Can we just talk about BBC Woman's Hour

[Charliethefeminist]

I know it's been mentioned in passing but I think the dismal refusal of this programme - run and presented by women who I am sure think they are feminists - to discuss the GRA, to allow a voice to women's fears, to investigate Girl Guiding, to talk about Linda Bellos and the persecution of feminists, to look at Woman's Place, Let A Woman Speak and Standing for Women, to address the concerns raised by prison policy, to explore the problem for rape crisis centres and refuges, and to dissect the silencing of gender critical women, is one of the most egregious failures of journalism l have ever seen.

I've always loved the BBC and Radio 4 but they are letting women down so badly on this.

When it comes to the Guardian I can shrug it off, but with the BBC it feels so personal. I really believed they were largely impartial and trustworthy on issues.

I feel betrayed!

I feel betrayed too, TrickyWitch. And actually frightened by this more than anything else. It's like screaming and realising that no one is listening.

Of course, Woman's Hour have also run the drama series about the trans child, which is propaganda thinly disguised as piss poor fiction. The last instalment even included a GC feminist character, whose views were patronisingly dismissed by another character (a brave and stunning trans woman) as being formed by ignorance and fear. This doesn't inspire confidence.

It was the attack on Jenny that peaked me.

A bloke on my Facebook timeline went for her for saying their was a difference between biological and transwomen. For this thought crime him and his cronies attacked everything about her. Her age. Her appearance. Her intellect.
I'd never even thought about the issue till then.

He remains unsurprisingly single.

As a relative newcomer to the radicalisation portal FWR and the trans issues, and a regular WH listener, when I first heard about all this madness I thought maybe it was a non-issue because surely if it was a issue it would have been discussed on WH.

But it's clearly not so WTAF is going on Jane and Jennie? Sort it out, stand up for the rights of women to discuss this issue on a programme called WOMAN'S hour.

It's really worrying what's happening at the BBC.

It's absolutely bloody outrageous that Women's Hour studiously ignores the single biggest issue facing women today. Even in the unlikely event that they disagree with the gender crital view, the debate is raging so fiercely that to ignore it seems absurd.

I've contacted them via their online form to ask why they're not covering the issue

I've always loved the BBC and Radio 4 but they are letting women down so badly on this.

When it comes to the Guardian I can shrug it off, but with the BBC it feels so personal. I really believed they were largely impartial and trustworthy on issues.

I feel betrayed!

Yes, me too. It's horrible isn't it?

I think Point of View is for TV - the place for R4 feedback is the Feedback programme: Feedback contact details

Cannot stand WH or its awful late version.

But sometimes I’m too busy MNing to change channel (yes, I’ve got an old-fashioned radio across the room) so listen anyway.

If they can’t get it together to have robust discussion about trans issues, the very least they could do is crack down on the use of gender where sex is meant. It’s pretty fundamental.

It’s difficult to shake the feeling there’s an ideological hostage situation going on.

Points of view?
Is that still on.

Hipsterfun
Don't listen then if you are offended or don't understand.

Huh?

Feefleur: don't be silly. We do understand, and we know that for Woman's Hour not to cover this is shameful and contemptible. That's why so many have stopped listening.

The pithiest comment has been about the other stuff they do cover. Frankly it's jaw-dropping that their journalists consider the stories more important than the accelerating erosion of every single one of our sex-based rights.

Whatever they do in October it will be too late for people to dig out, find and complete the consultation. Is this an accident? Really? The likelihood of this being an accident is zero.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3311024--The-Patriarchy-on-R4

Last couple of posts.

I agree wh are completely avoiding the issue. I've heard hints every now and then but nothing out right GC. I'm not sure if I'm honest they really could hammer their volutes to the mast given how the bbc generally report such things. It very much annoys me but I keep listening in the hope I hear a sea change.

Oops posted on the wrong thread!

I agree totally with this, and increasingly their silence is deafening.

They are failing to cover the central feminist debate of our time, on fucking Womens Hour!!

I have contacted them in the past asking them to discuss the issue of trans and womens sport- no reply.

I was thinking on Friday that Poise was on This Morning but womens hour have failed to cover a story where the definition of Women is viewed as hate speech???

What the Fuckis going on?

It's pretty bloody shameful and could ultimately show womens' hour as a place for actual womens issues to be aired as dead.

I don't understand why Jenny Murray puts up with it. I would have thought one of the joys of being 68 and (I assume) financially secure is that you can afford to give those idiots the finger.

THis was the article Jenni Murray wrote last year in The Times:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/be-trans-be-proud-but-dont-call-yourself-a-real-woman-frtld7q5c

She was publically rebuked by the BBC following public complaints and outrage from some groups.

The second jenni Murray retires it will all come out.
She wants to keep her job that all.
The guardian do have the odd gender critical article and Hadley freeman has gone rogue on them too.
I cancelled my membership to the guardian over this. I still love the paper but it has become very unscientific of late.

The more women ask WH etc to cover specific issues, the harder it is for those making editorial decisions to supress discussions.

Jenni Murray will not have been 're-educated' out of those she described in the Times article.

I think those who share them might help her and others involved in the program by writing, tweeting etc.

There's an increasing amount being covered in mainstream media.

There's an increasing amount being covered in mainstream media

The complete absence of coverage on WH is the starkest example of BBC bias imho - more damning than the skewed coverage they've given the issue elsewhere. Woman's Hour's sole remit is to cover women's interest issues and current affairs from a female perspective.

If they don't address the biggest threat to women's rights of the last century, the reason for not doing so needs to be given. And questions need to be asked about integrity, the responsibility it has to its audience, and whether current BBC policy makes it impossible to deliver a programme with this remit.

If not, they need to be honest about this and change the title. Non-Men's Hour, perhaps.

I agree. Shocking that women probably pay half of all tv license fees and we are being fucked over like this.
Slightly off topic, but I'm a big Channel 4 news fab, but unfortunately have not seen the GRA issues discussed at all.

Fan not fab