium. Wouldn’t advise taking them at the same time though. I am running courses on how
To be a lady for feminist. You have to wave good bye to your (gasp) man pockets.

I hope she doesn't mind, but below is pombear's response to the BFI, from the other BF thread. She nails it, IMO:

"I'm really tired of hearing this 'widening the lens, widening the bandwidth' language.

I've never seen people inviting straight people to a LGB event to talk about 'widening the bandwidth of what it's like to be LGB' (well, apart from straight 'queer' people muscling into the ever-expanding alphabet soup of LGBTQetc)

I've never seen someone delivering a keynote speech at an event about people of colour, because they're 'widening the bandwidth of what it's like to be a person of colour'.

I've never seen women playing in a men's sporting team and being celebrated for 'widening the bandwidth of men's sporting teams'.

I've never seen someone aged 20 speaking about their experiences at an AgeUK event to enable the 'widening of the bandwidth of what it's like to be an older person in society'.

It's seems it's just the definition of female that needs widening in terms of bandwidth".

Oh and my own resonse:

Patronising twaddle BFI. I well recognise MB's fundamental difference to

a) women
b) filmakers

And nope - don't appreciate it.

Upstart

I see your 'chinny reckon' and raise you a 'Jmmy Hill'

I look forward to seeing Rachel Dolezal be chosen to widen the lens and further the race debate in an open and constructive way.

Except that the BFI will never do that, will it? Because it can't get away with it like it can get away with this.

Chatty

Yes. Funny old debate eh?

It's a film making event, by appointing Bergdorf they're making it a transgender debate rather than a 'gender debate'.
By picking such a controversial speaker they've made it all about the speaker.

MBs Twitter feed has been updated with their response. Predictable bollocks

mobile.twitter.com/MunroeBergdorf?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

.. but underneath they're revelling in the fact that their skin is going to be clear enough to go to see Beyonce tonight, because that's what women think about, right?